Return to the BUILD

“In this issue you will continue the assembly of the centre console by following these step-by-step instructions.”

This issue is going to be a long one (and includes three Mod Zones)!

Contents

Parts

Materials: Everything non-electronic is plastic in this issue.

Magazine

• Drive Time: Model Instructions
• Back To The Dance: Returning to the ‘Enchantment Under the Sea’
• A Time Traveler’s Guide: Charles Fleischer as Terry

Free Gift #3 – Display Base

Build

The Centre Console

Step 1

Bend the Wire around and insert the two ends through the holes underneath the Heat Sink, as shown:

Step 2

Pull the ends of the Wire through the Heat Sink.

The wire ends should be equal length:

Step 3

Fit the pin on the Heat Sink to the matching hole on the top of the Stereo, aligning the larger screw post into the other hole:

Step 4

Secure the Heat Sink into place with one (1) AP screw from underneath:

Sadly, the supplied Heat Sink is not very accurate. Here is a photo I took of the real heat sink on the actual ‘A’ car. It is much taller with cooling fins:

Luckily, Darren Gurney produces a much more realistic heat sink mod. I went even farther and used a Black Sharpie to color the center component to match the real car even more. Then, I removed the stock heat sink and repeated the first four steps of this issue with this new part:

The bottom of Darren’s heat sink does not have a pin or screw hole, so I simply super glued it to the top of the Stereo:

I like it! It’s much better than the original heat sink.

Step 5

Press the two Controls (knobs) into the matching holes on the face of the Stereo, as shown:

Step 6

Fit the Stereo to the top of the Time Display Box, aligning the posts and holes:

Step 7

Secure the Stereo in place with two (2) AP screws:

Step 8

Insert the keyed post on the bottom of the Compass into this hole in the Time Display Box.

Fun Fact: On The ‘A’ Car, this is an old marine-grade Airguide compass:

Step 9

Secure the Compass in place with one (1) AP screw:

Step 10

Press the tab on the back of the Time Display through the matching slot in the LED Board and Wire.

I have seen many other builds where this Time Display has quite a bit of light bleed. Even the marketing photos show the bleed. So, before I put the Time Display together, I wanted to test the LEDs and check for light bleed. The first thing I needed to do was power it up. Since the LED Board has on-board resistors, I only needed to find a battery pack and directly wire it up. This is only a 3V power pack (the DeLorean uses 4.5V), but it serves the purpose and proved the LEDs are functional:

Next, I wanted to see what how much bleed the Time Display has, so I put it in front of the ‘flashlight’ LED on my mobile phone. These phone LEDs are typically very bright and easily showed me where the bleed is showing through:

There was a lot more bleed than I expected. This is especially visible along the bottom of the numbers. Thankfully, this is not terribly hard to fix. I just used a Black Sharpie on the back of the Time Display in every spot that light was bleeding through. This includes along the sides of the display too. Be careful to not color over any of the colored digits. If you do, you can remove the Sharpie ink with isopropyl alcohol and try again:

This was my first result of fitting the LED Board and Wire to the back of the Time Display. Much better, but still needs a little help:

I thought it may look even better if I was able to diffuse the LEDs a bit, so I cut a thin piece of facial tissue to fit behind the Time Display:

Finally, I assembled the pieces together per the instructions:

And, this is my final result. The tissue diffuser does help a little to light the digits along the edges:

This mod took some time and patience, but the improvement is huge!

Steps 11-12

Fit this Time Display assembly to the front of the Time Display Box. Align the hole in the Time Display’s tab with the matching hole inside the Time Display Box, and secure with one (1) AP screw:

The wires should come out the bottom:

Step 13

Fit the pin and post on top of the Keypad through the Base as shown, and secure with one (1) AP screw.

Fun Fact: On The ‘A’ Car, this keypad is a relic from TRW Data Systems. TRW made the housing, but used a GTE keypad and Leecraft indicators:

Step 14

Fit this Base assembly to the bottom of the Time Display Box and secure in place with two (2) BP screws.

This Base is what pushes the LED Board up against the Time Display. Be sure the wires from the LED Board sit safely in the indicated notch:

Before I mounted the Time Display Box, I took a few minutes to add some of the decals included in Decal Set I from Mike Lane. He supplies two sets of decals for the Time Display Box to improve the appearance. One is brushed silver and the other is satin silver (almost the exact color of the original box). However, both have more detail and accuracy than what we are provided. I decided on the brushed silver as the real car has similar markings:

This are simple peel-and-stick decals that add a nice touch:

The same decal set also includes more accurate decals for the face of the Time Display. If you look closely at the supplied version, not only are the time labels blue (and should be more black), but they spelled the bottom one ‘LAST TIME DEPARTEO’… go figure. Mike Lane decals fix all of that.

These decals really make the time circuits look great and will also help hide any residual light bleed.

Step 15

Feed the plug end of the wires from the LED Board down through this hole in the Center Console:

Step 16

While feeding the wire, lower the completed time circuits assembly down onto the Centre Console, aligning both posts:

Step 17

Secure the time circuits assembly to the Center Console from underneath with two (2) BP screws:

That’s the end of this issue, but I wanted to throw in a couple more pictures of the final product sitting in the car and all lit up:

Thoughts

It may not seem like much, but these are the first ‘Doc Brown’ parts we have assembled. Everything up to this point has been just stock DeLorean pieces. And, I added three separate mods in this issue alone. It will only get better from here!

Next Up

 Issue 43 – Interior: Time Circuits Switch/Box, Button Panel, Gold Box