Hot Toys Back to the Future II - DeLorean - Mods

[Warpig]

Figure I start a new thread here for modifications to the Hot Toys BTTF2 Delorean.

I’ll start off with opening up the hood to access the circuit boards and the light “switch” for those hoping to route this switch externally. My goal is to solder a wire here to extend a switch outside of my display cabinet so the Delorean can safely sit inside an acrylic case.

Thank you so much, very useful information!

 

[cdx008]

@hotdogs4humanity once again, thanks for the details and pics.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to remove the back to troubleshoot an issue with the overhead lights not coming on. I’ve deduced that the circuit for that has to be in the rear. I didn’t want to force the vent cover off but followed what you did and it worked!

 

[potato]

just a matter of time someone installs a working flux capacitor in one of these.

 

[cdx008]

Small update. Figured out the issue wasn’t in the rear as the actual wire got severed from the poorly designed circuit board.

View attachment 1700775035267.jpeg

 

[Username]

Jesus. You’ve done well getting it out. I’d have just left it, lol.

 

[hotdogs4humanity]

Sorry!!!

Hello everybody, I have a delorean bttf2 but it arrived with a scratched front.

I thought I'd just replace the piece by asking HT, but it seems I asked for the moon, so I decided to dismantle it and repaint it myself.

Can anyone tell me the exact color they used?

I asked HT but they don't answer me. Like I had asked for the secret formula of Coca Cola"

Isn't that scratch covered by the grille? I had the same on both sides on my first Delorean and when I put the grille back on it was covered up. I gave mine a pretty good scratch on the fender and I used the Vallejo Metal Color paint and got a pretty decent match, not perfect but pretty good for a small scratch. I bought a 4 pack and I think I used the chrome color one.

 

[SPYNOS78]

Hi everybody,

I’ve been following this thread for the past six months, while waiting for my own Hot Toys BTTF2 DeLorean Time Machine to arrive in The Netherlands. I too was quite disappointed about the digital power switch on this otherwise amazing scale model (after Hot Toys fixed the breaking wheel struts). I had planned to keep it clean and safe under a custom-made acrylic cover, and powering it via a Hue smartplug. Well, as you know, this was not going to work, especially for the second light setting (flight mode; all lights on) which would not be remembered by the circuit board. But… thanks to some daring brainiacs on this forum a few clever solutions have been made! To everyone who pitched their ideas and how-to-instructions I say THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I really enjoyed taking in all your very helpful info and pictures. It made me confident enough to do this mod as well.

Now that I’ve had this awesome model in my possession for about 7 weeks, I finally had the time to pull off the modification last week. I hereby want to share my own experience with this daring endeavor, hoping I can add my 2 cents to this topic:

• First of all, this thing was not as easy to disassemble as I initially thought. After removing the hood, the wipers and the first ten screws, the first hurdle was the front grille. This grille is friction-held by two pegs and it was impossible to remove entirely by hand. I managed to get one side loose by carefully wedging a wide, flat (and blunt edged) screwdriver between one of the headlights and the side of the grille and slowly nudging it forward until the peg on this side came a little loose. I used the silver frame of the headlight as a lever. I did this without making any scratches or dents but it might be safer if you wrap a piece of cloth over the head of the screwdriver. The rest of the way I wiggled it by hand to loosen the peg on the other side. It then came off quickly, so I could remove the last two screws.
  
  
• With that done I now tried removing the complete frunk+fender part to get to the wiring. This is where it got a bit scary. I managed to wiggle it loose to a gap of about 10 mm above the black line that crosses the front fenders. But it just wouldn’t go ANY further than that, fearing I would break something. After closer inspection it seemed like the edge of the frunk that sits along the bottom of the windshield (normally hidden by the grille under the wipers) was very tightly pressed against the lower edge of the windshield. It seemed to be necessary to also remove the windshield before I could go any further. So, I also removed those four screws.
  After that, it seemed easy to just lift up the bottom part of the windscreen and slide it out of the window frame. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The bottom edge of the windscreen was fitted very tightly. I had to carefully nudge it out with my fingers, pushing up from the inside of the cabin along the bottom edge of the window, evenly spreading out the pressure. If you encounter this same issue, do this VERY gently and don’t apply too much pressure in one place on this transparant plastic, because it might crack and cause irrepairable damage to the windshield. This was the scariest part of the entire disassembly, but with patience and delicacy, I managed to lift the bottom edge of the window and slide it out.
  I then had another go at the frunk+fender assembly, and finally, this time it came off entirely and without too much effort. I put a microfiber cloth over the headlight frame to prevent scratches and carefully laid back the entire frunk over de headlights, without tugging at any wires. The wires leading to the battery compartment didn’t provide enough leeway at first, so I dissassembled that compartment first.
  
  
• Now before I go into detail about the wiring I would like to make a note that the earlier suggested ‘simple’ version of the mod, where the connections on ‘LED1’ and ‘LED2’ are swapped (combined with a taped-down button), does not actually completely swap the modes like I initially expected. I tried this, but what happens is that after the first press on the digital light switch ONLY the hover lights turn on, e.g. the LEDs in the wheels, undercarriage and the rear exhaust vents. The rest of the LEDs stay off. It’s the second press that routes the power to ‘LED1’ and ‘LED2’ SIMULTANEOUSLY, to make all lights turn on. I may have overlooked it, but I don’t think this was ever clearly mentioned in this thread. Since the second press setting is never remembered by the circuit board after a powercycle, I don’t think that this version of the mod is what anyone wants.
  
  
• Now on to the actual mod: For the bypass of the digital light switch I chose to do things a bit differently. I decided to only remove the three plugs from the circuit board that is directly connected to the light switch, and leave alle other wires in their original position. To connect the power plug to both the ‘LED1’- and ‘LED2’-plugs simultaneously I soldered together a Y-splitter cable using the suggested JST connector cables that I ordered from Amazon. I also created two extension cables for more leeway in routing the cables. And thirdly, I added two mini on/off slide switches that I assembled directly under the hood to maintain control over the two light modes. (I also looked at the 2-channel WiFi Smart Switch Relay Module that was mentioned in this thread, but I wanted a simpler and more foolproof set-and-forget method of control.) These slide switches (that I also ordered from Amazon) originally came connected to thicker wires and bigger plugs. They are easily opened, so I replaced the wires for the thinner JST ones. It had been about 30 years since I soldered anything so soldering these tiny connections with basic hardware and limited experience was quite a b*tch. But I perservered and succeeded.
  
  
• I then connected everything, tested it, and routed the cables in such a way that they wouldn’t get pinched anywhere. Some areas between the wheel arches and the bottom of frunk are quite narrow, so I took that into account. I taped all the wires in place with vinyl electrical tape. I drilled a single inconspicuous hole in the side of the cargo area of the frunk so I could route the cables of the slide switches through there. I had done all the measuring beforehand, so the slide switches fit perfectly when placed on their side, with about 2 mm to spare between them and the hood. They are held firmly in place with removable Tesa / Command strips.
  
  
• Mod done. Gently wiped the fingerprints from the windshield (use a new microfiber cloth and don’t rub too hard), and closed everything back up. This was also a bit of a challenge, because again, the window and the the frunk were a precise and tight fit. Carefully wiggled it al back in place, popped in the screws, the USB-C and the smartplug, and FINALLY I am able to fully power it remotely, via remote or voice! And, in the rare case that I would want to, I can always still change to both light settings.

By now you may have noticed: you have to REALLY want to do this modification because it is certainly not done in a jiffy. In my case, it was quite a hassle and sometimes a scary operation. If you encounter the same troubles I have, just take your time and don’t lose patience and force anything. Take it on as a fun and interesting project, like I did. I have very little experience with electronics and soldering, but I learned alot from this thread and along the way and managed to do it all without damaging anything. Couldn’t have done it without the people on this forum, so happy to pay it forward with this detailed report.

Below some pictures and a video to illustrate my version of the mod.

 

[Boboli]

Amazing Job

 

[MDLAV8R]

Hi everybody,

I’ve been following this thread for the past six months, while waiting for my own Hot Toys BTTF2 DeLorean Time Machine to arrive in The Netherlands. I too was quite disappointed about the digital power switch on this otherwise amazing scale model (after Hot Toys fixed the breaking wheel struts). I had planned to keep it clean and safe under a custom-made acrylic cover, and powering it via a Hue smartplug. Well, as you know, this was not going to work, especially for the second light setting (flight mode; all lights on) which would not be remembered by the circuit board. But… thanks to some daring brainiacs on this forum a few clever solutions have been made! To everyone who pitched their ideas and how-to-instructions I say THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I really enjoyed taking in all your very helpful info and pictures. It made me confident enough to do this mod as well.

Now that I’ve had this awesome model in my possession for about 7 weeks, I finally had the time to pull off the modification last week. I hereby want to share my own experience with this daring endeavor, hoping I can add my 2 cents to this topic:

• First of all, this thing was not as easy to disassemble as I initially thought. After removing the hood, the wipers and the first ten screws, the first hurdle was the front grille. This grille is friction-held by two pegs and it was impossible to remove entirely by hand. I managed to get one side loose by carefully wedging a wide, flat (and blunt edged) screwdriver between one of the headlights and the side of the grille and slowly nudging it forward until the peg on this side came a little loose. I used the silver frame of the headlight as a lever. I did this without making any scratches or dents but it might be safer if you wrap a piece of cloth over the head of the screwdriver. The rest of the way I wiggled it by hand to loosen the peg on the other side. It then came off quickly, so I could remove the last two screws.
  
  
• With that done I now tried removing the complete frunk+fender part to get to the wiring. This is where it got a bit scary. I managed to wiggle it loose to a gap of about 10 mm above the black line that crosses the front fenders. But it just wouldn’t go ANY further than that, fearing I would break something. After closer inspection it seemed like the edge of the frunk that sits along the bottom of the windshield (normally hidden by the grille under the wipers) was very tightly pressed against the lower edge of the windshield. It seemed to be necessary to also remove the windshield before I could go any further. So, I also removed those four screws.
  After that, it seemed easy to just lift up the bottom part of the windscreen and slide it out of the window frame. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The bottom edge of the windscreen was fitted very tightly. I had to carefully nudge it out with my fingers, pushing up from the inside of the cabin along the bottom edge of the window, evenly spreading out the pressure. If you encounter this same issue, do this VERY gently and don’t apply too much pressure in one place on this transparant plastic, because it might crack and cause irrepairable damage to the windshield. This was the scariest part of the entire disassembly, but with patience and delicacy, I managed to lift the bottom edge of the window and slide it out.
  I then had another go at the frunk+fender assembly, and finally, this time it came off entirely and without too much effort. I put a microfiber cloth over the headlight frame to prevent scratches and carefully laid back the entire frunk over de headlights, without tugging at any wires. The wires leading to the battery compartment didn’t provide enough leeway at first, so I dissassembled that compartment first.
  
  
• Now before I go into detail about the wiring I would like to make a note that the earlier suggested ‘simple’ version of the mod, where the connections on ‘LED1’ and ‘LED2’ are swapped (combined with a taped-down button), does not actually completely swap the modes like I initially expected. I tried this, but what happens is that after the first press on the digital light switch ONLY the hover lights turn on, e.g. the LEDs in the wheels, undercarriage and the rear exhaust vents. The rest of the LEDs stay off. It’s the second press that routes the power to ‘LED1’ and ‘LED2’ SIMULTANEOUSLY, to make all lights turn on. I may have overlooked it, but I don’t think this was ever clearly mentioned in this thread. Since the second press setting is never remembered by the circuit board after a powercycle, I don’t think that this version of the mod is what anyone wants.
  
  
• Now on to the actual mod: For the bypass of the digital light switch I chose to do things a bit differently. I decided to only remove the three plugs from the circuit board that is directly connected to the light switch, and leave alle other wires in their original position. To connect the power plug to both the ‘LED1’- and ‘LED2’-plugs simultaneously I soldered together a Y-splitter cable using the suggested JST connector cables that I ordered from Amazon. I also created two extension cables for more leeway in routing the cables. And thirdly, I added two mini on/off slide switches that I assembled directly under the hood to maintain control over the two light modes. (I also looked at the 2-channel WiFi Smart Switch Relay Module that was mentioned in this thread, but I wanted a simpler and more foolproof set-and-forget method of control.) These slide switches (that I also ordered from Amazon) originally came connected to thicker wires and bigger plugs. They are easily opened, so I replaced the wires for the thinner JST ones. It had been about 30 years since I soldered anything so soldering these tiny connections with basic hardware and limited experience was quite a b*tch. But I perservered and succeeded.
  
  
• I then connected everything, tested it, and routed the cables in such a way that they wouldn’t get pinched anywhere. Some areas between the wheel arches and the bottom of frunk are quite narrow, so I took that into account. I taped all the wires in place with vinyl electrical tape. I drilled a single inconspicuous hole in the side of the cargo area of the frunk so I could route the cables of the slide switches through there. I had done all the measuring beforehand, so the slide switches fit perfectly when placed on their side, with about 2 mm to spare between them and the hood. They are held firmly in place with removable Tesa / Command strips.
  
  
• Mod done. Gently wiped the fingerprints from the windshield (use a new microfiber cloth and don’t rub too hard), and closed everything back up. This was also a bit of a challenge, because again, the window and the the frunk were a precise and tight fit. Carefully wiggled it al back in place, popped in the screws, the USB-C and the smartplug, and FINALLY I am able to fully power it remotely, via remote or voice! And, in the rare case that I would want to, I can always still change to both light settings.

By now you may have noticed: you have to REALLY want to do this modification because it is certainly not done in a jiffy. In my case, it was quite a hassle and sometimes a scary operation. If you encounter the same troubles I have, just take your time and don’t lose patience and force anything. Take it on as a fun and interesting project, like I did. I have very little experience with electronics and soldering, but I learned alot from this thread and along the way and managed to do it all without damaging anything. Couldn’t have done it without the people on this forum, so happy to pay it forward with this detailed report.

Below some pictures and a video to illustrate my version of the mod.

View attachment 679702

Nicely done!!! I like the mechanical switches. They seem to “belong” there under the hood as some sort of IRL mod.

Interesting issue with the windshield. I didn’t have any resistance there at all - just dry paint around the wheel wells that made it difficult to remove the hood assembly.

It’s very satisfying to realize your vision for something and to not let the obstacles in your way prevent you from getting there.

Looks great in your display!

 

[Alastair]

Hi Everyone, I thought I would post links to my notes on removing most of the screws when dismantling the DeLorean. Only documented so i can put it back together later. Not in a great order but hope it can help. Some of them are well hidden. Only thing I had to break so far is one wire that is glued to the body. Photo shows how it currently looks.
Bonnet/Hood screws
Rear back end screws
Rear bulkhead screws
Rear bulkhead interior screws
Inner console screws
Roof screws
Wheel arch screws
Under bonnet/hood and roof screws

 

[cdx008]

Hi Everyone, I thought I would post links to my notes on removing most of the screws when dismantling the DeLorean. Only documented so i can put it back together later. Not in a great order but hope it can help. Some of them are well hidden. Only thing I had to break so far is one wire that is glued to the body. Photo shows how it currently looks.
Bonnet/Hood screws
Rear back end screws
Rear bulkhead screws
Rear bulkhead interior screws
Inner console screws
Roof screws
Wheel arch screws
Under bonnet/hood and roof screws
View attachment 682465

This is very useful! I had to guess by trial and error and a bit of brute force, lol.

Thank you for this!

 

[cdx008]

If anyone is curious, the 3D printed wheels on eBay from Tom do work on the Mark 2 but you do need to get a bunch of washers to lengthen the axle. The train wheels are made for the Mark 1 with a much different axle system.

Also painted the rails as well and probably add some weather to it later. Right now, just test fitting things.
View attachment 1705681097516.jpeg

 

[Mike86]

So I’m still paying off my DeLorean but have been looking at the Mike Lane upgrade kits. I’m leaning towards getting most of them. Just wondering others thoughts on them.

 

[cdx008]

So I’m still paying off my DeLorean but have been looking at the Mike Lane upgrade kits. I’m leaning towards getting most of them. Just wondering others thoughts on them.

At Minimum if you’re showing off your Delorean’s tires in non-flight mode, definitely get the good year tire prints. Makes a big difference.

 

[Mike86]

At Minimum if you’re showing off your Delorean’s tires in non-flight mode, definitely get the good year tire prints. Makes a big difference.

Yeah, I want to do the tire prints for sure. Considering the carpeting too.

 

[Hoody999]

So I’m still paying off my DeLorean but have been looking at the Mike Lane upgrade kits. I’m leaning towards getting most of them. Just wondering others thoughts on them.

Might want to get another loan....they're expensive !

 

[Mike86]

Might want to get another loan....they're expensive !

Yeah, but they seem worth it. I wish Hot Toys would have paid the licensing for Goodyear and for the real carpeting. Gives a more complete look.

 

[MDLAV8R]

Yeah, but they seem worth it. I wish Hot Toys would have paid the licensing for Goodyear and for the real carpeting. Gives a more complete look.

I have the Goodyear transfers, 2-pack metal license plates, interior carpets, and the hood carpet/foam inserts. High quality stuff and I really like all of the pieces. The hood pieces are only seen when the hood is open so keep that in mind - you might not care about those. Decals looked cool but I tend to butcher anything that small/precise so not for me. License plates are magnetic and swap easily between BTTF 1 and 2 versions. They are really nice. Worth the expense? Up to you. I bought an $800 toy car. “I can’t justify accessory x/y/z” is kind of a silly thought at this point. You can see the tire logos on mine over in the mods thread. I think the plates as well.

 

[potato]

what about interior roof linings? A pillars are obvious.

I have the Goodyear transfers, 2-pack metal license plates, interior carpets, and the hood carpet/foam inserts. High quality stuff and I really like all of the pieces. The hood pieces are only seen when the hood is open so keep that in mind - you might not care about those. Decals looked cool but I tend to butcher anything that small/precise so not for me. License plates are magnetic and swap easily between BTTF 1 and 2 versions. They are really nice. Worth the expense? Up to you. I bought an $800 toy car. “I can’t justify accessory x/y/z” is kind of a silly thought at this point. You can see the tire logos on mine over in the mods thread. I think the plates as well.

 

[MDLAV8R]

If anyone is curious, the 3D printed wheels on eBay from Tom do work on the Mark 2 but you do need to get a bunch of washers to lengthen the axle. The train wheels are made for the Mark 1 with a much different axle system.

Also painted the rails as well and probably add some weather to it later. Right now, just test fitting things.
View attachment 684491View attachment 684508

Looking good!