Delorean-off topic

[Guest joereatta]

A local auction house has an '83 Delorean going up for sale. It only has 500+ miles. What would you look for to have gone bad in a vehicle that has apparently been sitting unused for a long time. Don't know history of car but am intrigued. Any ideas on a fair bid?

[CliffNZ]

Go to www.hemmings.com/index.cfm They have three 1983's for sale. You had better be sitting down when you view it. Cliff from New Zealand

[dwmajk]

Be very care full they encapsulated the frame of this car and if any water has got inside to the frame you might not see it,a buddy had one years ago looks better than it rides.

[Guest imported_barra]

DeLoreans have a stainless steel body with gull-wing doors and (I think) a fibreglass frame. The engines were Renault. The only comment about the cars when they were being sold is that the interiors often showed "wear" early. The car's reception in this country seemed mixed and the late Johnny Carson referred to it in a joke following a recent Presidential campaign: "Now that the campaign is over, I can take my Mondale-Ferraro bumper sticker off my DeLorean." Beyond that, they are like any other car that basically has sat for 23 years. I'm just old enough to remember to remember all this.

[Guest maybe2fast]

I saw one the other day, it had big crome wheels on it and crome tips on a very loud exhaust...different

[Guest imported_dantm4]

Think someone I work with was dating his son, anyone know where he was from? (this is even more off-topic)

-Dan

90' Black/Tan Coupe

[Guest Durahansolo]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I saw one the other day, it had big crome wheels on it and crome tips on a very loud exhaust...different </div></div>

Lol a tricked out Delorean complete with deluxe Flux Capacitor.

[bwarren]

I hope you don?t mind but I have to throw in a DeLorean story. Last July I was on my way home from work diving the Vette, and I noticed to my surprise, a DeLorean coming up on me pretty hard in the rearview. A very rare site in northern VT. I thought he wanted to play tag, but he didn?t bight.

Several miles down the road as we were coming into town, coasting down a long hill, I noticed his lights were flashing on and off in rapid succession. The sun was just starting to set. I thought he might want be to pull off and chat at the park and ride approaching, but it was my sons birthday and thought I should head home. As we got to the park and ride, his blinker came on and he did stop. I drove a short distance and decided I don?t get a chance to see one of these very often, so I turned around for a closer look.

By the time I got to his car, he had the front hood (trunk) open and was on his hands and knees leaning into the car behind the passenger?s seat. He had removed a panel (plywood wrapped with carpet) and was removing the battery. Evidently when his lights were flashing earlier, he was having electrical failures (battery was going dead).

The young man looked very adapt and comfortable pulling this car apart and yanking out components. After peering into the front trunk, he definitely looked prepared for any possible failures. He had a spare battery, spools of wire, an assortment of tool, and several things I?m still wondering about.

Evidently he had replaced the alternator a couple of weeks earlier, prior to leaving from California and it looked like his ?heavy duty? rebuilt was a dud. He indicated that as he was driving, the alternator was not charging. He continued to swap out the battery and was hoping it would get him home another 50 miles away. He felt if it didn?t, he could just stop at a garage and get a recharge or purchase another battery. He must not have noticed the difference between California and Vermont yet as I explained its 8:00 PM now and besides the closest thing you are going to find to a garage between hear and were you are going, is a convenience store with gas pumps out front. I had a feeling of wanting to help, so I told him ?if you want to follow me home, a mile up that hill (I pointed off in the direction), I have a large booster charger and we can top off both batteries?. He agreed and off we went.

As we pull into the door yard (that?s Vermont speak for the area in front of your front door), I could see a large (huge) amount of smoke/steam billowing from the back engine compartment of his car. He immediately pops the lid and starts investigating. He said as he drove up the last 2ths of a mile of our drive way, he heard a load screeching sound and then the temperature gauge red lined. After the smoke cleared, we found his accessories drive belt, limped over the water pump pulley and dragging on the ground. It had a large chunk missing from it.

By now the family had come out of the house to see what I had brought home. As my birthday boy (birthday #4) came out of the house his eyes got really big as he looked at the DeLorean. He ran over to the owner and asked him his name. The man politely told him his name and my son replied by giving his name (I guess my not talking to strangers speech needs more work). My son is very clued in on cars and has a pretty sharp memory. He displayed this with his next question. ?Can I see your car fly?? Of cores this question came from the fact that he has see ?Back to the Future I, II, III, ?? several times and made a direct correlation between the movies and the car before him with its gull wing doors open. After we all stopped laughing, I went to the garage and went through my assortment of used belts. I found one that looked close to his original. This guy was definitely a gadget guy. He pulled a PDA out of his pocket and pulled up a spread sheet of Gates belts. He cross referenced the belt number and it was1/2? longer then his original. I told him he could have the belt, showed him were tools were and told him to help himself. As I start for the house to get some cake and ice-cream. I notice my farther in-law (45 year heavy duty diesel mechanic, retired) was already under this guy?s car turning wrenches. He thought the guy was a friend of mine from work and he wanted to help.

A couple of hours later, the belt was replaced (the alternator seemed to spin freely, but still did not charge) both batteries had a fresh charge, and the antifreeze was replenished free of charge. It was now dark and his hand held GPS had him in the middle of a field. I led him to the main road and he was on his way. I don?t even want to guess how far he got. Haven?t heard from him since.

The car really was unique and you could tell there were a lot of hand made/assembled parts in the car. He also had 2 small video cameras installed at the back quarter windows with 2, 3? LCD displays in the center of the dash that provided left and right viewing behind the car. His radio had a large color LCD display that played music videos along with the music (maybe it was a DVD) and all the interior lights were converted to LED.

End of story.

[Hank Ryan]

eBay currently has 7 DeLoreans up, but no 1983 models. Although these are all >23 years old. None of them have over 50,000 miles. AutoTrader.com lists 6 --- no 1983 models, but one 1981 with 40,000+ miles. Cars.com lists 12 --- again, no 1983 models, but four with >35,000 miles. The 1981 model with 101,000 miles may be the rarest DeLorean currently available. That should tell you something about their reliability.

[Guest joereatta]

Great story! So, reliability seems to be an issue?

[Guest F14CRAZY]

Well yeah, it has a Renault engine. Time for a 3800 retrofit

[Guest joereatta]

Prices are steep on hemmings but affordable (10k o15k) on ebay for low milage vehicles. Seems owners did not drive these cars too far.Expectation of classic status due to low production numbers? Gotta love the gull wing look. What was the base engine? I thought it was GM related given John's history.

[Guest imported_barra]

I remember that an attempt was made to assemble the cars in Northern Ireland in hope of providing jobs/stability where both are still needed. There were labor relation problems and production figures were very small.

[Guest F14CRAZY]

According to wikipedia, stock was a 2.8L Renault at 130 hp. A bit underpowered to me

[Guest F14CRAZY]

Ok looked again...it was an engine produced in a venture by Renault, "Poo-joe", and Volvo. Maybe it isn't bad. 2700 lbs and 130 hp actually doesn't sound bad, though its looks outdo its performance a little

Wikipedia article on the DMC12

[Shelby]

The original engine was very under powered and it resulted in the demis of many of these cars.

I bought one ($6200 used in 1995)of these sight unseen at a dealership will somebody else was taking a test ride, It caused quite a real problem when the other guy got back only to find out I had already bought and paid for the car he dreamed about.

I sold it to a friend of mines son who spent about $4500 to put on twin turbos and properly blow it up after 234 miles.

He keep pouring money into it for years and finally sold it for parts.

[Guest Ranger]

A great story well told Brian, now I have added "door yard" to my lexicon

[Guest joereatta]

Thanks F14 for the wikipedia web site. Everything I wanted to know about DeLoreans was in it.

[Guest joereatta]

'83 Delorean sold at auction thursday night for 25k. Add the 15% buyers premium and sales tax, total over 30k.I was out of the bidding by second bid. But it was one sweet car with only 520 original miles.

[Guest F14CRAZY]

sounds like it wasn't a bad deal, though I haven't researched or watched their prices.

They're sweet rides. Would be a good car for an L67. DMC12's were longitudinal though. But oh well, longitudinal L67s have been done