Re: [DML] thr other delorean on ebay

[Noah <sitz@xxxx>]

On Tue, 7 May 2002, spaceace3113 wrote:

> what did you guys think about the delorean on ebay with 483 miles??
> the reason im asking is cuz i won that auction ....it went for
> 15200....im driving to VA on friday...any words of warning/
> caution...things to look for?? thanx

(as always, someone feel free to jump in and correct me, with a stick if
necessary)

First and foremost: don't drive it. Don't /start/ it. Get it on a trailer
and get it to:

a) your place, so so you can drain and rebuild the fuel system, the oil
system and replace all the hoses and belts (at the very least). Or...

b) to a delorean vendor so /they/ can do so.

At minimum.

The car's been in storage for 20 years, and IMO (based on a few hoses on
my car, but mostly previous posts to the list) the fuel system and
virtually all of the rubber on the car are to be considered untrustworthy
until proven otherwise beyond a shadow of a doubt (read: visual
inspection). No telling how long the fuel/oil has been sitting in the
system doing $DEITY knows what to the components. Starting the car after
all this time could do potentially horrid things. If the owner's been
starting it / driving it around the block on a regular basis, that changes
things a little, but I still wouldn't trust it until I (or a vendor) had
replaced everything that could have been affected by 20 years of improper
storage (assume improper storage. always. always. always.)

Car's on the original tires, which (again, IMO) shouldn't be trusted. I
know for a fact that there are folks on the list who drive on the original
NCTs; more power to them. Not for me, thanks. 20 years is a lot of time on
the tires, and if the car's been sitting on the tires (and not on
jackstands), they're likely going to have flat spots anyway. If you plan
on showing the car, you can save the tires and bring them to the show; I
believe doing so is worth a couple of points in the Concourse competition
(not sure about the other classes). If not, you may be able to find a
buyer for them on the list.

Your plan of attack is going to depend on what you intend to do with the
car. If you're planning on showing it, you'll likely want to keep it as
original as possible. If you're planning on driving it on a regular basis,
get the list of updates and do them / get them done.

Beyond that, go digging in the list archives. There's an astounding
amount of information in there, including all kinds of information for
(and from) owners in precisely the same situation you're in. I didn't
realize just how full (or how detailed) our archives were until I went
looking for a similar archive for another car I just bought. My respect
for the list archives and contributers, already quite high, jumped several
thousand points.

Noah
#2867