VIN 500 - Imgur Megadump

[Shep]

Visited VIN 500 at Crawford Auto Aviation Museum this past Saturday, as I've been saying in a few other threads, and took a bunch of pics and did an entire write-up also. Posted it all on Imgur so the images don't die, and also so they're high-res too!

DeLorean VIN 500 at Crawford Auto Aviation Museum (https://imgur.com/a/08iAB)

Things I learned during the write-up:

- Only 12.85 original miles, just over a dozen.
- No glovebox handle (anything inside?)
- Still some work to do, but 99% of the way there from what I saw. Cosmetically, anyhow.

Also, GIANT shout-out to Tony Swann for the hours and hours and hours of teaching me everything I know about the early VIN's, I would certainly not have had nearly the trained eye I had visiting VIN 500 if it weren't for him. He really knows his stuff, and I'm just happy to be able to utilize the opportunity to document VIN 500 like she's never really been documented by the public before. Hopefully not in a creepy paparazzi way though.

The placard listed it as "gift of Jeffrey Abrams", anyone know if there's a factory connection there? Never heard of that name until now.

[powerline84]

Cool man I enjoyed the write up. Interesting to see the car.

[JETS 81 DMC]

Thanks for taking the time for the write up and pictures. I enjoyed it and is done very well. :thankyou:


The door pull straps were not on the first cars. Not sure what vin they started being included but I do remember
that it was a problem early on for many to reach the handles to close the doors so that was what DMC came up with for a fix was the pull straps.

[Ron]

Nice work!!! :thumbup:

[Shep]

The door pull straps were not on the first cars. Not sure what vin they started being included but I do remember
that it was a problem early on for many to reach the handles to close the doors so that was what DMC came up with for a fix was the pull straps.That jogs my memory of a conversation Michael had with Nick Sutton around the time of Nick's book release, basically Nick confirmed the story and reasoning, as well as calling it a "rushed" approach. I was remembering a conversation I had with DPI Josh when I wrote that, but you are correct, the first few did not have them.

Thanks for the feedback guys! Glad it's a good read so far. I wasn't sure that I got all the areas I needed to, but one area I probably should get if I see it again is a front 3/4 shot of the interior, focusing on seats, rear shelf, etc.

I do remember the cargo net was quite tight and flat, compared to my droopy ass net. This one probably just saw a refurb same time as door struts. Seats were in immaculate shape, but I don't see a reason to expect otherwise -- even if the leather isn't rated for outdoors, it's rarely there anyhow, and basically nobody sits in it. I remember being all "wow!" and then immediately drawn in by the doors and taking pics there, attention drawn so many ways lol. Don't think there were any unexpected surprises, good nor bad, in the spots I wasn't able to document but was able to see, to put it that way.

[Dangermouse]

Great pics Shep. Nice to see her looking so well.

Interesting note about Jeffrey Adams. He was a VP at Consolidated. I wonder did he purchase it and then donate it, or was his name just on the donation papers from CI?

[Nicholas R]

It seems odd to me that there would be this much corrosion to the muffler if the car only has ever been driven 13 miles. If the whole muffler were corroded it would be one thing, but this looks like the standard muffler corrosion for a car that's been driven on a semi-regular basis.
https://i.imgur.com/iJNjWDu.jpg

[Mark D]

It seems odd to me that there would be this much corrosion to the muffler if the car only has ever been driven 13 miles. If the whole muffler were corroded it would be one thing, but this looks like the standard muffler corrosion for a car that's been driven on a semi-regular basis.
https://i.imgur.com/iJNjWDu.jpg

Interesting observation... first thing that came to mind for me was that perhaps the car was run and brought up to temperature while in storage to keep the fluids moving, but never actually driven. That would explain the heat discoloration and corrosion on the muffler.

Either that, or it has a broken/disconnected angle drive and the car has more than 13 actual miles.

[Domi]

Thanks fir the write up and taking time to share all the pictures with us :aniclap:

[Shep]

Interesting note about Jeffrey Adams. He was a VP at Consolidated. I wonder did he purchase it and then donate it, or was his name just on the donation papers from CI?Knowing now what his role is, I have a theory, and I suspect it was even more "meh" than that: a trade for something else in Crawford's inventory. "I'll give you VIN 500 if you give me ___", which Crawford most definitely would have seized on knowing it would complete their collection of "every stainless car in history" in a way that really wasn't complete even before JZD left Pontiac, with the rich history behind DeLoreans and lack thereof on the other three stainless cars. Consolidated is in a business, after all, and if nobody's really interested in buying an entire car, why not trade it for a car someone will buy?

By the way, good lord there's so many flaws in the stainless panels of the other three cars I feel bad for them sitting next to the flawless panels on VIN 500. Dents, dings, bents, creases, I just hope they are restored in some way, the other three are so trashy now.


It seems odd to me that there would be this much corrosion to the muffler if the car only has ever been driven 13 miles. If the whole muffler were corroded it would be one thing, but this looks like the standard muffler corrosion for a car that's been driven on a semi-regular basis.
https://i.imgur.com/iJNjWDu.jpgThere's an annual "get every car running and driving" event at Crawford, I don't recall what time of year it is, but I would suspect that's where the corrosion came from. It's gotten up to operating temp on a (hopefully) yearly basis, I don't know if that fully explains the discoloration, but it has been in running condition for more than just this year to put it that way.

By the way, on the angle drive, I strongly doubt that's a problem. Keep in mind the speedometer has probably never moved since it bottoms out at 10 MPH, and binding is generally the biggest issue. As for preserving the low mileage, easy enough to do when the car can have its tires on dollies and be literally pushed around the museum.

One thing I should note that I saw there globally was every car there was resting on jackstands, unless it was on short-term loan from somebody (saw a standard Chevelle and a Camaro from such a guy). This may seem curious, but think about it: not only are you securing the car with heavy-duty equipment and easing the strain on the suspension on cars in some cases 125 years old, but you're also preventing flat spots on the tires from forming by removing all weight off of it. By that point, it's not hard to lower the wheels onto dollys and simply push it around with a group of people and a spotter.

[nick sutton]

Visited VIN 500 at Crawford Auto Aviation Museum this past Saturday, as I've been saying in a few other threads, and took a bunch of pics and did an entire write-up also. Posted it all on Imgur so the images don't die, and also so they're high-res too!

DeLorean VIN 500 at Crawford Auto Aviation Museum (https://imgur.com/a/08iAB)

Things I learned during the write-up:

- Only 12.85 original miles, just over a dozen.
- No glovebox handle (anything inside?)
- Still some work to do, but 99% of the way there from what I saw. Cosmetically, anyhow.

Also, GIANT shout-out to Tony Swann for the hours and hours and hours of teaching me everything I know about the early VIN's, I would certainly not have had nearly the trained eye I had visiting VIN 500 if it weren't for him. He really knows his stuff, and I'm just happy to be able to utilize the opportunity to document VIN 500 like she's never really been documented by the public before. Hopefully not in a creepy paparazzi way though.

The placard listed it as "gift of Jeffrey Abrams", anyone know if there's a factory connection there? Never heard of that name until now.

As a matter of interest the VIn plate (part no 110573) was not released for production until Nov 1981 and probably not available as a part until early Jan/feb 1982 - so did this get onto a car that was made 12 months earlier? Perhaps this issue has already been discussed but it seems rather odd to me

[Shep]

If memory serves, it was either Tony Swann, DPI Josh, or Jeremiah in Dayton, OH that told me the door sill VIN plate was added in one of Crawford's earlier restoration projects incorrectly, i.e. Crawford got one stamped for the purposes of installing it there. It does not belong of course, as you mentioned (559, obviously built later, does not even have holes in the fiberglass in that area, for example), but that is how it got there from what I've been told. I don't have anything that suggests otherwise, and I am having one hell of a time finding pictures of when this guy first rolled off the line. Seems no one's digitized them yet.

Any insight into that glovebox? Is it just a show piece, like a facade of the dash of where it would go, or can it actually open? Great to see you around here still Nick!

[Andrew]

Maybe the 12.5 miles is just the shortest lived angle drive in DeLorean history. :-)

[nick sutton]

I am going to add further confusion to earlier threads regarding the first car off the production line.

VIN numbers were allocated in the body shop and the early days were no different to those when we were making 80 per day, in that one VIN number did not follow consecutively the car before off the production line.

One thing is for sure - the first two cars completed were airfreighted to the US on the 20th January the day before the cameras showed John driving a car off the production line on 21st January 1981. The car that was intended for John and the press that day, was badly damaged following an accident on the test track. So John had car number four ( whatever the VIN was).

I hope I have not confused you all too much.

What is the reasoning that the car in the photo is VIN 500 given the comment I made earlier regarding the VIN plate and the part number shown?
Nick

[Shep]

Is that a quiz for us to decipher, or was that you being confused as to why I erroneously linked VIN 500 to being the "first off the line"? The placquard in the image dump says the same (last sentence: "This is the first DeLorean to come off the production line", picture #2), Crawford has advertised this for years. I only learned that simply wasn't true on my return to DMCTalk earlier this year when I found out VIN 500 was on display and I mentioned plans to go see it. So, about ten years of enthusiast-turned-owner believing VIN 500 was the first one made vs. at best two full months thinking otherwise. Old habits die hard, especially one so ingrained! :)

Nick, one question I've seen asked, and I can't remember the answer to this one, but the grille on the front has no emblem. Am I correct in thinking the emblem itself wasn't ready yet at that point? And if my thinking is correct, when did they start putting them on cars? Would be interesting to know a rough cutoff point for that (it seems fairly close to 559 actually, which was on the first shipment of cars to the states and served as a "parts car" for one of the QAC's there).


Maybe the 12.5 miles is just the shortest lived angle drive in DeLorean history. :-)Taking a second look at the pictures, shoot the nubs from the injection molding process are still very much there on the NCT's, front (pic #6) and rear (pic #5). I'll bet Crawford has no idea what an angle drive even is. I mean, they're bumps, but still, those nubs are even on the part that would come into contact with the road. Or in Crawford's case, carpet, which may explain why there's still some left as the carpet has more "give" to it.

[ssdelorean]

Maybe the 12.5 miles is just the shortest lived angle drive in DeLorean history. :-)

I recall reading a post from a guy (posting to the older dmctalk.com site) who just installed an angle drive from one of the first couple batches of the DMCH reproduction drives, and it broke while backing out of the driveway. So that would be 0.0 miles on that drive since it does not register millage in reverse!

[Bongiovi]

Any insight into that glovebox? Is it just a show piece, like a facade of the dash of where it would go, or can it actually open? Great to see you around here still Nick!

I was able to be given a tour of VIN 548 at DMC Florida which was undergoing restoration. It's glove box was sans outside latch too but did open and close. There was a push/spring mechanism that opens it when you press down on the lid. Pushing it back down further would latch it back in place. Kind of like a car cigarette lighter. It was a neat idea but I'm sure some mechanical issue or bean counter nixed it.

[Timeless]

I was able to be given a tour of VIN 548 at DMC Florida which was undergoing restoration. It's glove box was sans outside latch too but did open and close. There was a push/spring mechanism that opens it when you press down on the lid. Pushing it back down further would latch it back in place. Kind of like a car cigarette lighter. It was a neat idea but I'm sure some mechanical issue or bean counter nixed it.
When was your tour? I assume this is Orlando your speaking of not Bonita location?

[JAZ_DMC]

Really nice writeup. It's been about five years since I saw the car. The current display is much, much better than it used to be. Used to be tucked away in the corner of a basement area with low lighting.