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Thread: VIN 500 - Imgur Megadump

  1. #11
    Senior Member nick sutton's Avatar
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    Vin500

    Quote Originally Posted by Shep View Post
    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

    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


    The DeLorean Story: The car, the people the scandal. http://www.amazon.com/The-DeLorean-S...delorean+story

  2. #12
    Senior Member
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    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!
    Last edited by Shep; 03-03-2018 at 11:35 AM.

  3. #13
    Senior Member
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    My VIN:    04194: 5-Speed, Black Int, 79 Peugeot 604 Manifold, 05052: 5-Speed, Gray Int, 78 Peugeot 604 manifol

    Maybe the 12.5 miles is just the shortest lived angle drive in DeLorean history. :-)
    Andrew
    4194 Since 7/98
    5052 Since 7/14

    1972 Buick Riviera
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    1982 AMC Eagle SX/4 (4.2 I6, 4 Speed)
    1983 Pontiac Trans Am (Knight Rider Conversion in progress)
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    Solex carb and antenna television guru.

    "My carbon footprint is bigger than yours!" :-)

  4. #14
    Senior Member nick sutton's Avatar
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    first car off the production line

    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


    The DeLorean Story: The car, the people the scandal. http://www.amazon.com/The-DeLorean-S...delorean+story

  5. #15
    Senior Member
    Join Date:  Sep 2011

    Location:  Middleburg Heights, OH

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    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).

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew View Post
    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.

  6. #16
    Daily Driver ssdelorean's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew View Post
    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!
    Shannon Y
    www.ohiodeloreans.com
    www.facebook.com/ohiodeloreans
    ---
    1st angle drive - 58,027 miles (20 years) -- original
    2nd angle drive - 48,489 miles (21 years) -- original from donor
    3rd angle drive - 26,572 miles (2 years 3 months) -- DMCH
    4th angle drive - 21,988 miles (1 year 11 months) -- DMCH
    5th angle drive - 7,137 miles (10 months 2 days) -- DMCH
    6th angle drive - OVER 113,704 miles and counting (OVER 13 yr 1 month & counting) -- new Martin Gutkowski unit
    over 245K miles

  7. #17
    Junior Member Bongiovi's Avatar
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    Location:  Miami, FL

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    My VIN:    1844

    Quote Originally Posted by Shep View Post
    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.

  8. #18
    DMC Timeless's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bongiovi View Post
    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?
    ~LXA~
    Dunmurry | Stuttgart | Leipzig | Munich | Tochigi | Fremont | Bratislava | Sindelfingen | Kansas City | Oakville | Coventry

  9. #19
    APRIL 81
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    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.
    '86 BMW 325es
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    '81 DeLorean
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