1983 DeLorean garaged since 1984. only 1,580 miles
hey there everyone.
this is my first post on this site so please bare with me. What I have is a 1983' that was purchased new from consolidated International by a man and his wife who lived in Utah. The car wash shipped from Ohio to their house in Utah where they drove the car for a grand total of 1,580 miles until they put the car away in their garage for the winter. that was the last time the car was ever driven. every few months they would start the car to keep the battery charged up, however he said they never took the car out of the garage until they loaded it on a Haul trailer when they moved from Utah to their new home on the Oregon coast. From 1990 until I pulled it out of their garage in the summer of 2017 it never left the heated garage. The owner came to my shop to have some work done on another car of his and after we got to talking, he let me know he have a DeLorean that he was interested in getting back on the road. After talking with him for awhile I convinced him to leave the car alone and to let me take care of everything. Luckily, he agreed and let me take the car. After I trailered it to my shop, I started by assessing the car bumper to bumper so I could confirm the story about it he told me and to start a detailed work order that I could give to him explaining everything the car would need to safely and properly get the car back on the road. I started by ordering new lift struts for both doors, along with front and rear trunks. Next I ordered a new fuel pump assembly from DMC along with new injectors, clips, O-rings, filters and pieces to refurbish the fuel distributor along with cleaning out the the fuel tank. I have not added any fuel to the system since doing the work. I flushed the engine oil and added a new filter from DMC, replaced coolant and checked all soft hose sections front and back. All of them looked good. before rolling the motor over I poured penetrating oil with marvel mystery oil into each cylinder and let it sit for 5-6 days before rolling the motor over by hand. I repeated this 2-3 times and then checked down each cylinder with a scope cam and all cylinders look great. ( As they should for 1500 miles but given the years this motor sat dormant, I knew it was crucial to treat this motor like any other vehicle parked for an extended amount of time). All of this work took place over a year as the owner would get motivated to have me do more. Most of the time the car just sat in the back of my shop under the car cover. After a few months of not hearing from him I paused on moving forward with any work until finally the owner reached out to update me. He told me he had found out he was terminally ill and would like to find a good home for the car. After having the car in my shop for over 2 years I knew it was my job to find the right home for this time capsule. That is why I am here.
I am getting ready to advertise the car on BringATrailer.com but I wanted to post on here first where the car and its story could reach the proper audience. I have NOT tried to start the car, I have only hooked up the new battery to check electrical systems to make sure everything will be in working order when the magic time comes. Im interested in selling the car as is. The vehicle is still basically untouched aside from the few parts/work I've done. The next owner should be able to prime the fuel system, replace the V-belts if wanted, install a new set of tires ( still has the factory 83' tires of course) and just give the car a final look over to insure its ready to fire. I could do all this final work myself and advertise the car as a runner however given the history of the car, the fact that its a true time capsule, I'm open to selling the car as is and letting the right new owner have the fun of being the first one to start it and have their very own "barn find" ( more like heated garage find).
Welcome to the forum. People will undoubtedly want pictures of the frame and engine bay on this car, so I would suggest you post them. Also, a shot of the VIN plate. Given it is an 83, it will probably have undercoating on it done I think by Consolidated International. This was done because a lot of the latter cars sat for a long time unsold and got some surface rust on the exposed metal pieces underneath. That is why they were undercoated because a new car buyer would not be happy to see surface rust on their "new" car. Nothing to worry about, just something unique to the latter cars. It also has the flat hood with "DeLorean" logo, two tone black/grey interior, integrated door pull straps etc., which match the 1982/1983 cars. However, not sure why, this car has earlier style round exhaust tips on it found on the 1981s. 82s and 83s had angled exhaust tips. The moderator may want you to post a price as well. This car looks CLEAN. Good luck!
Last edited by Hill Valley PD; 10-22-2019 at 08:39 AM.
Welcome, and thank you for sharing the history of this car and the photos. It looks awesome!
As I have been recently been reminded by the moderators about the rules of the for sale section forum, I just wanted to include a link to the rules below so you can update your listing with some additional information.
Otherwise if you are looking to post general information and not a for sale listing you can start a thread in a different subforum (or have the mods move it there).
Also, for some reason your photos are showing up very small. There are a few different ways to add photos to posts so they will appear larger. There are a couple of DIY threads on the forum that explain how to do that.
Thank you for all the help and information. I plan to take many more photos this afternoon and will make sure I post them in large form. If a price is required to post in this section then I will most likely have to move it to a different section because to be honest I don’t have a price nailed down.
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