2 consecutive number VIN Deloreans for sale

[cdrusn]

Great buy for a collector with the money.

https://www.hemmings.com/auction/198...ign=2021-02-16

[Timeless]

2 projects for someone. Paging DPI.

[Michael]

While I am not doubting the seller claims at all, consecutive numbers on a DeLorean is not all that. I never quite understood the fascination with vin numbers as the car really carries no correlation between the vin plates and the rest of the vehicle. Even frame numbers are just a hand welded number plate and those are sometimes off sequence.

Rare find these days, yup, and the fact that both are super low mileage and consecutive is very cool but if they were not consecutive vins, I think the overall value would not be affected that much to a person who grasps DeLorean vins. To the car collector who has tons of money, who knows? Six figures would not be out of the question.

[Mark D]

The car with 14 miles has been stripped of quite a few parts and no longer has the original engine. This couldn't be a more perfect situation for DPI and one of their high end engine upgrades. Probably not so great for anyone else.

http://dmctalk.org/album.php?albumid...chmentid=65620


The other car with 1600 miles has some janky frame repairs...

[dn010]

Those aren't "janky frame repairs." That is how the early frames were made and how they differ from later frames.

I am sure once they realized how much extra time & material they were spending riviting pieces like this instead of welding a single plate on, is when they changed the way they constructed these.

I had the frame original to my car and swapped it with the frame from vin 712, this is how I was able to compare all these little (and little known) differences between early/late frames.

The car with 14 miles has been stripped of quite a few parts and no longer has the original engine. This couldn't be a more perfect situation for DPI and one of their high end engine upgrades. Probably not so great for anyone else.

http://dmctalk.org/album.php?albumid...chmentid=65620


The other car with 1600 miles has some janky frame repairs...

[Michael]

Those pics alone is proof that "low mileage" just means a ton of work and money to make anywhere near roadworthy or reliable. I'll take my maintained "high mileage" D anytime over either one of those.

20210208_210851.jpg20210208_211344.jpg20200115_175302.jpg20200115_175020.jpg20200115_174955.jpg

[Mark D]

Those aren't "janky frame repairs." That is how the early frames were made and how they differ from later frames.

I am sure once they realized how much extra time & material they were spending riviting pieces like this instead of welding a single plate on, is when they changed the way they constructed these.

I had the frame original to my car and swapped it with the frame from vin 712, this is how I was able to compare all these little (and little known) differences between early/late frames.

I stand corrected, I had no idea the early frames were constructed like that. Is there a particular VIN cutoff when they changed to the later style frames, or was it a running change?

I'm also curious to know if the lower plates were dipped in epoxy separately and then installed, or if the parts were riveted together first and dipped with the rest of the frame. It looks like the center of each fastener is raw metal and starting to rust, or the epoxy has chipped off on the end of each one.

[Henrik]

The car with 14 miles... no longer has the original engine.

Must have been a rough 14 miles...

[Mark D]

Must have been a rough 14 miles...

From what I can understand from the listing on Hemmings, the original owner was a dealer and got both cars wholesale though a consolidated auction. The car with 14 miles was used as a parts car. I don't know a lot about the availability of parts immediately after the factory shut down, but it sounds like the parts car was kept on hand at the dealership to scavenge if a customer came in and needed replacement parts.

Later on didn't Consolidated have a mail order / phone order system set up that people could call and order parts? This car must have been stripped sometime between the factory closing and before individual parts became more readily available again.

Also, since both of these cars have low VIN's they must have been basket case cars that had some defect that made them unsaleable back in 81. From what I've read there were a handful of those cars left on site in 83 that had unresolved quality issues. Those cars didn't get sold until the factory closed and everything was auctioned off.

[CFI]

I never quite understood the fascination with vin numbers....

To me it’s interesting to see which VINs are still around. I suspect that’s what most “VIN counters” etc are really curious about. But you are correct: the VIN (especially on these cars which left the factory in whatever order they were finished) means very little. Heck, I spent many years working for a major auto manufacturer and their VINS didn’t always coincide with how they rolled out of the factory either.