rear plate bezel

[spinaltap1]

Hi guys, I'm just looking at pictures of the cars leaving the factory back in the day and arriving in America. None of them had a rear plate bezel attached. Why? When I got my car the rear fascia paint had faded evenly across the back indicating that there'd probably never been a bezel on the car.

[Rich]

I think the QACs were instructed to add the license bezel stateside among other items including the emergency spare and the jack/tool kit, at least to begin with. So all the cars would have arrived at each dealer complete with a bezel on them. Or at least in them. Corrections welcome.

So your car would have had a bezel on it when it was sold.

As to why they left the factory that way I can only guess.

[AugustneverEnds]

I think I remember reading in Barrie Wills' book that John Z's company Composite Technology Corporation made the bezel in the United States so it made sense to just put the bezel on the cars as they arrived.

[David T]

It was not uncommon for automakers to leave some parts in the car for the dealers to do as "Dealer Prep" so they could charge for it. Items like wheel covers, floor mats, license plate frames, antennas, and the like. The dealers would also remove all of the shipping materiel like the plastic on the seats, foam padding, peelable film and such. As part of the dealer prep (or make ready) the dealer would also check all of the fluids, check the tire pressures and torque the lug nuts. In the case of Deloreans some of this was done at the QAC's. The bezel was probably left off because they knew the dealer would have to take it off anyway to put the license plate on so why spend the time putting it on? BTW all of the Deloreans also came with the bracket for the front license plate (the one that you would drill holes in the front bumper) NOT installed. One possibility for the faded paint, your car sat in the sun for a while before it was originally sold. The bezel wasn't put on till it eventually was sold. Back in the day, there were a LOT of Deloreans that didn't sell for a while. Some sat in the QAC's for a long time because they got cannibalized for parts to put others together til the bankruptcy executor got enough parts to finish off all of the remaining cars and sold them.

[Patrick C]

The bezel was probably left off because they knew the dealer would have to take it off anyway to put the license plate on so why spend the time putting it on?

Rivnuts and bezels were added on in the US. Dealerships were not tasked with adding the rivnuts, too much room for error.

[spinaltap1]

cool. thanks.

[r00b]

Rivnuts and bezels were added on in the US. Dealerships were not tasked with adding the rivnuts, too much room for error.

Earlier cars didn't have rivnuts there, screws went right into the fascia.