Stupid Delorean Comment Of the Day

[CFI]

Roughly 100 cars were completed after Consolidated took the reigns (roughly VINs 20000 to 20105), but I've never heard of that taking place in Ohio. The only car I'm aware of that was assembled in Ohio is VIN 20105, the car Consolidated assembled from the spare American Express gold plated panels and raffled off (and given the last DeLorean VIN). To be best of my knowledge, all other cars were completed in Northern Ireland.

Consolidated didn’t assemble 20105 In Ohio. It was assembled at the factory. Consolidated simply swapped the exterior panels when it arrived in the States. The finished product had one gold plated door that didn’t match the rest of the car, due to the DMCL gold plating crew not having enough time to plate 3 complete sets of panels while they were renting the equipment. This forced Consolidated to gold plate a door in the States in order to complete the panel swap.

[louielouie2000]

Consolidated didn’t assemble 20105 In Ohio. It was assembled at the factory. Consolidated simply swapped the exterior panels when it arrived in the States. The finished product had one gold plated door that didn’t match the rest of the car, due to the DMCL gold plating crew not having enough time to plate 3 complete sets of panels while they were renting the equipment. This forced Consolidated to gold plate a door in the States in order to complete the panel swap.

Don't forget they had to swap out the interior, too! Mechanically speaking, VIN 20105 was most certainly built (to some extent) in Dunmurry. The car was thought to be a much earlier production car that was re-VIN'd, which makes you wonder if it was one of the infamous "problem cars" that sat unfinished at the factory. This is why I referred to its final assembly taking place in Ohio. Cosmetically speaking, the car doesn't carry any of the components it left the factory with except possibly the engine cover & louvers. An incomplete list of everything that was swapped: the doors, all 4 quarter panels, hood, t-panel, both fascias, the wheels, center caps, exhaust tips; all of the interior: the seats, carpets, headliners, dash, binnacle, console, arm rest, change tray, knee pads, steering wheel, steering column trim, A&B pillar trims, upper & lower door trim, etc were all swapped out in Ohio. Anyway, not trying to split hairs here. DeLorean history just fascinates me.

[David T]

Consolidated didn’t assemble 20105 In Ohio. It was assembled at the factory. Consolidated simply swapped the exterior panels when it arrived in the States. The finished product had one gold plated door that didn’t match the rest of the car, due to the DMCL gold plating crew not having enough time to plate 3 complete sets of panels while they were renting the equipment. This forced Consolidated to gold plate a door in the States in order to complete the panel swap.

The story I heard was that when they went to assemble the car, the door was missing. All the gold panels for all three cars were done in one batch so they would all match. When they had the door plated by itself it did not match the other panels.

[Victor]

The story I heard was that when they went to assemble the car, the door was missing. All the gold panels for all three cars were done in one batch so they would all match. When they had the door plated by itself it did not match the other panels.

That’s surely is an interesting thing that golden plated Delorean!

I know it’s off topic here but I was wondering why nobody tried to have their D candy yellow painted? I know there are red candy painted D, but not so sure with yellow/with that golden glow? It would look warm. And could look like the plated ones somewhat...

Maybe my comment here is stupid, so it may be not be too much off topic after all...😉

[CFI]

The story I heard was that when they went to assemble the car, the door was missing. All the gold panels for all three cars were done in one batch so they would all match. When they had the door plated by itself it did not match the other panels.

I think it was Nick Sutton’s book that explains it. Of the 3 sets of panels that were shipped for plating, all arrived safely except one door which had a bent corner. The plating equipment was only available for a short time, too short for another door to be shipped. Someone, somewhere, plated a replacement door for Consolidated but it wasn’t the Dunmurry team.

[Collie from Belfast]

I'm not a De Lorean owner but as I mentioned previously I'm a former employee. There are numerous documentaries out there about Mr De Lorean, the car and his factory in Belfast. Some of the footage shows interviews with former employees who seem disgruntled and unhappy. When asked what he would do if he met John one grumpy former employee said that he ''would punch him in the face". I can tell you from firsthand experience that this mans comment does not reflect on the majority of us. We had great respect for John De Lorean and his American team. If I had ever met the man I would have shaken his hand and thanked him for giving me a job. That is the way most of us felt back then and probably still feel today.

[Michael]

I'm not a De Lorean owner but as I mentioned previously I'm a former employee. There are numerous documentaries out there about Mr De Lorean, the car and his factory in Belfast. Some of the footage shows interviews with former employees who seem disgruntled and unhappy. When asked what he would do if he met John one grumpy former employee said that he ''would punch him in the face". I can tell you from firsthand experience that this mans comment does not reflect on the majority of us. We had great respect for John De Lorean and his American team. If I had ever met the man I would have shaken his hand and thanked him for giving me a job. That is the way most of us felt back then and probably still feel today.

I have seen that doc, I think it was a British doc named "Car Crash"
It just goes to show that once a narrative has been decided, you can piece together the "story" to match it.

[Collie from Belfast]

I have seen that doc, I think it was a British doc named "Car Crash"
It just goes to show that once a narrative has been decided, you can piece together the "story" to match it.

Exactly. I wish they'd have asked me.

[jackb]

At a car show last week, some know-it-all started telling me how the floorboards were made of wood, among plenty of other really stupid comments, and when I politely corrected him, specifying the rear wall and parcel shelf only were wood, that the floorboards were in fact the GRP of the body, he was adamant that I was wrong, and he’d owned several. I finally had enough and fairly directly said “are you sure they were deloreans?” “Yes!” “Ok dude, whatever” and turned away.
About 5 min later a really original jokester commented to his family about the car sniffing up the white lines on the road and then looked at me expecting a laugh; I just smirked.
I’ve only encountered stupid comments at car shows, never in the wild.

[Mike F]

At a car show last week, some know-it-all started telling me how the floorboards were made of wood, among plenty of other really stupid comments, and when I politely corrected him, specifying the rear wall and parcel shelf only were wood, that the floorboards were in fact the GRP of the body, he was adamant that I was wrong, and he’d owned several. I finally had enough and fairly directly said “are you sure they were deloreans?” “Yes!” “Ok dude, whatever” and turned away.
About 5 min later a really original jokester commented to his family about the car sniffing up the white lines on the road and then looked at me expecting a laugh; I just smirked.
I’ve only encountered stupid comments at car shows, never in the wild.

Got the "white lines on the road" comment the other day immediately after the "you know why DeLorean made these cars in the first place, right? To ship cocaine to the US..." classic. At least it was a guy I knew but just hadn't talked to in a while, so I had no problem telling him he was full of it.