BTTF Time Machine Build Questions - Ask Me Anything

[Mark D]

No offense taken to anything in your post, and I personally get your frustration. A few things to consider though:

I don't understand people who search out information like this and then tuck it away for only themselves and a few friends. This seems to be limited to people in the prop community where there seem to be two camps... those who openly share everything from product to process because they want everyone else to share in their joy/excitement etc. The other side keeps everything secret. It was there time and possibly money spent finding the answers and why should they share it for free.

I should have clarified from the beginning that the vast majority of information I can share without any restrictions. What I described as things I'm not able to share are more the exception to the rule. There are literally thousands of parts and part numbers involved to build a time machine, so to ask for everything is a bit of a stretch for me to handle. That's why I said if you have a specific question, IE a part, or a series of parts you're looking for I'll give you everything I possibly can.

Also, the two camps you described aren't as black and white as you're thinking. There's definitely a range of what people are willing to share, especially in a PM vs in an open thread on the internet. As I've tried to explain the things I can't share because they are not my intellectual property, or because I have no interest in helping a vendor find another source to buy out in mass quantity and then resell for profit. It's not that I've spent time or money to figure it out. I have no problem giving info with someone who I know is going to buy what they need for themselves to build their car.

Thank goodness this message board isn't filled with people with that ideology. Imagine if other DeLorean owners had tips and techniques for fixing their cars but refused to share them with the community... Kinda seems counter intuitive to the word "community.

The difference here is that you're not asking for tips and techniques for building a time machine, you're asking for part numbers. The other big difference is that the majority of DeLorean parts are not insanely rare or difficult to find, and the vendors involved in the DeLorean world are mostly honest and good people. The same cannot be said for all vendors in the BTTF community. Most time machine parts are extremely limited in quantity and when that quantity is depleted there are often none left in the entire world. Parts that were once plentiful 'in the wild' at normal prices are now extinct because vendors bought up every single one they could get their hands on.

One other point... You mentioned capitalism in regards to people hoarding parts and selling them for 10x the regular price. Aren't you basically doing the same thing with information? The people that would do that sort of thing already know what those parts are and are well known in the Time Machine building world. If you want to dismantle their ability to gouge people and overcharge them, what better way than to blanket release all the information? You basically take away their power to drive up pricing because everyone has the ability to try to find their own parts.

Not all information is known to all vendors, including part numbers, sources, dimensions, etc. That's why it's not possible to simply list off every part number as you are requesting. As I said before though, if you have a specific question on something I can answer it, most likely publicly but if not publicly perhaps in private.

To use an example of the problem with BTTF vendors, I'll use DeLorean parts as an example: Imagine that you stumbled upon a source of 100 NOS left front fenders that had previously been in a defunct dealer warehouse. You're a "share everything from product to process" kind of guy, so you post the name and phone number on DMCTalk of the guy selling them for the insanely low price of $200 each. Your hope is that there are 100 owners out there who have been looking for a reasonably priced left front fender to fix their car. To your shock and awe, before a single person can buy one someone posts on the forum that your source has sold out. The next day you see advertised on vendor XYZ's website "New arrivals! Left front fenders, 2000 each".

Would this make you rethink your sharing strategy in the future? Replace "Left front fender" with "Janitrol Heater" or "Oil Separator tank" and this has literally happened dozens of times in the BTTF community.

So do I have a specific question... Sure I'm curious about the specific manufacturer and part number for every piece that was sourced for the build. I guess I'll have to ask in multiple posts over the course of several weeks. Clearly I'm being sarcastic I'm just disappointed that you would come to this board and dangle a carrot like that and then agree to drop little bits and pieces here and there when you fell like it. Too bad.

All I'm asking is that you be more specific than 'tell me every part number there is to know'. You're not going to be able to search for everything all at once anyway and by asking for something specific I can give you a much more detailed answer that will definitely help you more than just a list of part numbers.

If you want to know about the orange tube or some other part I can write a 1000 word essay on it and where you can probably find one, but if you simply ask for everything all at once, including all the things I'm not able to share for reasons not in my control, I'm not going to be able to help you much. Help me help you and let me know, specifically, what you want.