DMC Headquarters Visit

This week I had to fly to Houston to visit one of my clients for work. When I got there, I looked up Humble, TX online to see how close the DMC Houston location was, and found out that it is just a few miles away from the airport. After all my meetings finished, I had my client drive me to the headquarters in Humble and had the opportunity to meet some of the guys that work there. This is me outside the facilities:
 

I am in the market for a new dashboard, and James Espey was kind enough to show me the new plastic ones that DMCH has made to replace the old, cracked dashboards that are found in so many DeLoreans now. My dashboard is actually in decent shape. It only has one crack that goes from the glove box up to the windshield. Here is what the crack looks like:
 
I had see mixed reviews of the DMCH replacement dashboards, but after seeing them in person and actually installed in a DeLorean that was at the shop, I am confident that I am going to get one from them in the future rather than repairing and recovering the original. The only cons for the new one is that it doesn't deaden the sound of the windshield wiper motor as well and that you have to be careful while installing it so you don't bend the plastic because it can discolor.

The DMC headquarters was very impressive. I've never seen so many DeLoreans in my life, especially since I had only seen about five or six in person before that day. The first thing that I saw when we pulled in was a line of cars that all were DeLoreans. Here's a picture of my client by all the cars lined up:
 
I never thought that I'd go to Houston, let alone have the opportunity to visit the DMCH facility. It was so educational and I can't wait for the opportunity to go back and spend more time. I had to catch my flight back home and was there for less than 30 minutes.

First road trip since repair

After the panel was reinstalled, I then did everything that I needed to get the car titled and registered in my name. The same day that I reinstalled the panel, I took the DeLorean to a local lube place and had the safety and emissions inspections completed. The employees that were there were so excited to have the opportunity to inspect it. They got it done quickly and it passed with flying colors. The employees were taking pictures of it and were loving every minute of it.

The following week, I went to the DMV and paid the tax and registration fees, which was just over $1,000 and they gave me my plates right then and there. I was going to get vanity plates, but I was told that since the title was from another state, I had to wait until I got the Utah title in the mail before I could submit an application for new plates. Now that I have the regular plates on the car, I'm not as motivated to get vanity plates. I have since received the new title in the mail and the car is 100% legal to drive and legally mine.

Since registering it, we have driven it every weekend. It's unfortunate that it's already to late in the year though because the cold weather is already coming and the DeLorean won't be driven during the winter. My wife and I celebrated our third anniversary in the middle of October and we decided to get away for the weekend. We decided to spend the weekend up in Park City, UT and we also decided to take the DeLorean. It was a beautiful time of year up there with the leaves changing colors. It was the same city we went to when we first got married, so we'll probably return many times in the future. Here's a picture of my wife and the beautiful leaves on the trees:
 

I still haven't posted any pictures of the repaired panel on the DeLorean since I installed it, but I snapped a couple of photos of the car outside our hotel. I can't see any evidence of the repair in the photos:


 

It was a fun weekend and the DeLorean performed beautifully the entire time. We drove around 200 miles during the trip too. It's still fun to see people's reactions when they realize what kind of car they are seeing. For the most part, we don't get too many reactions. I'm very pleased with how everything is going with the car. My wife just bought new floor mats for me for Christmas, so that will help the interior be more visually appealing. 

DeLorean Panel Repair Completed

It took about 6 weeks, but I finally heard from the DMC dealer that had my panel and he informed me that he was finally able to spend some quality time on the repair of my quarter panel. He informed me that the damage was repaired to nearly 80%, and that with another hour of work, he can get it to 90%+. He said that 90% means is that a person won't readily see any evidence of the repair without having it pointed out. Below are some photos of the repair in process when it was at the 80% mark:






 
I thought that it looked fantastic compared to how bent it was when I sent it in. After another hour of work, he sent me additional pictures of the "final product." Those photos are attached below:





I was blown away with the quality of the repair job. The only area that he was having trouble with was the lip of the wheel arch along the aft edge, as shown in the photo above. The edge retained a little more roundness instead of a more crisp edge. He worked on it until he sensed that it was just going to get worse instead of better since stainless steel has a tendency to "work harden." This causes it to get more and more resistant to shaping as the material is massaged.

Since the panel was repaired to my satisfaction, he shipped the panel back to me and I got it over two weeks ago. The next day was a Saturday and I spent the morning putting it back on the car. The repair isn't perfect, but it's a night and day difference from what it looked like before. I have since gotten the car inspected, paid taxes and registration fees, and got it licensed in my state. It's nice to have it street legal. I have been enjoying it so much that I haven't even taken time to take a picture of what it looks like installed back on the DeLorean. I'll do that in the coming weeks. It's great to have it back on the road!

Waiting and waiting

Nothing new has occurred since the rear quarter panel arrived at DMCNW back in August. The panel has been there for over five weeks and nobody has attempted a repair yet. I feel that I should have just gotten a new one instead. It has gotten to the point that they don't respond to my emails anymore.

Since the car is in driving condition, minus the rear quarter panel, I took it out for a drive around my neighborhood. It was good to get it back on the road for the first time since June's mishap. I snapped a few photos in the garage when I got back:






Hopefully I can either get my repaired panel back soon, or a new one shipped to me. It's coming up on four months since I've been able to drive it like I want to.

The Road to Recovery

Time for an update. The damaged rear quarter arrived at DMCNW last week after I shipped it off via FedEx Freight. Here's a picture of the huge box that it barely fit into before I shipped it off:


I also purchased four new tires and found them in matching tread, which was harder than it sounds. It's really easy to find tires for each tire size, but super hard to find the same tread pattern on the different tire sizes. I decided to purchase Cooper Cobra Radial GT tires since I could have the same tread pattern on the front and rear. The front tires are no longer manufactured, but I found a brand new pair on ebay. The rears were available from Discount Tire Direct.

I had my old tires removed from the wheels and had a local guy sandblast and powder coat the wheels before I put the new tires on. When I first saw the color that he used, I thought that it was too light, but after putting them on the car, I am very pleased with how great they look. Here's what they used to look like when the original powder coating was flaking off:
 

Now here's what they look like after the restoration job with the new tires:
 

So things are progressing well now. The car is finally back on its own weight with all four tires on the ground. The panel will hopefully be repaired this week and sent back to me quickly and without damage during transit. 

Slowly but Surely

It has now been nearly two months since disaster struck. Progress is coming along nicely. I have already received and installed all the new components for the rear suspension and brakes. The car would be ready to drive right now if the panel were installed. Here is what the car now looks like:


Here is  a nice close-up of the new brake and suspension hardware:


I determined that the bearing was also shot when the wheel fell off, so I replaced it as well. I went to a local shop to have the bearing pressed into the hub carrier assembly. It looked great except for one small detail: they pressed in the outboard shaft backwards! The guy felt like an idiot after I explained it to him, but he also destroyed the bearing while trying to press the shaft out again. So I ordered a new bearing and he gladly pressed the bearing in correctly for free.

I have been super busy with getting everything put back together properly and with doing an all-around inspection of the car. I don't trust any of the work done by the previous owner because of my experience. I have since removed all four stub axle nuts, replaced the rear ones with new ones, and used loads of loctite while torquing them to spec.

One very big problem I've had to figure out is how to ship the rear quarter panel to DMCNW to get repaired. Because of its size, it was super difficult to find a box big enough to fit the panel inside. I finally located a box from an auto body shop that had a GM door shipped to them. It's a tight fit, and I hope that it doesn't get damaged in shipping, but it's the best I can do. I'm still waiting on some final quotes before it is shipped out, but I hope to have that taken care of in the next week.

I also discovered that while the DeLorean was sitting in my garage that it has a drain on the battery coming from somewhere because the battery was dead after sitting for about a month. Luckily the previous owner installed a battery cut-off switch, so that has come in handy after I recharged the battery.

I have decided to keep a list of things that I want to fix. Here's the most recent list:
Fix bent rear quarter panel
Sand blast & powder coat the wheels
Replace tires
Fix or replace radio antenna
New floor mats
Fix the A/C
Replace dashboard
Replace lights in binnacle with LEDs

Disaster Strikes

Last week, on my way home from showing my car to a bunch of friends and my sister, I was on the interstate going around 70 MPH. About 22 miles from home, the rear driver-side of the car just collapsed. All I remember is there being a lot of smoke and sparks, but somehow I managed to cross the carpool lane and get into the asphalt median without getting hit or hitting anyone else. It was the scariest driving moment to date.

It felt like the rear driver-side of the car just collapsed, and the car was super hard to control. I thought the lug nuts had come loose and that the rim and tire would be lodged in someone’s windshield. After I came to a stop in the median, I opened the door to find the tire lodged between the asphalt and car, still in the wheel arch, but at about a 45 degree angle. I immediately called my insurance’s roadside assistance number so I could get a tow home. I did this before I even got out of the car to see what the problem was. I could see when I opened the door that the lug nuts were still on tight, and upon further inspection, I saw the splines and threads from the outboard shaft, which meant that the hub nut on the stub axle had come completely loose.

I immediately remembered that the previous owner told me that he recently replaced all four hub assemblies, but I have no idea how long ago that was. He must not have tightened the nut enough for it to have worked loose like that. I also noticed that there was now a bit of a tweak to the stainless quarter panel, so my flawless stainless body was no more. It took the tow truck over an hour to get there. As he started to drag it onto the tow bed, it was raised enough to finally fit a jack under the frame. I then did my best to put the tire back on the hub so it didn’t have to be dragged all the way up the ramp. The tire about came off again on the way home since there wasn’t anything holding it on there.

The car must have fallen on the tire so quickly and the brake lines combined must have held the tire under the car. Today I was able to get the car into the garage and see the extent of the damage. Here is where the car was dragging along the interstate:

This is what it looked like after I took the tire off. The nut and washer were inside the rim:



This is what the tire looked like after I took it off:


My poor quarter panel! It's not terrible, but it's no longer perfect:


This is what happened to the caliper and hub carrier. Both of them snapped:


It really could have ended up much worse than it did. The tow truck driver was amazed that the car didn't have more damage... especially after he saw the grooves in the interstate behind the car that I had made.

Here's a list of things that I need to replace so far:
Rear Hub Carrier
Lower link, washers & pivot nut
Rear shock
Brake caliper
Rear brake line
Parking brake pads
Driver side tire
Fix or replace driver side rear quarter panel

I don't know what the condition of the actual hub bearing is. The outer drive shaft's threads are a little damaged, but I may get by.

When I removed the tire, I noticed that the hub nut threads were caked in grease by the previous owner. I'm wondering if the grease contributed to the fact that the nut came off the threads. I guess I'll never know for sure.  I'm glad this didn't have to be a post where I announced that I had destroyed my DeLorean.

The Car's New Home

My wife and I are fortunate enough to live in a home with a large two-car garage. Attached to the garage is a work shop, but two big hinged doors can be opened up to make them into one large room. Before we bought the DeLorean, we realized that we didn’t want any of our cars to be outside in the elements. The hot sun and freezing snow are not gentle on cars. I decided to clean out the shop enough to be able to fit another car in there. So now we technically have a three car garage with a two car garage opening. In order to get the DeLorean in and out, we simply pull the Jeep out of the way, and we can squeeze in and out. This works out fine for how little we have been driving the D. Here are a couple of pics to show you its new home:

The Surprise

The weekend after I had driven the DeLorean home, my wife’s family was having a BBQ and we thought it would be the perfect time for the DeLorean to make its debut. It was so fun to see the reactions on everyone’s faces when they saw the car. Both of her brothers were so fun to talk to about the car and to watch their reactions. I had washed the car earlier that day, but it was covered in finger and hand prints by the time the weekend was over. Something about the stainless steel makes people want to touch it. Here are a few pics of me showing them the new-to-me ride:

While at my wife’s parents’ house, the car developed two problems: the driver door wouldn’t open back up, and the Kenwood DVD/CD player stopped working. Later that night I figured out how to open the door, but the CD player will only work once in a while. I need to likely adjust the rod for the door lock because I can get it to open just fine if I push on the unlock switch while pulling on the door handle. The CD player seems like it will be a pain, but hopefully I’ll be able to figure it out.

The next day, we had dinner at my parents’ house and had a good time surprising my family with the car too. It was a good weekend. Many of my relatives wanted me to take them on a drive in the car; so much of the afternoon was spent doing that. The fuel pump started getting louder after taking some of them for a ride, so I’ll have to look into that. It probably has something to do with the heat because it doesn’t make any noise if the car has been sitting for long time. Here are some pics the day we showed my family the car:

The drive home definitely caused the newness of the car to wear off quickly for me, but I am still super happy with the purchase and would do it again in a heartbeat. My family told me to put the car in my hometown’s annual 4^th of July car show, so that should be fun to participate in. I’ve never had a car unique enough to be able to participate in a car show.

The Road Trip Home

I was so happy to get on the road, but didn’t start driving until about 10:30 PM. I stopped and filled up the car and put some air in the tires, then headed off. I drove for a few hours that night and made it to Cape Girardeau, MO before calling it a night and stayed at a Super 8 Motel. I don’t know if it was stress or what, but I only could sleep for about 4 hours before I was wide awake. I hit the road on Saturday morning at about 7 AM and drove for 18 hours. It was great seeing so many places of the country that I had never seen before, but because no DeLoreans have cruise control, my right leg was so dead and started aching so much that I had to start stopping every 140 miles or so to get out and stretch my legs. Here’s a picture I snapped during one of my leg-stretching stops somewhere near the west side of Missouri:

I can’t tell you how many times I saw people pointing at the car as I drove by, or how many people got out cameras to take pictures as I passed them on the freeway. Filling up with gas was always a show though. Not a whole lot of people came up to talk to me, but those that did were generally very nice and intrigued by the car. Many that didn’t come to talk to me would just stare at the car as they walked by. Most of the time I was relieved when I wasn’t approached because I just wanted to get back on the road and home as soon as I could. During one stop for fuel, a lady asked if she could take a picture of the car because her son didn’t believe that the car in Back to the Future was real and she wanted to prove him wrong. During that same fuel stop, a couple of older guys came to talk to me about the car. One of them asked me if they were rare, and I replied that they were “a dime a dozen,” which made him laugh.

Later on in the drive I stopped for fuel in Nebraska. After filling up, I started walking inside to grab a drink and empty my bladder when a kid pulled up in a car and asked if he could take a picture of the car. I told him that would be fine, and I walked inside. To my surprise, the kid had followed me inside to ask me if he could take a picture with the door open. It both surprised and annoyed me that he would be so bold as to follow me around, but I went outside and let him take pictures with the door open.

The car itself performed flawlessly the entire drive, rain or shine. Since the AC didn’t work, I was glad that it wasn’t hot weather and the wind through the windows cooled me down fine. I drove well into the night on Saturday and finally stopped in Rawlins, WY at 1 AM and crashed at another Super 8 Motel. It was a crappy location, but I somehow managed to get a room right above where I parked the car. I remember looking down out the window and thinking how great the car looked parked outside and realized why it was getting so much attention: it’s a great looking car! For some reason, I couldn’t fall asleep again and I only ended up sleeping about 5 hours that night. I hit the road later that morning and started driving the rest of the way home.

Here is a map of the route I took on my drive home. I wanted to stick to the interstate in case of a break down. It took approximately 25 hours of road time and 1613 miles. Ouch.

The west side of Wyoming is super hilly and windy and Interstate 80 is in terrible disrepair on that section, which made the car feel like it was wandering all over the road. Luckily it was just because of the road and wind. The only times it rained on me the entire trip were at the very beginning in Missouri and at the very end in Ogden, UT. My wife was driving home from her Mom’s house that Sunday morning as I was coming into Ogden and I pulled over to wait for her to catch up so she could drive with me the rest of the way.

When she saw the car, she was surprised at how dark the car looked, but it was because it was sopping wet in the rain and it wasn’t shining like it does in the sun. Since cleaning it and driving it in the sun, she has since changed her mind on it being dark. After I pulled into the garage a little after noon, I was so relieved to have made it in one piece with no break downs. My wife and I wanted the car to be a surprise to our family and we hadn’t told anyone that we had bought it. Because it was raining the day I got home, we didn’t take it anywhere like we had planned. Instead it stayed in the garage for a few days since I needed to take a break from driving it. My wife actually didn’t ride in it until the middle of the week until we took it for a quick spin around town and to show a coworker of mine.

The Purchase

I made the offer at the end of March, which was accepted by the seller. The next month and a half was a huge headache, which you will find out. The first obstacle was making sure that this indeed was the car that I wanted to buy before I sent payment. The seller had not provided the full VIN in the vehicle listing, which had me concerned. Once I got the full VIN, I ran an AutoCheck vehicle history report, only to find that there was an accident listed for the car. The report listed it as a “Right front impact with another vehicle. Severe damage reported.”

I immediately contacted the seller to ask him about this, feeling like he wasn’t being up-front with me. He assured me that the car had not been in a single accident, that the panels were all original, undamaged, and that the car was not even driving at the time that the report says that the accident occurred. After investigating this further, I found out that vehicle history reports are a joke and near impossible to correct any false information. He assured me that he had been up and down the insides of the car and there was no way that the car had been in an accident.

With that behind me, the next big challenge was arranging payment for a seller in another state. I was very hesitant to just mail a check for the purchase amount to a total stranger. I did a lot more investigating and looked up the seller’s house on google maps. This was the first image of the DeLorean I saw that wasn’t provided to me by the seller. It’s parked under the car port under the car cover:

Once I knew I wasn’t getting scammed, I decided to overnight the seller a cashier’s check, after which he overnighted me the signed title. My wife and I were the proud new owners of a 1981 DeLorean! The hardest part of the process was behind us… or so I thought. The plan from the beginning was to have the car shipped to our house due to the long distance and the price of flights. To fly my wife and me to Memphis one way was well over $1000, not to mention the cost of the drive home. I got a few bids, and decided to go with the company with the lowest bid, thinking the car would get picked up in the next week or so and be at my house in a couple of weeks.

I went ahead and purchased collector’s auto insurance from Hagerty Insurance, just in case something happened before the car was picked up. I was ready to roll and just needed to wait, and wait, and wait. Nobody ever called me to pick up the car.

I tried multiple shipping companies, beginning with shipanycar.com. What a disaster. The web site says that they will be able to tell you a pickup date within 7 to 10 business days. After waiting a week and a half with no word, I contacted them only to hear that because of where the car was located and where I lived, not many drivers were going along that route and it could be a long time before they locate a driver. They advised me to try another shipping company and offered me a refund of my $150 deposit.

I then posted the car on uship.com, where drivers bid on the job and I can pick the company that I want by selecting their bid. After I accepted a bid from a company and I paid the deposit, I was contacted immediately by the company to let me know that it will be tough, but they should be able to locate a driver within a week. Another week passed, but once again I was told that they couldn’t find a driver and they suggested that I contact a company with their own private fleet of trucks. I then contacted DAS twice, only to be told that I need a special quote. I left two voicemails with the guy in charge of special quotes, sent him an email, but he never contacted me back. They must not have wanted my business. I then contacted Passport, but was also told by them that there was no guarantee that they would be able to ship the car anytime soon.

That was the last straw. I finally decided that I was going to buy a one-way plane ticket to Memphis, TN and spend a weekend driving over 1600 miles home, which was exactly what I did. On the first weekend of May, after work on Friday, I made the 2.5 hour flight from Salt Lake to Memphis and the seller picked me up at the airport. He was a super nice guy and I’m so glad that he took such good care of the car. When we pulled up to his house that I had seen multiple times on Google maps, I saw the DeLorean under his carport, draped in the car cover. We spent about an hour going over everything that he had packed into the car for me to take home. I asked a bunch of questions on where certain things were located, such as the hood and trunk release, horn, and the light switch. I had him sign a bill of sale that I’d need when registering the car in Utah. He was super helpful and I could tell that he didn’t like seeing the car leave as I pulled out of the driveway. He even changed the oil for me before I flew out so that it had a fresh oil change for the trip.

The Search...

Fact: I was fascinated with the DeLorean DMC-12 ever since I was a kid. I had a poster of one on my wall all growing up that I found in a car calendar. I also loved the Back to the Future trilogy and watched it dozens of times growing up. When I got older and the internet made it easy to find out more about everything, I learned all about the car, and in 2002, I started trying to find out if I could buy one, even though I was still in high school and didn't have any money.

During the time I was learning about the cars, I Googled to see if there were any for sale in the state of Utah that I would be able to go test drive. The only one that I had seen in person up to this point in my life was back in the late 90s when I went to Universal Studios Hollywood and saw the time machine DeLorean that was on display outside of the Back to the Future ride.


As luck would have it, I found one online that was for sale in Salt Lake City at Steve Harris Imports, a Ferrari, Maserati, & Lotus dealer. Someone must have used it in a trade. It was a gray interior automatic with less than 5,000 miles on it, and those are all the details that I remember since that was back in 2002. I remember being so excited just to drive down there to see the car. I drove there late in the day in September, but the dealership was already closed and the lot was fenced off. Luckily the car was parked next to the fence and I was able to take a picture of the car:


I remember the asking price back then was $14,700 and I remember thinking about how I might actually be able to own one of these some day if I worked hard and made it a priority. I don't recall what happened, but three months passed before I called the dealership and asked if I could come down and take it for a test drive. I remember that the dealer acted a little hesitant because the car had so few miles on it, but he agreed to let me drive it, if only for a short drive. December 7, 2002 I went to the dealership and drove my first DeLorean. I remember that they had to jump-start the car because it had been sitting for so long. First the dealer sat in the driver's seat and I sat in the passenger seat. I don't recall if he drove me around or not, but I do remember having my sister take my picture as I was in the passenger seat and as I was getting out as seen below:




I then got in the driver's seat, my sister in the passenger seat, and we took the car for a quick spin, probably less than 2 miles. It was awesome. I remember being able to fit fairly easy, even though I was 6'6", and I remember feeling like we were sitting on the ground. Being so low was definitely something that stood out to me. The car was in great shape except a part of the driver's seat was tearing. The car was likely a bit overpriced because of who was selling the car. Unfortunately I didn't have the means to buy it, but it definitely caused my desire to want one to grow even more.

I then lived in Long Beach, CA for two years right after I drove the DeLorean and I randomly saw a DeLorean pull into a gas station to fill up one morning, but I didn't have the opportunity to stop or to take a picture, unfortunately. For those keeping track, that was only sighting number 3 for me. That happened in 2003.

Life went on as usual the next few years. I went to college, dated, etc. Then in 2008, when I was dating my soon-to-be wife, I was driving up to Idaho to spend the weekend with her and her family at Bear Lake and I was driving through the canyon on the curvy road when I saw a DeLorean pass me going the other way. It happened so fast that I didn't get a chance to look much at it. I noticed the distinct grill and by the time I realized what it was, it was past me and around one of the many curves, out of sight. I was so happy that I got to see another one on the road. I texted my soon-to-be-wife and told her all about it. It was great.

Another year or so passed and I had gotten married, and we went on a vacation trip to Orlando, FL with my family in June of 2009. While there I saw another DeLorean on display at Universal Studios, even though the Back to the Future ride had been replaced by The Simpsons Ride. I believe this is still on display, as well as the train used in the third film. Here's my wife and I posing in front of the car:


This DeLorean was car #5 that I had seen in person. Over the next year or so, I periodically searched for DeLoreans for sale on ebay and other web sites just to see how much they were going for. To my surprise, the prices had not risen much since I found the car for sale in SLC in 2002. I started to realize that it was no longer a question of "if" I was going to own a DeLorean, but "when." I graduated from college and got promoted at the place I had been working for over five years. I then got laid off due to a company bankruptcy and merger, but was given a hefty severance package... just about enough to buy a nice DeLorean. I had a part-time job still, so my wife and I were able to get by without having to use any of the severance money while I looked for a full-time job.

The entire time that I was looking for a job, I was also looking for a DeLorean. I joined a DeLorean web forum DMC Talk, and I started reading about what it was really like to own and drive a DeLorean on a regular basis. I learned so much from the forum and began to feel very comfortable with the idea of owning my own.

There was one big item of business that I needed to tackle first: convince my wife that we should buy one. A couple of months earlier, I had placed a bid on a DeLorean in Phoenix, AZ that was in really great shape. I bid somewhere around $14,000, confident that I was going to be outbid. I informed my wife of my actions, and she was shocked. She knew that I had wanted one for a very long time, but she thought that we would be getting one when we were much older, like 60. When she realized that I was wanting one now, I think it knocked the wind out of her.

Once I explained to her that if we didn't get one now, then we probably never would, she started to accept the fact that we were going to get one. I wasn't going to go and buy the first one that we found either. I was very particular about the ones that I would consider. First, it had to be a manual transmission. Second, the stainless steel panels had to be in perfect, or near perfect condition with no dings or dents. Third, the car would need to have some work done in order to make it perfect. I wanted to be able to experience the joy of working on and restoring a DeLorean.

So it just so happened that I got hired for a great job at the end of February 2011, and I found a DeLorean on ebay that had supposedly been sitting in someone's driveway in Louisiana for about 20 or so years without moving. The bidding price was around $5,000 and it had my name all over it. I was so excited to get a non-running car so I could start from square one. I was watching the bidding so closely and was prepared to pay a couple thousand more than that to secure the winning bid. To my dismay, the day that the bidding was supposed to end, the listing disappeared. The seller apparently thought it was worth much more than that, got scared, and claimed that he sold the car locally. I haven't seen it reappear on ebay, so hopefully that was the case.

Not more than a week later, I was searching on DMC Talk for another car, and I came across a car that had been for sale since 2009, but the seller didn't seem in any hurry to get rid of it because the pictures were really small and you couldn't see the details of the car very well. Well he just so happened to finally get his hands on a high quality digital camera and posted up some great pictures of the car on the forum. I had just barely started my new job, so I knew I was financially stable enough to drop that much cash on a car. As soon as I had seen the new pictures of the car and I saw what unbelievably good shape it was in, I sent him an email and offered him $14,500 on the spot. To my surprise, he accepted the offer! Below are just a few of the pictures I saw of the car that made me fall in love with it:





It was beautiful. Just what I was looking for. It was a 1981, manual transmission, pefect, or near perfect panels, and it needed a little work, mostly on the interior. As a plus, the hood had a gas flap and grooves, which I think look great, the seat covers had just been replaced, and in all, the previous owner had put about $9,000 worth of work into the car since he had owned it. It only had 49,800 miles on it too. In the next post, I'll talk about what happened after the offer was accepted.