Well I arrived in wonderful Montgomery City on the day before Thanksgiving. I approached the car with a fluttering heart (what if this car is a P.O.S... what if the seller lied.. what if what if what if!). That wasn't helped by the obviously misfiring engine of the already- running car... that had been stored WITH gas in the tank. Well no harm-no foul. The miss sounded me like a simple problem (ignition or fuel injection problem)-so I dismissed that out of mind. Now looking at the car, I was very PLEASANTLY surprised. Not only had the seller not lied about the cars cosmetic condition... but it was better than he made it out to be. No dings, PERFECT interior (save a small crack in the face of the 170mph speedo, which you can't see unless you have a light pointed at it), EVERYTHING works right (save the misfire, and the spongy hydraulics.. both clutch and brake). Not only that but he HAD lied... CD player not cassette. Being that I don't give a rats behind about this sort of originality, I also liked the custom exhuast and high-quality (for the early 90's) alarm system that were installed. Now the paint was probably a 8 of 10 in quality. But the black parts (lourves, bumbers)were shiney - not matte... which I abhore (no offense to you shiney-lovers out there), and the gray was lighter than the stainless (I prefer it "stock" mismatched... slightly darker than the Stainless). But I knew I'd get it repainted anyways. So, being that the car was already running and I had already noted that the previous owner had installed a check valve/new style banjo on the old style fuel pump (with the check valve already integrated... ??) and another check valve (used as a banjo bolt) on the fuel distributor's fuel intake line -- I took the car for quick drive. I could sense the engine struggling for fuel and the clutch slipping like sh*t on a brick, but could also feel how much power the exhaust had added... I'm sure you understand the feeling, you can feel the power of the engine even though it's not getting all the way to the wheels. Other than the misfire, and once you got past idle, the engine ran and sounded smooth and healthy... if louder than stock. Since I've begun work I also notice the previous owner had installed another smaller fuel filter/screen in the tank. And the rubber hoses were now more like putty. Now the cleanliness of the car was very nice, but was only skin- deep. The intake manifold now removed... I see the 8 pounds of dirt collected under there. (since cleaned) We trailered the car home, not wanting to chance-it with the poor idle and old fuel system. My dad kept getting pissed at other people on the road for sitting right next to the trailer, and not letting him switch lanes. It wasn't until 1/2 way through the trip that he realize why. They were gawking at the car! It was though, an un- eventful trip back home... other than our speechless praise of the combination White Castle/Krispy Kreme restaurant we saw on the way back. Update on my bolt; we managed to get a hole drilled through the damn thing with a right-angle chuck attachement, and we got a bolt extracted to bite on the bolt, but... once it gets under some torque that drill simply un-screws itself from the right-angle attachment rather that twisted the bolt (the right-angle attachment obivously wasn't meant to be used in reverse). I'm close... but may have to drop 100 bucks into a stub-nose drill. Thanks for your interest Bill! We all know how much each other loves talking about our cars! Interesting how much desire we have to hear about and even look at other DeLoreans.. considering (unlike most other collector cars) they all basically EXACTLY THE SAME. Surprising how well the car shows do...(I know, I know.. it's more for the people than the cars... and yes I am planning on being at Pigeon Forge) I don't think I annouced to list my substanial settlement on the car, either. I was pleasantly surprised here too. (I hadn't posted it during the settling, I didn't want to jinx it). They wanted to give me 20,500. But I settled for 18,500, plus me keeping the scrap without the title changing hands (no salvage title). Then as you know I sold 1697 to Dumb @ss (I mean Erik) and Fred Geerdink for $3,800. So I netted $21,516.56 I must say... they paid me WAY too much. But I won't complain. BTW, I paid $11,800 for 4009... if you care about any of this you may want to know that too. :P All in all, other than the world's loss of a DMC-12... the situation turned out well. -James L 004009 (Just kidding about the dumb @ss. Erik... just a comedic recall to your previous post :P)