Hi DMLers, I thought I would introduce myself (Nate). I've been lurking in the shadows on this list for a few years. I've wanted to own a Delorean for quite sometime (my first posts to this list were in `99). Now as a slightly older, and recently graduated computer engineer I am proud as punch to say that I finally am in a place where I can afford to own and properly maintain a D. It took some patience but I believe the time spent waiting was worth it. I recently purchased vin 11501 (82,5-speed, grey, flat hood) from its p.o. in Chicago, IL area. I had it inspected before I committed myself to flying in and giving it a final check before driving it 5.5hours back to the Rochester, MN area. The trip was uneventful except for reactions of other drivers. As a general observation, I enjoy the smiles, thumbs-up and other gestures however there is a class of enthusiast, namely the 16-19year old's that sometimes have the most trouble gracefully acknowledging their interest. As a example from the trip home; the occupants of a autozone-mod'ed Civic were so interested in pointing, staring, shouting at my car, they bumped into another car on the multi-lane highway resulting in a minor fender bender (nothing against Honda's, 16-19yearolds in general of course). I paid close to the higher-end of the Delorean spectrum. The car is in very good condition having been stored indoors since 84' and I believe driven every summer. It was stored with some fluids removed (i.e. Fuel), and little things like the shift linkage lubricated annually, leather conditioner, and the like. I've driven seven Delorean's in the last few months and some of the little things that the p.o. did when storing the car seem to have paid off. Perhaps it's my pessimistic side, but I am slightly anxiously waiting for the first major component to fail? given the age of the car, and the mostly original components, (minus the recalls, trailing arm bolts, and electrical/fuel updates), just by a Mean Time To Failure view, it seems like something should break soon. Things I'm working on / questions; 1) I took all the headliner boards out, anyone have a good online source of matching headliner material? 2) Fuel pump gets loud after running for long periods. (at first I thought it was the fans running!), so perhaps that will be the first thing to fail. I think I'll replace it just because it's easier to fix something failing before its necessary to fix it. 3) Doors only lift about 1/3 of total travel on their own. Ordered new struts (p.o. said a torsion bar adjust will be necessary, but the struts look/sound pretty darn old, so I'll try those first). 4) The steering wheel makes metal-on-metal knocking noises when moved by the operator, or by vibrations. Looking where the column meets the pedal box/'firewall' it would seem my bushing is MIA. Ordered a new one. 5) Engine surges from 550-ish RPM to 950-ish RPMs, but will settle down around 800-900 if I rev it a couple times. Additionally sometimes it acts like the accelerator cable is stuck (isn't of course) and `settles down' much higher (around 2000rpm's). It corrects itself after I put some load on the engine (reverse or first). I haven't had a chance to form an opinion on that yet; if someone wants to advice me I would appreciate it. My wife asked awhile ago why it was so important that I buy and Delorean. The best answer I could come up with was that just as a artist needs a good/inspirational view or subject, a engineer needs simaularly 'moving' peice of engineering (even keyboard jockies like myself). For all the DMC-12's compromises, I belive it is a inspirational example of good engineering. Everyone has thier reasons, thats mine. Anyway, this was supposed to be a short post, I apologize for the length. I hope to meet a few of you minnesota-area/midwest owners offline over the next spring-car-show schedule and even more of you at the 2006 Chicago show. -Nate Skalsky vin 11501 To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/