[DML] Dash & Door VIN plates (was: Does anyone else have one of these?)

["James Espey" <james@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I refrained from responding at that time because there was so much
else going on here with the holidays and my move to a new home. Now
that the dust has settled...

We don't have any blank dash VIN plates, period. We don't have the
machine to stamp the numbers on VIN plates, dash or door.

The original part number for the dash VIN plate was 106113 and was
aluminum with black logo as the one you have. According to the drawing
for that part number, Engineering Change 2318 deleted the logo and
2533 deleted all the text. I have not been able to locate the actual
copies of those ECA's, just the references from the drawing. The ECA
usually gives some description as to why the change was made, hence
their importance in this regard. We have thousands of these ECA's, but
these have not turned up among them yet.

The paper drawings for the 106113 show the then current revision with
no markings on it at all, but the microfiche copies show the previous
styles. I'll post scans of those up in the DMCHelp.com forums later
today. The drawings also indicate that the material used is aluminum,
not stainless.

A later ECA changed ALL part numbers for parts with more than one
color, including the dash VIN plate. 110450 was assigned to the grey
VIN plates, and another number (110451, IIRC) was assigned for tan
ones. The black one was either changed at that time to 108234 or
remained at that number from an as yet undiscovered change.

We *do* have several thousand blank door VIN plates. There were two
different varieties, 105196 and 110573. The only difference that I can
see is the weight ratings changed from 3180/1244/1936 to
3244/1286/1958. Of the two, we appear to have only the earlier style.
My theory is that most if not all of the 'spares' of the later style
were used by Consolidated International when they "re-VIN'd" all the
remaining 82 models as 83 models.

I've never seen a blank VIN plate like Patrick's, and only seen
imprinted ones on a very small handful of very early cars. Last year
we had VIN 575 here for service and it had a plain black dash VIN plate.

James Espey
DeLorean Motor Company (Texas)
Visit http://www.dmchelp.com for tech advice from the pros who know!
Brought to you by DMC (Texas), PJ Grady, DeLorean Motor Center and DMC
(Florida)

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Patrick C." <PRC1216@xxxx> wrote:
>
> I just acquired my latest piece of DeLorean memorabilia and am
> wondering just how rare it actually is.  It is a blank VIN plate off
> of a 500 series car, which includes the rare printing that some on the
> list have mentioned differs from the other production cars.  My guess
> is that a worker pocketed it as a souvenir during the first month of
> production. I placed pictures of it in the photo albums under "Blank
> 500 Series VIN Plate".  
> 
> I thought it was a unique item and I snatched it up, but maybe it
> really isn't as rare as I think.
> 
> Any thoughts would be appreciated, either on or off the DML.
> -Patrick C.
> VIN 1880








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