[doc] Fw: [DML] NY Times.

["Chris" <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marc Levy" <malevy_nj@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 1:37 PM
Subject: [DML] NY Times.


>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/18/automobiles/18delorean.html
>
>
> Putting a Car of the Future Back on the Road
> By STEVEN KURUTZ
>
> Published: March 18, 2005
>
>
> In the dim half-light of a Long Island garage, a
> handful of DeLoreans stand in darkened corners or
> suspended on hydraulic lifts, their trademark
> gull-wing doors ajar, their stainless-steel silver
> shells still ultramodern more than two decades after
> the DeLorean Motor Company went bust. Visible through
> a dusty window in the parking lot outside, perhaps 20
> more DeLoreans, lined up and identical, sit waiting,
> like some surreal automotive dream.
>
> This is P. J. Grady's, a modest gray automotive garage
> tucked behind a used-car lot in West Sayville, N.Y. As
> the sign on its roof - DeLorean Motor Cars -
> indicates, the shop specializes in the repair and
> restoration of DeLoreans, the famous and doomed
> early-1980's sports car created by John Z. DeLorean
> and featured in the "Back to the Future" movies.
>
> It is estimated that around 9,200 DeLoreans were built
> in the car's three years of production, 1981 through
> 1983, and that about 7,000 are left. Of those, a good
> number have passed through the hands of Rob Grady, P.
> J. Grady's tall, thin, intensely focused owner, who
> has spent the past 20 years as one of the foremost of
> the world's few DeLorean experts. DeLorean owners from
> Maine to Florida send him their cars, and in a small
> garage that was once part of his family's General
> Motors dealership, Mr. Grady fixes engines, locates
> obscure parts, fabricates what he can't find and
> restores long-neglected DeLoreans so they can turn
> heads once more.
>
> For many years, P. J. Grady's was about as profitable
> as an Edsel dealership, but that has changed. The
> teenagers who saw "Back to the Future" 20 years ago
> and were fascinated by the film's time-traveling
> DeLorean are now grown and seeking out the
> low-sweeping coupe. At the same time, the car is
> approaching its 25th birthday, a benchmark in the
> collector market. Where once values hovered around
> $17,000, a restored DeLorean now runs close to
> $30,000.
>
> "In the last five or six years the values have gone
> way up," said James Espey, vice president of the
> DeLorean Motor Company in Houston, which bought the
> rights to the DeLorean brand and sells restored
> models. "The car is coming into its own."
>
> It was long believed that DeLorean parts could not be
> found, so many cars were garaged, but Mr. Espey's firm
> bought the entire DMC parts inventory - everything
> from body panels to nuts, bolts and washers. Mr. Espey
> estimates that the company has enough gull-wing doors
> to last 120 years at the current rate of use, and
> enough interior carpet to cover a football field twice
> over. This month, the company opened a second branch
> near Tampa, Fla. And two shops near Los Angeles,
> DeLorean Motor Center and DeLorean One, serve the West
> Coast as P. J. Grady's serves the East.
>
> Of the handful of DeLorean specialists, P. J. Grady's
> is the oldest, going back to 1979, when Mr. Grady
> became one of the original DeLorean dealers. For the
> sum of $25,000 he received the right to sell the
> line's one and only model, the DMC-12, and a poster of
> the car autographed by Mr. DeLorean, which still
> decorates his office, where Mr. Grady was joined on a
> recent afternoon by his wife, Debby, who handles the
> phone, and a DeLorean enthusiast named Mike Deluca.
>
> Like many dealers, Mr. Grady signed up based on the
> reputation of Mr. DeLorean, who had been an
> engineering and marketing star at G.M. - in the early
> 1960's he created the Pontiac GTO, which many consider
> the first muscle car - and left at the height of his
> career to challenge the Big Three automakers. But from
> the start, his company was besieged with problems,
> starting with too little money to work with and the
> fact that the car, priced at $25,000, made its debut
> in 1981 in one of the worst economies in recent
> memory. "The cars were never hot sellers," Mr. Grady
> said.
>
> Topping it off was Mr. DeLorean's very public arrest
> in 1982 for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, still a
> sore spot with DeLorean enthusiasts. (Mr. DeLorean was
> eventually acquitted; the prevailing sentiment among
> owners is that he was framed.) When the company filed
> for bankruptcy protection that year, Mr. Grady
> continued to honor his customers' service warranties.
> Over time, he found himself doing more and more repair
> work on DeLoreans, until that was all he did.
>
> Not surprisingly, he has developed an affection for
> the car, though it is a cool, dispassionate one,
> tempered by years of daily involvement. "It's a good
> car," he said simply.
>
> Mr. Deluca, hovering nearby, said: "Rob is being
> modest. He's completely dedicated. I was driving by
> once and it was Easter Sunday. It was freezing. Rob
> was out in the parking lot testing temperature
> sensors."
>
> In a far corner of the garage, the P. J. Grady's
> mechanic, Pat Tomasetti, stood in blue coveralls
> beneath a DeLorean on a hydraulic lift, draining oil
> and listening to NPR. Mr. Tomasetti has been repairing
> and restoring DeLoreans at P. J. Grady's for 13 years
> and is accustomed to overenthusiastic fans of the car.
> He laughed as he recalled the time a Japanese man
> showed up with his family, saying he had flown to
> America to visit Disney World and P. J. Grady's.
>
> The DeLorean Mr. Tomasetti was working on had come in
> from Pennsylvania and was set to have its front fender
> replaced, among other repairs. Another DeLorean, its
> door crunched like a soda can, was in need of
> extensive body work. Outside, dozens more waited, a
> daunting workload for two men.
>
> "I'd like another mechanic, but it's hard keeping
> them," Mr. Grady said. "Most guys don't like doing
> restoration work. It's dirty, and there's also the
> repetition."
>
> People who spend time around garages tend to acquire a
> detailed know-how of car design and mechanics, but
> DeLorean experts take specialization to a refined
> level. Because of its unpainted stainless-steel body,
> the DMC-12 was available in only one color, silver.
> Its interior was black leather or gray leather,
> nothing else, and the car changed little over its
> brief production run.
>
> So while the Corvette aficionado has a half-century of
> paint schemes, body types and fancy options to ponder,
> the DeLorean lover must be content with trivial
> changes - the radio antenna on the '81 models is in
> the windshield, for example, while on the '82 it is on
> the left rear quarter.
>
> Pointing to a model whose license plate read BK2DFUTR,
> Mr. Grady proceeded to make the indistinguishable cars
> distinguishable. "We just got this one out of
> mothballs," he said. "It sat for four years. The owner
> decided to sell it. It only has 11,000 miles."
>
> He continued: "That one over there was in a wreck.
> Needs a new door." Then he walked over to a car
> covered in a soft blanket of dust. The passenger
> window was stuck halfway down, and the seat was given
> over to orphaned parts. Mr. Grady's pupils widened, as
> if he were laying eyes on a DeLorean for the very
> first time. "This is the 530," he said reverently.
> "It's a Legend prototype, Twin Turbo. They only made
> three of these."
>
> The 530 is going to be restored as his own DeLorean,
> Mr. Grady said, just as soon as he finds the time.
> "Sometimes you get a little burned out," he mused,
> reflecting on the vagaries of being a DeLorean expert.
> "Then something rejuvenates you."
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site!
> http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/
>
>
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 




DOC UK Website: www.deloreans.co.uk
Unsubscribe: doc-uk-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
** Unless otherwise stated, all messages posted to the group are assumed public and may be printed in the club magazine **

Yahoo! Groups Sponsor

ADVERTISEMENT

---

Yahoo! Groups Links

• To visit your group on the web, go to:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/doc-uk/
   
• To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
  doc-uk-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   
• Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.