Re:Was Delorean Clock Now Undocumented Changes

["jtrealty@xxxx " <jtrealty@xxxx>]

I believe that many cars have undocumented and or incorrect running 
parts changes for many reasons the biggest being that all cars went 
through the Q A C centers for finishing, repairs, cleaning etc. In 
their haste to get the cars ready for shipment to the dealers the 
centers didn't care about what was or wasn't correct per vin as far
as 
running changes were concerned. They probably used whatever was on 
hand to get the cars done and out. I have never seen or even heard of 
any documentation of the process. I know that James Espey will 
disagree with this but the Q A C centers didn't have time or care 
about "correctness". Also the dealers when they did any work on the 
cars either as customer work or warranty work could have unkowingly 
installed "wrong" parts. One area that is particularly noticeable is 
early cars that should have a gas flap. They probably replaced a 
damaged hood and couldn't get the earlier hood so the car wound up 
without a gas flap. Another area is the antennae, since there are 3 
variations it is hard to know just when changes occured especially 
when dealers were encouraged to make some changes based on customer 
complaints. Since the documentation is admittidly not accurate and
not 
car specific there should be some lattitude as far as when changes 
occurred unless we do alot more research and polling of cars. The 
problem is most important to people interested in competing in 
concours and their car falls within the running changes. They may
feel 
especially picked on as even if they are the origional owner and they 
got the car that way from the dealer, their car is "incorrect". They 
are left with the choice of "fixing" the car to make it "correct" or 
losing points. The people with "83" cars are at the most risk as many 
were "put togethers" using any parts on hand to finish production 
without regard to "correctness" so they wound up with combinations of 
carpet, seat colors etc. This is a fertile area for alot more
research 
and documentation.
David Teitelbaum
vin 1075