VIN 11777 Middle Eastern Car - Carl's Car

[Peter Filsell]

So, assuming the 'other' car was a late, silver wheels, grooved hood, grey interior, manual which probably would of stayed this side of the pond, how many hundreds/thousands of the production does that limit us too?

Keep going Carl!!!!

[bozzzydmc]

Carl ...I wonder if the frame number behind the rear fascia would reveal anything ?

Does the other door have any details under the headlining ?

The dash and door vin plates do these show any sign of removal / replacement ?

[hana 5284]

I know this sounds a bit radical carl but can you find a csi person to put there special light on the chasis to see if there is a vin number where it should be
tyson

[InoX]

That's a good read. and interesting story, indeed.
pull the rear impact absorber off and look to see if any vin is penned on the frame...

[A Van]

I cant see though Carl why anyone would butcher what appears to be a perfectly good car to make yours roadworthy again.

Its far more likely they got hold of some spares from somewhere.

Have a word with Dave H see if he remembers anything, there is also a guy called Keith Pratt who used to have cars and spares, see what Dave says.

[carl hammond]

I cant see though Carl why anyone would butcher what appears to be a perfectly good car to make yours roadworthy again.

Its far more likely they got hold of some spares from somewhere.

Have a word with Dave H see if he remembers anything, there is also a guy called Keith Pratt who used to have cars and spares, see what Dave says.

Yes Al I agree and after speaking to Dave last night, the more likely this seems...

Just to clarify, Mcfall's definitely had 2 cars in their possession (one of these car's being mine). However, the other car as far as I am aware, was NOT used as a donor to restore VIN 11777. In fact, according to Dave this car was sold by the company (possibly around 1990/1991). Whether or not VIN 11777 was parted out to help complete this car is unknown.

When Dave saw my car at Mcfall's in 1992 he was also made aware that the company also had a shed load of parts that they were offering as a bundle with the car for 14k. However, he soon discovered that these particular parts, were not all they cracked up to be. Although Dave never got to see the parts, he was told by one of the workers they were not worth anything and in a poor condition having been left outside in a field for a number of years. I do know amongst these parts they included; a windscreen and some stainless panels. I wonder if these were the damaged parts that originally came from VIN 11777?

Here is some other information discussed between myself and Dave that could be significant.

Between 1983-1985, a guy called Jerry Castle had a warehouse in Birmingham. He stocked lots of DeLorean parts and would regularly supply to Wooler Hodec. Maybe a possible source?

Andy Hobb of Hereford also bought a lot of parts from Jerry Castle.

Paul Windsor and Steve Wynne also supplied parts around the same time? Dave says that Steve Wynne supplied the rear screens, some of which included screens WITHOUT the heater elements like mine!

There was a car being transported to Liverpool that was damaged in transit (significant damage to the front end of the tub). In addition, there was another car that rolled off the back of a transporter. One or both of these car's was immediately written off and rumoured to have gone to a scrap yard in Merseyside (Mcfall's?).

Other possible supplier of the rear screen is a company called Wing-Ray Motors?

Again, not sure if any of the above is significant or a complete red herring? Just thought I would write it all down in the hope that something might ring a bell with somebody...

Clutching at straws now I realise!!

All the best

Carl

[Chriss]

Wing ray motor was the UK 'branch' of DMCH run by Paul Windsor and based in Liverpool but he no longer is involved. I believe any parts he had left ended up with Ed in Holland. Also DMCH is running low on rear screens with heater elements built in but have lots without. I think James Espey mentioned something about DMC decided to save costs as the heat from the engine was just as efficient at demisting!
I believe Jerry Castle passed away many years ago and Andy Hob (Top gun!) gave up the DeLorean game back in the early 90's

[carl hammond]

Just to let you all know that this story is still a very much "to be continued"...

[carl hammond]

A breakthrough!

I had a call completely out of the blue from Dave Howarth tonight who had been speaking to our own Chris Spratt about my car and its history. Anyway, Dave was out one day driving his DeLorean round his local area when by complete coincidence he bumped into a bloke who claimed he knew someone who used to have 2 of these cars... Went by the name of Brian Mcfall the owner of the salvage company my car came from!

It turns out Mcfall's had a car in their possession that had ended up in a minor front end impact when it was transported over from Belfast for a promotional event in Liverpool in 1981. The driver of the transporter was only a few miles away from his destination when he had to make an emergency stop. The force sent the car forward causing it to hit the front end of the trailer!

Realising the car couldn't be used now for the promotion, it was sent over to Mcfall's to be kept in storage until the factory could recover it. Trouble was the factory refused to pay Mcfall's to keep it in storage, so Mcfall's ended up saying they would keep the car. Their plan was then to sell the car on to probably try and make a tidy profit from it. Trouble was, the car had no VIN plates, meaning they couldn't register it, thus making it unsaleable! They eventually managed to track down a car in the Dover area that had been scrapped recently... Can anyone guess what the VIN of this car might have been?... That's right, it was VIN 11777!

Anyway, it is believed they simply swapped the vin plates over, so they could sell what was effectively a brand new car. However, they apparently had notorious problems with the gearbox so never got to the point of selling it (sounds familiar).

So there you go, my car is effectively an early car (vin unknown) badged as a Middle Eastern so it could be registered! Other than that though, there doesn't appear to be any other parts obtained from VIN 11777.

The bit that always puzzled me was I was convinced the underbody was from VIN 11777, but I could never understand why if they had to rebuild the car by putting a new frame on, why did they not repair the underbody properly whilst the tub was off? Well, clearly now this makes sense that the damage sustained on the other car, was minimal enough at least to repair without doing a frame off. Although, they almost definitely would've had to sourced a front bumper/fascia from somewhere, as these would've been wrecked on both cars!

Can anybody shed any further on this? From what I understand, no cars were released to the UK press at that time?! It still doesn't explain about some of the other odd parts (scrap doors, plain rear screen etc). Could the factory have simply thrown together a car for promotional purposes using anything they could lay their hands on?

Certainly fascinating though!

[jerzybondov]

Good work Carl! So this means that the car in the Middle East pictures on page 1 isn't really your car at all... And this also pretty much answers all of the questions about why your car has its peculiar features that don't tally with it being a Middle East car.

Only puzzle left - just how early is your car if it was VINless? One of the early black cars perhaps with 'scrap' panels fitted for promotional purposes?