A brief history of 1049

As promised, this time I will be talking briefly about the history of 1049.

As you can tell by the VIN, 1049 is pretty early car. It has the rare grooved hood with gas flap. While I prefer the look of the gas flap, (seems like I'm in the minority here), I actually prefer to lift the whole hood when I fill up. This is because I've cut myself a few times on the flap. I even had to clean a small bit of blood off of the hood once. I got a little panicky about that because I didn't want my blood to stain the car, which from what I understand is a possibility.

1049 was built in April of 1981. I'm not sure what its entry point into the USA was. The car was originally sold on June 22nd, 1981. At the time of sale, it had 10 miles on the odometer. It was sold in Kansas City, MO. The gentleman who purchased the car kept it until 1995, when he gave it to his nephew, who was also located in MO. Upon receiving the car, the new owner took the car to DMC Houston for a restoration. At the time of restoration, the car had about 9,766 miles on the odometer. The restoration at this time included the DeLorean essentials such as the stainless steel clutch line, relay updates, radiator update, water pump replacement, safety recalls, and so forth.

The new owner used the car much like I do now. That is, he drove it on the weekends as a pleasure vehicle. Documentation shows that the car was taken in to Houston for further work in 1999. Judging by the condition of the vehicle and its relative lack of problems, it was also maintained pretty well by either the new owner or other shops during this time period.

In June 2006, the owner took the car into Houston for an extensive service, and put the car up for consignment. It was around this same time that I initially saw the car posted on delorean.com in the pre-owned section. At the time the car was put up for sale, there were aftermarket foglights installed; however, these were removed a few months before I viewed the vehicle.

Since I have owned the vehicle, approximately 30 hours of driving time have been put on it. I look forward to spending many, many more hours driving this wonderful vehicle.

If only it just wouldn't be winter! :-)