One of the questions I get asked from time to time is "what documents came with the car when new?" In this posting, I'll show these documents and briefly describe them.

There were two significantly different versions of the handbook, and the valet (vinyl pouch/handbook holder) that should have accompanied it. These were put into the cars not at the factory, but at the QAC as part of the final inspection.
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A complete handbook/valet for a 1981 model (VINs ending in 000500* to 007199) should contain:
- Fifty (50) page, 5" x 9.25" 1981 Owners Manual, spiral bound across top

- 1981 DeLorean Consumer Information tri-fold

* Note that VIN's assigned to DMC employees would typically not have had these with the car, as they were not intended for retail sale as new cars. By the time these cars made it to the retail market (via Chestnut Fleet Leasing), DMC was in financial trouble and probably didn't supply them.
Some people believe the "National Dealer List" booklets were part of this package. This does not seem to be the case after speaking with some of the original owners and reports that they were given to owners at the dealerships. There were several different versions and styles of these.

These items were placed inside a black vinyl pouch, foil stamped in silver with the DMC DeLorean Motor Company logo.
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A complete handbook/valet for a 1982/1983 model (VINs ending in 010001 to 020104) should contain:
- Forty (40) page,5.75" x 8.25" saddle stitched DeLorean Owner's Handbook*

As with the 1981 versions, some people believe the "National Dealer List" booklets were part of this package. This does not seem to be the case after speaking with some of the original owners and reports that they were given to owners at the dealerships. There were several different versions and styles of these.
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*There were two different versions of this 1982 Owner's Handbook. The earlier version had a black and silver cardstock cover, while the later one (possibly printed/distributed with the cars sold by Consolidated International) was printed on a thinner, glossy paper without the cover, presumably as a cost saving measure.
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For either 1981 or 1982 models, some cars MAY have the "Pre-Delivery Inspection Checklist", either intact or with one more of the three "carbon" copies. As many of these cars were sold after DMC closed or sold directly by Consolidated, this document is unlikely to be present.

And what about 1983 versions? Well, as there were no DMC/factory built 1983 models (all 15XXX, 16XXX, and 17XXX 1983 models were originally built as 1982 models and given 1983 VINs by Consolidated International - see page XX in The Illustrated Buyer's Guide to DeLorean Automobiles) and the 20XXX VINs were built under the control of Consolidated International from partially assembled cars left on the line when the factory closed in late 1982, if they came with anything, it would most likely be what you see above for the 1982 models.

The operating controls for the ASI radio are not covered in the 1982 owner's manual, either. I once saw a little 8.5" x 3.5" leaflet that showed the operating controls, but have never been able to confirm if it was a DMC produced document or produced later by a club or Consolidated International.
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The 1981 manual has not been reproduced, most likely due to the fact that it's use of halftone photographs as illustrations makes creating a quality reproduction more difficult. The 1982 manual has been reproduced, though with a simpler, less expensive cover and is available through DMC dealers. In the mid-1990s I created a PDF version of the 1982 manual and made it available through the DeLorean Mailing List web site (www.dmcnews.com) where it can still be downloaded today.

Reproductions of the 1981 valet were created and offered by DMC (Texas) several years ago and are still available from DMC dealers. In order to preserve the values of the original and to accommodate the slightly larger 82/83 style reproduction handbook, they are made a bit larger and have their own contact information underneath the flap. Reproductions of the later, 1982/1983 style valet would be expensive and due to the smaller number of cars these would be applicable to probably not justify the cost.
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From time to time, individual pieces and complete sets of the materials described here are offered on eBay and other sites like DMChelp.com and DMCtalk.org - values are pretty much all over the place and vary based on completeness, condition and what the seller thinks they are worth. It comes down to what you are willing to pay, in the end, but for a mint, complete 1981 valet/manual/documents I'd expect to pay $150-$200 and $200-$250 for a mint, complete 82/83 valet/manual documents with the black and silver printed manual cover - less for a plain white cover version.

Take a look over at the right side of the screen - just below the "Free Preview" text is a link to a PDF preview of the book, just in case you haven't seen any part of it yet. Check it out.

I'm doing the final edits to my next posting here, and should have it ready this weekend - several people have asked about this subject, so I'm hopeful that many of you will also find it interesting.
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A couple readers have emailed and asked me to post my thoughts and evaluate various DeLoreans available on eBay based strictly upon the ad and the photos supplied by the seller. If that's of interest to you, let me know by posting a comment below. If there is a particular car that you'd like me to evaluate as I've just described, post a link or the auction ID number.

Over the course of DeLorean production, there are five (5) known, different, HVAC panel decals used on the cars. I have been able to locate photographs of all five and I've displayed the photos below in what I feel is "reverse chronological order". Read on to learn more...

This one pictured above is perhaps the most common. It appears to have been used towards the end of production, and indeed, is the only style that remains available as an NOS (new old stock) part. UPDATED MARCH 2017 - NOS labels are no longer available though the style BELOW has been reproduced by DMC (Texas).

This one (above), is very similar to the one above, but the white outlines around the red/blue temperature knob on the left side are missing, the typestyles are slightly different, and the icon for the "defrost" indicator light is in added in white.

Above we see another version, with white outlines around everything and no icon for the defroster.

And, what I believe is the second one used in production is shown above. Again, outlines around everything, but more details have been added to the three indicator lights across the bottom in the middle. You see words added for the "Cooling Fan Fail", "Rear Def." and "Lock Doors".

Finally, what I believe is the FIRST decal used is one that is ALL BLACK in appearance, with the colors and indicators underneath. The flash in this photo allows the colors underneath to be seen, but without that, it would appear to be all black. Special thanks to Tony Swann, who provided this photo and is a noted collector of 500-series VIN cars. Tony is also well-versed in the unique production quirks of these early cars, and notes that this photo was taken of VIN 500, now in the Crawford Auto Aviation Collection in Cleveland, Ohio.

The HVAC panel is backlit with four incandescent bulbs (plus the three for the indicator lights). On a stock, production, car the four lights are illuminated anytime the key is on, regardless of whether or not the running lights or headlights are on. So, unless the car has been modified, anytime the key is on, engine running or not, day or night, these lights are on.

The earliest decal was designed to allow these lights to illuminate all the controls from behind. It would've looked cool had it worked, these controls coming at you in living color from a solid black panel (see Note #1 near the top center) in the drawing above. Unfortunately, the technology wasn't there yet and people couldn't see anything unless it was at night, and even that was iffy.

As you can see above, one of the items on the 12 page, 162 item QAC checklist (download one here - courtesy of the DeLorean Museum) was "Install A/C control decal on console". This jibes with the story that the early ones were replaced at the QAC with one that was more legible. Company records indicate there were at least two suppliers of these in the USA, and purchase orders for 1,ooo of them that were delivered in late October of 1981.

As described in the book, owners/transporters are warned against towing a DeLorean car backwards without securing the rear louvre/sunshade in place. These photos (courtesy of Josh Quellhorst) illustrate this quite plainly.

In addition to obvious broken louvre (~$500 new), BOTH the stainless quarter panels and the t-panel are damaged. A good stainless repair specialist should be able to fix these, but it won't come cheap and it's likely repairs will come close to the same cost as replacement. Nevertheless, this could have been much worse - other incidents like this have resulted in damage to the tops of the doors, windshield and hood, as well.
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Thankfully, this wasn't Josh's car, but his photos illustrate quite plainly how much damage can be caused by not exercising the proper precautions when transporting a DeLorean. Thanks for allowing me to share these photos, Josh!

Had a reader question today:

What is the VIN breakdown of textured pontoons versus smooth ones?

There is no start/stop point as the factory had several sets of molds (some records say 13) that wee used to produce underbodies. The factory did not stop production to modify all the molds at the same time. Rather, they would pull a set out of production, alter it, then swap it for another and so on, until all the molds were modified. Therefore, the number of cars with textured pontoons skips and slowly diminishes rather than stopping abruptly. Thanks for a great question!