VIN 4708, KJD 320W, Grey interior, 5 speed - October 1981

[MikeWard]

This was a one owner car, purchased new from dealer 05135 Almaden Toyota, San Jose California. The car spent it's life in CA, and from the look of the interior, it was always garage kept.

The previous owner, Les Theurich decided to part with the car last year after 29 years of ownership. I don't know the complete in's and out's but I do know that he was quite ill, which I believe was his only reason for selling.

The car was running when sold, however as became known later, the car had some electrical challanges and would not start, and as such I missed the original vessel it was planned to go on, and had the additional hit of VAT going up to 20% on January 4th. It took three attempts for the haulage company to deliver the car to the port in Long Beach as the port authority would not accept it as a non-runner. Finally though, on the third delivery attempt, it did start and was accepted. The car was loaded onto the Tirranna which left Long Beach on the 6th December with an estimated arrival date into the UK of January 19th.

The car arrived ahead of schedule and I was able to pick up the car from the port on the 19th January. The battery on the car was well flat and even with a jumper pack attached to it the car did not show any signs of life (the reason for which would become known later), in the end we towed it onto Huxtables trailer and set off to Canvey Island.

Chris did a lot of work on the car, which was mostly fuel system related, along with removing a few dents and a re-grain. Our friends at the DVLA took their sweet time in registering the car, but I finally got the plate authorisation certificate and tax disk through on the 9th March. I quickly got some plates made up and arranged with Chris to pick the car up on Friday evening.

Below is a brief list of what was done on the car while down at PJ Grady's:
-Obviously UK requirements, full set of new front lights from Dave H, along with new tyres all round (didnt' fancy crusing down the motorway on 30 year old rubber ).
-Fuel system - new tank, pump, boot, seal, pickup hose, filters, stainless braided fuel lines
-Stainless braided brake lines - the brakes themselves were supprisingly ok
-Oil pressure sender
-Otterstat + seal
-Ed's front springs
-Door mirror glass (the old glass was well knackered!)
-Upgraded relays
-Trip reset shaft replaced
-John Hervey's soft-lift door strut's
-All fluids flushed and changed along with new belts.
-Centre headliner re-trimmed
-2 dents removed on drivers door, 1 dent removed on t-panel and full re-grain

The car still has some niggles to fix but I am enjoying the it as is for the time being.

Thanks to everyone who put up with my continuous questions during the import process, and to Chris W for the nice letter to the import agent to get the car through customs and avoid the 10% import tax!

A few pic's of the car taken over the weekend:
















Thanks, Mike

[Chris Williams]

Good job you have done there, strange on the registration as well mine was KJD 254W !!

Chris

[MikeWard]

Chris N deserves all the credit, he has done a great job on the car.

yes that is strange, I know there are multiple ULB DeLorean's out there as well, who knows how the DVLA assign these numbers. The car should really be on an suffix X plate, but they completely ignored your letter even though it stated the month of manufacture.

[Stuart Rees]

Great Stuff Mike, Looks like you have a really nice D there.... have fun

[Guinney1971]

nice looking car Mike, have fun!