So I'll skip right to the "good stuff". The history of this purchase and this particular car is a long story that I've condensed for a better read.
A little over one month ago, I was perusing through the local classified ads on Craigslist when I stumbled upon a local DeLorean project car with a price tag of $4k. Knowing that these types of ads rarely appear around here I immediately (within a couple of hours from the seller's post) contacted the email address in the ad (there was no phone number listed). I was able to get a reply soon thereafter and scheduled a next day on site inspection. Upon arriving on site I found the car to be in sync with what the seller had described. The engine and transmission were missing from the car, as was the rear fascia, engine cover, louvre, and misc. other parts from both the exterior and interior. I took a handful of photos and discussed the car's history with the owner. This car was apparently driven approximately 13k miles before the engine over-heated. The owner had the engine removed and rebuilt by his Ferrari mechanic. Around that same time the news broke about the John DeLorean drug scandal and the company bankruptcy. The owner said he was embarrassed to even have the car so he put it and the parts in a warehouse where it would sit for the next 30 years. I was told the engine, transmission, and the rest of the missing parts were all on the premises and they would hunt everything down and get back with me the next day. I went home and discussed the situation with my wife who supported my decision to commit to the purchase of this car. Over the course of the next 3-4 weeks, I was given the run around. Emails and phone calls went largely unanswered. Finally I was told by the owner's employee that they could not find the parts and made a mistake listing it prior to locating everything. What a waste of time.
But there is a silver lining. In the time that I was being given the run around, I was actively reading and posting on the dmctalk.org forum, mostly about this adventure with the Dallas project. One afternoon I stumbled across a url posted on that forum to a cars.com ad for another project car out in Scottsdale, AZ.