BTTF Flying DeLorean

"A flying Delorean...Why, I haven't seen one of those in..."

Fortunately for all of us...Steven Spielberg and Bob Zemeckis...DID.

My realization came on June 14th 2000 at 12:25 AM, not with a bolt of lightning, but with an email..."We are looking for a flying BTTF Delorean, can you make us one? We need it in a month."

The answer was "yes" and we were going to be very busy. The following is a brief look into what a few people can accomplish in 30 days, (If they don't sleep).

We weren't going into this project blind, Eric and I had time-machine construction training and learned the "secrets" long ago, from one of the movie car wizards of Hollywood probably responsible for more OUTATIME vehicles than anyone else.

We also had his molds.

This car was requested to be lightweight as a primary consideration. Taking one of our factory DMC's and cutting it apart was not going to work here. This vehicle was going to spend it days hanging from the ceiling, suspended over a replica of the clock tower and one of our original screen used, Back to the Future 2 Police Hoverbikes.

The solution here was to dust off the original molds, unused, since the original production nearly 20 years earlier and create a Delorean, completely from scratch.

This is how we created a brand new, 80's Delorean...

Having a DMC in the shop was a major reference bonus. First thing we had to do was check the original molds for warpage, so we fitted them right down on the DMC and bolted everything back together like it was 1985. With a little reinforcement, we were ready to go.

The first part to come out of the mold was the nose, we pulled it from the mold and hung it on the wall for inspiration.

Eric had the fenders ready nearly the next morning and the hood and doors followed practically the next day. Within the first week, we had half of a Delorean on the floor of the shop, Only this one was uncharacteristically white. Visitors to the shop that week quite logically mistook it for the James Bond Submarine Lotus car from "The Spy Who Loved Me".

Once the entire body was constructed, it came time for the frame. While it would have been great to put this on a tube steel chassis with a V8 engine and prepare it for the street, this was not our mission. The entire chassis for this car would be crafted from wood.

Fortunately for us, nothing has phased Roc since he created the original body-buck for the Alien 1 Spacecraft. With a little assistance from our local Home Depot...Roc and his son Paul, had our chassis complete in TWO DAYS.

It seemed logical to us at the time to construct this chassis directly to the body, rather than build it separate and attempt to fit the body over it. While this "upside down turtle" concept worked great, it did leave us with the same, rather difficult task that plagues the turtle… Flipping the car right side up. Rolling the car over was not an option . Our lifting system was then modified to raise the entire vehicle to maximum height, and then...release one side of the car only.

It worked...and for the first time ever, we had a white Delorean "parked", so to speak, in the shop, with one small difference. As this was a full time flying vehicle that could not yet fly, we had to come up with a way to "float" the car during construction with a constantly changing center of gravity that was configured for the last third of the vehicle. Not as easy as you might think and certainly an amusing and unique way to work on a vehicle. With the car suspended during the entire phase of construction, working on the car was rather similar to trying to brush paint an ice cube that is resting on a pane of glass. Our most sincere appreciation for the many hours Tyler spent keeping the car from floating away from us during assembly and properly maintaining the counter-balance weights to keep our project from nose-diving to the shop floor.

The next step was to get our kit car-looking vehicle to look more like it's stainless steel cousins. This meant bodywork. The out of the mold parts were sanded down and primed and the entire body was scuffed severely in one direction so that when the silver metallic paint was applied, it would find it way into the scratches for a brushed aluminum look. After the paint was applied, it too was scratched to take away the shine and make it appear more "metal-like" if you would.

The front and rear bumpers on a DMC are not stainless steel, but molded rubber. Our car was constructed completely of fibreglass, so some "rubberizing" was in order. This included painting the front and rear sections with metallic gun-metal paint which gives the front and rear of this car it's distinctive profile. Rubber trim was painted and in some cases added.

While our car's molds were created many years ago, in Hollywood, from an actual DMC and would have readily accepted factory taillights, overall weight was still a factor here and we opted for a Plexiglas façade that closely resembled a complete set of DMC taillights. The finishing touch on the taillight assembly was the OUTATIME license plate, provided by Universal Studios Florida.

Now that we had some detail to our car, it was no longer mistaken for a Lotus, but rather a DMC badly in need of restoration. One passerby (and an obvious Delorean fan) even went so far as to chastise us for chopping up a factory DMC and mounting it on a wood frame. He quickly stormed off before giving me a chance to thank him.

Now that we had the back looking proper, it was time to detail the front. Here we did add actual automotive headlights and a metal grill. Two of the only FOUR actual parts that were ever meant to be installed on an automobile.

Those being:

• Headlights
• Grill
• Sideview Mirrors
• Tires

Everything else was to come from places you wouldn't believe.

After all of our work, we now had a car that looked like a DMC Delorean... THAT WE'D DONE NOTHING TO!

The "Temporal Displacement Field" waveguides were first on the list. While the familiar "glow" of the TDF was actually added to the 80's film car in post-production by the SPFX wizards at Industrial Light and Magic, they would not be on hand to re-create this effect for us in the real world. Fortunately, 15 years later, a real-world equivalent had arrived...Rope lighting! The magical holiday decoration, which adorns many, a home and tree during the holiday season. Now, it would adorn a time machine. As the manufacturers had not yet offered the color blue, we opted to go with a white glow that would carry light further than any tinted lighting. Our vehicle was now ready to travel through time, (or at least the nose, anyway).

The DMC badge, was decided to be the absolute last accessory to be added to the car, a symbol of the "completion" of our work. (In actuality, this part would not be added until the vehicle was delivered and is noticeably absent from our publicity photographs) Due to the time constraints of the project, an OEM factory DMC badge could not be reliably obtained in time to make it on the car. Although we did attempt to locate one.

Again, having a factory DMC Delorean on hand was a bonus. We pulled the original badge from the car and cast it in modeling clay. From there, we replicated the badge using fibreglass resin and fibreglass mat shavings. The finished product yielded exactly what we needed. The original badge was returned to the DMC unharmed.

During the course of our frantic construction, each of us traveled about the hardware and plumbing stores, bicycle shops, kitchen appliance stores and shopping malls, in search of the variety of items to replicate Doc Brown's creative genius of fifteen years ago. Many of the original items were still available and some modern-day replacements existed for those that weren't. Having spent many days in the workshops of Hollywood's most renowned car gods, bewildered as they turned kitchen utensils into nuclear reactors, it would be unfair of me to give away the "secrets" of these moviecar magicians. Below however, is a small sample of the results of our combined shopping sprees. All of these items found their way on board the car.

One thing we simply had to give in to, regardless of the weight, was the famous "exhaust stacks" featured at the rear of the car. These simply had to be made of metal and thick enough to support themselves and survive years of transport and public display. There was no getting around it, these were going to be heavy.

Crafted from heavy galvanized steel, the same grade as used to build industrial rooftop air-conditioning ducts, these plates were individually cut, bent, and fastened together using dozens of stainless steel rivets. It wasn't until we picked one of these two completed units from the floor that we seriously worried about our "nose-diving" vehicle, reenacting a scene from Titanic. As the exhaust stacks were bolted into place, everyone held their breath, and Tyler kept a firm grip on the car's nose, as the final counter-balances were removed and the two rear safety lines were detached.

Suddenly...we had a car that would "fly" on only two wires. Our first "flight" was successful.

It was time to say goodbye to everything that hinted at the "secret" of our "Delorean" that weighed so little, it could fly. We had to make all of the wood components "disappear".

From the top, this was achieved quite easily, the cars "windows" would be constructed of Plexiglas and tinted so dark that they would appear to be spray painted black from inside. We accomplished this by...well, spray painting them black from the inside, of course!

Now we had a beautiful time machine on top and what looked like a soapbox derby car from the bottom. Not a problem as many movie and concept cars are created using this method. Only none that would fly. No one ever peeks under the "dress" of his or her favorite movie cars. But this one was going to be displayed in the air. We had a task ahead of us. Fortunately for us, this was solved before the first screw was ever put to wood on this project. Tyler and I spent an entire evening on automotive creepers covering every square inch of the chassis with black tinted texture paint. In the end, some time around 4 AM, Tyler and I would emerge from beneath 4 gallons of simulated automotive undercoating looking like two of the stars of 101 Dalmatians. We two, were the last to see the true nature of this vehicle's chassis. From now on our answers to questions from puzzled visitors would be;

We started with the necessary installation of the remaining lights and the lighting tests. We tested over 40 feet of rope light, 4 headlights, 2 taillights, 12 landing lights, and 4 main 35 watt wheel lights All in all there is enough light coming from this vehicle to qualify it as a tanning booth.

With everything checked out OK it was time to accessorize the landing gear, better known as the "outriggers" and test fit the tires. Off the shelf Yokohama tires were used on this car, as these were intended to be the closest thing to the spectators, fibreglass or replica wheels would not have seemed "real" and the car would have the look of a toy. Factory tires gave the car the perfect look, not to mention the widest track of any vehicle we've ever had. This car took up more space than even an Indy car. With a width of over ten feet, the tires and wheel assembly had to be removed just to get it out the bay door. It was then decided that it might be a good idea to transport it with the wheels removed and install them at it's final destination. I'm sure the Department of Transportation was pleased with our decision. With two days left to go, our 2000 Flying Delorean was loaded on (not in) an open trailer and prepped for delivery.

Coming out briefly ahead of schedule allowed us just one afternoon to photograph the car and celebrate all of our hard work.

With little time left to construct a rig or rent a crane to properly suspend the car for photos, we opted to shoot our final pics of the car while still on the trailer and invoke a little "movie magic" of our own.

With a schedule to keep, everyone mummified the car. Then Pat and I headed out for a long trip to the cars new home.

It seems that there was a point to that day in the 80's as a teenager, staring out at all of those amazing cars...looking back to MY FUTURE.