Barely touched 1981 DeLorean discovered in Waukesha County barn starts for the 1st time in decades

 

WAUKESHA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- By now, its shape and story are iconic. The DeLorean Motor Company's classic gull-wing sedan is instantly recognizable.

The car, a cultural oddity at the time might have been forgotten all together, if not for a big-time big screen debut, "Back to The Future," 1983's monster hit directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd who turned what was a joke into something entirely different.

Now more than 40 years, after the car's famous debut, mechanics Michael McElhattan and Kevin Thomas came across a 1981 DeLorean that hadn't been started in more than a decade.

"The phrase back in the 80s, was this was America's most talked about car. Are we seeing that be revived again? This is America's most talked about DeLorean no doubt," said Michael McElhattan, owner of DeLorean Midwest, a DeLorean restoration company.

McElhattan, a hunter of DeLoreans, was made aware earlier this year, the piece of Americana was sitting in a Waukesha County barn --untouched and undriven.

"Yes, it was dirty, yes there had been mice in it, but the story was so good with this car we had to buy it and had to bring it back here," said Kevin Thomas, service technician at DeLorean Midwest.

When McElhattan and Thomas saw the car in the barn, they realized the 1981 car had only been driven 977 miles.

"He [the cars original owner] divulged to me, he bought this as kind of an investment, and he intentionally kept the miles down on the car," said McElhattan.

The men would eventually bring the car to McElhattan's car shop in Crystal Lake, Illionois to see if they could restore it.

The men moved around the inner workings of the car like doctors carefully operating on a patient.

"We believe it's been roughly 17-18 years since then engine has run," said McElhattan.

The special car with limited miles on it caught the international car world's eye.

"I've sent releases for photos and videos to Germany, Norway, I was interviewed by the BBC of Northern Ireland, where these things were built, the story has gone international, this car got a personality of its own at this point," said McElhattan.

CBS 58 found a family connection which sold the car to its first owner.

"He started the car up and acorns flew out of the vent and the mice was getting after it, and he had some words like this thing got to go, so that was the last time I saw it," said Charlie Hall. Hall is the son of the original car dealership owner, where the barely touched DeLorean came from.

And while Hall thought he said his goodbye to the stainless-steel machine in the 80's the power of social media brought it back to his memories.

"When I saw DMC 12, barn find, oh my gosh this has got to be it," said Hall.

Hall still has the original bill of sale showing the car sold for less than $26,000 dollars back in the 80's, after some work McElhattan and Thomas hope to increase the value of this DeLorean to more than $100,000.

"To have this kind of excitement around the car again is really kind of cool, and to have it our car you know is even better," said Hall.

So after sitting in a barn for nearly 40 years, the question stood could McElhattan and Thomas get the car to run again?

After few failed attempts, life slowly began to creep back into the beast.

"It's very cool to bring one back to life that's been forgotten and off the road for years and when you light up the heart of the beast like what we did tonight that's kind of the coolest part about it," said McElhattan.

"To see a car like this come into your shop do you think you'll ever find anything like it again? You know, it's hard to say what's in the next barn, another one could pop up next week, or it could be ten years before we find anything like this again or maybe never," said Thomas.

McElhattan and Thomas have not decided if the car will be for sale.