DeLorean ‘time capsule’ car is getting back to its future glory at Crystal Lake shop

Owner of auto restoration shop DeLorean Midwest, Michael McElhattan, has seen his fair share of the discontinued car. He has worked on well over 1,000 DeLoreans in his Crystal Lake shop, but his most recent acquisition is a special one.

“The car is extremely original,” he said. “It’s a time capsule in that way and it has the original tires on it that show almost no wear.”

The shop usually sees DeLoreans with all different kinds of modifications and refurbished parts. It’s rare to see one with all original parts on it today, he said.

“It’s kind of cool to see one in pristine, original condition,” he said. “Obviously, it needs a cleanup, but I see the potential through all that.”

McElhattan said he got a call in late September from a man in New Mexico about a potential DeLorean sale. The caller said his 90-year-old uncle in Dousman, Wisconsin, had a DeLorean with only 977 miles on the odometer that had been sitting in his barn for over 15 years.

“The car is as it left the factory,” he said. “Those tires went down the test track in Ireland exactly the way it sits today.”

McElhattan and his friend and colleague Kevin Thomas recorded their experience driving to see the car and checking it out. The 30-minute video is on Thomas’ YouTube page “DeLorean Nation.”

When they arrived at the owner’s 60-acre farm, about 35 west of Milwaukee, they found the DeLorean frozen in time under dust and dirt in a barn. When they opened the famous “gull-wing” doors on the car, mice scurried around and mice droppings were everywhere.

“That was the first time I’ve seen them actively scurrying around the car,” he said.

The biggest challenge will be getting the odor out, McElhattan said. As for the rest of the project, he plans on restoring it as close as possible to its original state. It is still unknown if he will sell it or what will become of the model once the team is finished with it.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen to it right now,” McElhattan said.

He estimates the restoration will be about a six-month process and cost over $40,000.

The owner purchased the car in 1991, and the VIN number suggests that the car was the 571st DeLorean made. Only about 9,000 total were created.

DeLorean Midwest, located at 990 Lutter Drive, services about 80 DeLoreans a year. The business acts as a “one-stop shop” for DeLorean owners since they can do anything from an oil change to full restorations. The auto shop also can swap out old engines from the 1980s for more horsepower. McElhattan says his business is unique in the U.S. in that regard.

Being a DeLorean-specific auto shop is a rarity, too. McElhattan said he only knows of three others, in Texas, Florida and California.

His passion for the car started in 1997, when his brother convinced his parents to buy him a DeLorean. He was the first person hired by the original owners of the shop when it opened in 2007. McElhattan, who personally owns a DeLorean, took over the shop in 2017.

McElhattan said business has always been steady, but he is seeing an uptick in interest as nostalgia for the 1980s grows.

“Society today has a fascination with the ’80s and wanting to relive the ’80s,” he said.

DeLorean founder John DeLorean and his company manufactured his namesake car for two years in the early 1980s out of a plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1982 after lack of demand and a highly publicized drug trafficking charges against DeLorean, for which he was ultimately acquitted. Then, the 1985 release of the film “Back to the Future” resurrected the car’s popularity.

“There’s no other car that sums up the ‘80s,” he said.