bozzzydmc wrote:
Did you get to see / hear anything about the film car restoration?
Mike
The final presentation of the show was by J Ryan and Terry Matalas, along with Bob Gale and they gave a run-down of where they are to date.
In a nutshell , when Universal rolled out the A-car for the Nike Fox shoe commercials last year, Gale was dismayed at the poor condition of the car and decided that something had to be done. A combination of the elements and visitors “liberating souvenirs” has left it pretty sad looking. He, and the restoration team, made a presentation to Universal, showing Terry Matalas’ car as an example of what they could do for the car to return it to “screen accurate”.
They got the OK and have started work on the car, stripping it to the tub for a real clean. DMCCA are refurbbing the stainless, and the resto crew have been searching a military parts salvage yard looking for all the missing correct parts. As I’m sure you know Bozzy, they have a facebook page about it:
http://www.facebook.com/timemachinerestorationThey showed a bunch of pictures at the show, but asked the audience not to photograph them, supposedly as requested by Universal, but I suspect that was more for the benefit of videobob who was compiling his DCS12 DVD but is obviously a rival builder.
Two interesting side notes/rumors.
During one of Bob Gales talks (at least I think it was his), he mentioned that JK Rowling had been at Universal Studios park in Orlando (doing something to do with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter) and was looking at the BTTF Time Train. The story he told as that someone from Universal offered to convert it to the Hogwarts train and she rejected it outright saying “No way, this is the Time Train” and supposedly undertook to pay for it’s restoration. The speaker didn’t specify when this took place, but I was at the park a couple of weeks ago and it was there (along with the car) and it looked to be in good condition. So I took it to mean that Rowling had this conversation before WWoHP was started and I was seeing the results of the labor, particularly as there is a Hogwarts train also. Until…..
Right at the end of the show, an attendee stood up and said that she had been at the park on Saturday and that the BTTF car was gone. A park employee told her that it had been removed for “cleaning”. She didn’t comment on whether the train was gone also. So the rumor started that JKR was paying for the BTTF car to be restored also.