Rich Weissensel really likes DeLoreans.
A lot.
After the 50-year-old Chicagoan met the DMC-12’s designer in 2000, he embarked on a quest to take one of America’s quirkiest cars and turn it into something truly unique.
The result? A DeLorean monster truck, hovercraft, convertible, and limousine.
“I met John DeLorean at one of the DeLorean car shows,” said Weissensel. “I showed him some of my sketches and told him I’d like to build something like this, and he probably thought I was a little bit crazy, but said ‘if you think you can do it, go for it’.”
A video hosted by Barcroft Cars grants an inside look at each of the one-off customs, the most hysterical of which is the enormous, Frankenstein-like monster truck.
Weissensel mated the remains of a wrecked DMC-12 and a K5 Chevy Blazer back in 2002. One 12-inch lift kit and some gargantuan tires later, and you have this beast, which Weissensel says only took him about a month to create.
Despite his unwavering passion for unpainted steel and Back to the Future, the Illinoisan knows that healthy DeLoreans are rare. Because of this, he only sources parts from the scrapyard.
“I use [damaged cars] primarily because there were so few DeLoreans actually built that I do not want to remove the good ones from the population,” he said.
Looking forward, he doesn’t see himself stopping anytime soon.
“I have so many different ideas for custom DeLoreans. I’m not sure if time, money, or my eventual age [will] stop me from building them,” he said with a chuckle. “As long as I’m able, I will continue to build them.”
Keep fighting the good fight, Rich.
Weissensel’s other projects include a hovercraft, a 26-foot-long limousine with six fully functioning gullwing doors, and a convertible.
