For the next couple of months, I will be profiling historical photos and other rare DeLorean items on the forum to bring about discussion and hopefully shed some new light on the history behind our vehicles.
My first historical item I'm profiling here is something I just recently picked up. This is a one of a kind fiberglass pontoon that was made at Composite Technologies / Triad Services / Lotus during the final development of the production car. An ex-employee of Triad recently contacted me as he was cleaning out his garage and stumbled upon the piece, which he has had for over 20 years.
According to this employee, who had worked for Triad Services for a number of years, they had the scale model pontoon for analysis for years and then DMC was in big financial trouble. Triad was owed money and they worked out a deal to swap equipment etc. in lieu of payment. The employees of Triad went through Composite Technologies and took
whatever they wanted. This employee took a couple seats from the car planning on making office chairs from them (he later disposed of these unfortunately). Now here
is where the ownership of the model gets a little crazy. An engineer from GM took the model (basically stealing it) during a project Triad and GM were working on together at some point in the mid 80's (the project was based on composite structure / uni-body technology).
The model languished awhile at GM. The ex-employee left Triad and eventually landed at GM (late 80's). He then came across the model again in pretty bad shape in the early 90's, as GM was working on alternative ways to build uni-body chassis/structure cars, very futuristic stuff. He did a lot of things while at GM, one of which was to have models built. So he took the damaged DMC pontoon model and had a vendor repair it. The composite program ended while the model was being repaired, and thus the model ended up in his garage, where it has sat for nearly 20 years.
Up until now, the only other known model that I've seen is the one pictured with John Z and some engineers (as pictured below). That model is red, and closely resembles the model I have, minus a few differences here and there, one leading me to believe my model was built during the final stages of development since underneath the pontoon the placement of the spare tire is accurate, as opposed to the red model, where the trunk section is very generic and not fully thought out. This model did have a metal frame, but that was lost over the course of it's life.
As can be seen in the pictures, the model is about 36" - 42" long. The model is in excellent condition, as it was in the process of being restored by professional model builders who no doubt specialized in fiberglass repair. The model is an off white/primer color, because the last thing to be done for the restoration never occurred, which was to paint it red again, which was the original color. According to the ex-employee, all these models were made with a red fiberglass dye. As can be seen in some of the close up cracks on the model, the original red color can be seen. When I asked him why these models were made to be red, he laughed and said he asked the same thing 30 years ago, and no one ever gave him a real answer.
Enjoy the pictures and as I learn more about the history of this item, I will continue to update this thread.
T.
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