The Belfast Photo Festival rebuilds a DeLorean to celebrate its history with the iconic automaker

June 2015 - “Great Scott!” It’s been almost 30 years since the DeLorean DMC-12 made its first appearance in the 1985 blockbuster “Back to the Future.” The Belfast Photo Festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is celebrating the classic car by rebuilding the iconic Hollywood relic, but with a twist. 

The photo festival employed French artist Cyril Hatt to build the DeLorean using printed images on aluminum plates to sculpt the infamous car. As FFJournal learned, Belfast and the DeLorean have a shared history. The nonprofit photographic event incorporated the sci-fi film’s most notable prop and revived its Belfast history with a little help from former DeLorean employees.

The history

The DeLorean is best known for its futuristic features. The sleek, stainless steel body and distinctive gull-wing doors complement the frenzied, time-hopping Marty McFly. Irish locals recall when DeLorean Motor Co. opened its assembly plant in Dunmurry in 1981, a few miles from Belfast. Plant employees created an unusual tradition of leaving a distinct mark on every car they produced. “As the parts of each DMC-12 passed through the production line of the Dunmurry factory, employees often signed their name and wrote messages in the unseen inner stainless steel body before fixtures were fitted,” says a Belfast Photo Festival representative. 

DeLorean Motor Co. went bankrupt in 1982 but managed to produce 9,000 DMC-12 models, each with a special message. The Belfast Photo Festival is honoring the tradition, called over 150 former DMC employees to return to Dunmurry and once again leave a message on the aluminum plates used to create the festival version of the DeLorean.

The build

Hatt worked with Iris Colour, a large format printing company in Belfast, to replicate the vehicle. Hatt first build a full, 1:1 scale wooden replica of the vehicle by measuring each exterior panel of an original DMC-12. Photographers then meticulously photographed an original DeLorean and sent the images to Iris Colour to print the images using a UV inkjet printer. 

“We will print directly onto flat sheets of aluminum finish dibond,” Iris Colour Director Eleanor McCann says. According to Iris’ website, the UV inkjet printer uses a roll-to-roll mechanism to print high-definition images directly onto any irregularly shaped object or shape up to 2.5 m wide. 

Once printed, a Zund CNC cutter cut the plates into square sections. “These sheets will then be routered into smaller pieces which, in turn, will be used to create the sculpture,” says McCann. 

Before assembling the plates, Hatt and former employees carved a special message into each piece, recreating their former tradition. Hatt then used various power tools to produce the time machine. 

The festival unveiled the mockup DeLorean June 6 in Belfast’s City Hall. It is on display through June 30, after which fans can purchase the aluminum plates used to form the sculpture. FFJ

Photos: White Cloud Photographic