Crystal Lake car restoration company finds 1981 DeLorean with less than 1K miles on it

CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. -- An iconic vehicle from the 1980s, a DeLorean, has been discovered in good condition in Waukesha County, WDJT reported.

The blast from the past sat in a barn, untouched and undriven for almost 20 years. The 42-year-old vehicle still has all its original parts from 1981, and it only 977 miles on it.

The DeLorean may be best known for its role in the movie "Back to the Future."

Michael McElhattan is the owner of DeLorean Midwest, a car restoration company in Crystal Lake. He said he got wind of the hidden treasure by a phone call all the way from New Mexico.

"He said he would go out in the barn and just look at it, cause he thought it was a really cool car," McElhattan said. "It happened pretty quick, because once I found out the car was close, and it was a low mileage car, I was excited to go take a look."

The nephew of the car's original owner told McElhattan they were looking to sell the piece of history.

So McElhattan, along with his social media coordinator, Kevin Thomas, made the trip to the barn to see their dream car. When they got there, they found more than they bargained for.

"We open it up, and the first thing I saw was a mouse go running across the center console," McElhattan said.

Despite the mice invasion, McElhattan said the car has withstood the test of time.

"The condition of the leather, the condition of the instruments cluster in the dash, and a lot of places where you see sun damage, and that"s one of the big killers on this," McElhattan said. "This car virtually has no sun damage."

Now McElhattan is hopeful he can restore the car back to its glory days.

"To take a car from this condition to what I know we can do with it, is just, that's an adventure anybody wants to be on," McElhattan said.