88 Miles Per Hour!

Look closely at this picture, and you'll notice that I not only dressed up as Doc Brown for Halloween, but I dressed up my DeLorean as well. Those two black things on the back of the car are the 3rd most awesome feature about the Time Machine from Back To The Future - the cooling towers.

Of course the coolest and second coolest features are Mr. Fusion and the Flux Capacitor, respectively.

I know it's not the most original idea, Doc's radiation suit, but I knew I could make it entertaining for the night of our party. I lost the shots of me actually making the costume, but here's the breakdown: Doc's suit consisted of painter's coveralls purchased at Home Depot for about 8 bucks. I had to spray the wig white for an additional $2.99 Then I painted the neon orange strips with fabric paint from Michael's for about $1.59. I cut the hood off and sewed the collar. The pattern on the back required me to make a stencil, then dab it with black paint until it looked like this. Pardon the wrinkles.

I decided that I really had to go all out with my Back To The Future-themed costume this year, and transform the car as well. Yes, the car would look rather cool by itself. And yes, stepping out of it dressed as Doc Brown would be pretty radical also. But what would make it even better? Cooling towers.

First I needed to see if I could make the cooling towers. I grabbed some cardboard I had lying around since June 2006 and got to work. After almost 2 hours of trial and error cutting and fitting, I had them.

Yep, the cooling towers on the DeLorean looked nifty for sure. But I still needed that wow factor. So I asked myself - what would make the cooling towers even better? Answer - If they worked.

I asked my friends and family for their used toilet paper rolls and began constructing a smoke-delivery-device. Using the greatest invention of all time, Duct Tape, I fashioned a bendy tubing system that would lead from my fog machine up into the cooling towers.

But I was worried that the smoke would just blow any which way, so I had to think up a way to direct it out of the cooling towers. The answer was easy. Nozzles.

I grabbed some more duct tape and more cardboard tubes and slapped together a pair of nozzles. I tapered the ends so the smoke would be pushed out with some amount of force. Otherwise, it would just float slowly and carefree. The real Doc Brown would disapprove.

Assembling everything on the car was easier than I thought it would be. I had enough room to practically climb inside the cooling towers. The nozzles were securely fastened to the tubing with more sturdy duct tape. Click here to see an interior shot of the first attached nozzle.

Once the second nozzle was in place, I connected the tubing to my fog machine and gave it a test run. I've never made anything like this before, and did not know what to expect. *Here* is what the fog machine setup looked like.

The night of our party I was very nervous. The fog machine worked, but the smallest amount of wind blew it all over the place - and it was a very windy night! On top of that, it started to rain. I knew the cardboard wouldn't hold up well, and crossed my fingers that the rain stopped. Back here in 2007, we're still 8 years away from 2015's Weather Service.

But luck was on my side as the rain stopped and I was able to entertain friends as they came to the door. The Time Machine was a hit! Here, Braveheart and... Cleopatra? check out the car. Successfully completing this costume brings back such good memories of last year's Duffman.

Update: I've been entered into Rob Cockerham's costume contest at Cockeyed.com! The exact link is here!