A re-do of Doctor Who's booth

Source: The Roanoke Times, Va.儲存Aug. 30--GLADE HILL -- Nestled on the side of Webster Road in Glade Hill sits a replica of the TARDIS, a spacecraft/phone booth from the popular British television series, "Doctor Who."The show's lead character is the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space with his companion in the TARDIS, which is modeled after a 1960s British police box.On a recent Sunday evening, nearly 50 people from the Roanoke area took a trip to visit Franklin County's TARDIS."It's legit," said Kristina Smith of Glade Hill . "It's not something you would expect to see in Franklin County."The TARDIS maker is Dante Colie, 44, who greeted the visitors dressed as the Tenth Doctor -- he wore a blue and gray pinstripe suit, Chuck Taylors, and a wavy dark brown wig over his natural blond hair. He's a fairly new fan of the show, and found his favorite Doctor to be Scottish actor David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor. The Twelfth Doctor -- actor Peter Capaldi -- was just named with much fanfare earlier this month. The show also celebrates its 50th anniversary in November.That Sunday evening, Colie told his visitors about the unveiling of his TARDIS, which weighs 650 pounds and cost about $2,500.He and a friend wheeled it out to the yard late one night and the next day, someone called the police to say someone had stolen a phone booth, Colie recounted.The police had started interviewing neighbors when one officer remembered where he'd seen it before -- it was the spaceship from "Doctor Who."Colie recalled, "She [the neighbor] said, well, I don't know about that, but it wasn't there when I went to bed last night."Everyone laughed.Building K.I.T.T.Though it took Colie about a month to build the TARDIS, it was only a side project.His life's work of 18 years is building components to convert Pontiac Firebird Trans Am cars into replicas of the talking car, K.I.T.T., from the 1980s "Knight Rider" television series .He designs custom electronic fiberglass dashboards and bumpers, which he sells to fans all over the world."The 'Knight Rider' community is huge," he said. A complete K.I.T.T. (which stands for Knight Industries Two Thousand) replica car costs $55,000."I melted when I saw that car for the first time," Colie said. He was 12 and living in Burnt Chimney when he first saw the series starring David Hasselhoff. "I mean, the show inspired me."He remembers seeing an ad on the back of a magazine for a Knight Rider replica. "I didn't have any money. I had to make it," he said.He did his best converting his 1982 Pontiac Trans Am into K.I.T.T. by building his first dashboard in ninth grade.He said he struggled in high school and was homeless in his 20s, often crashing on a friend's couch while he worked in the heating and air conditioning field."Every dime I made went back into that car," Colie said. "I spent all summer trying to build fiberglass and all winter on e新蒲崗迷你倉ectronics."The car was finally finished around 1993, he said, and was put on display for three months at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke.The work was still just a hobby; Colie had jobs as a salesman for a vacuum cleaner company and later as a prosthetics technician.After getting his first computer in 1998, he became active in the online "Knight Rider" replica message boards and posted a photo of his car.That's when his business started and orders began rolling in for parts."You never know what that moment is meant to be," he said. "It could be a moment to change your life."Now his home -- and office for his company Advanced Designs in Automotive Technology -- stays busy, and not just on K.I.T.T. cars. Inside sits a half-finished R2-D2 from "Star Wars" and a working digital timer he designed, just like the one used in the late-'90s sci-fi TV series "Sliders."Longtime customer Scott Rice calls Colie a perfectionist. "He's just so creative in his ability to do things with his hands," Rice said.He met Colie in 2001 at a car show and told him, "I don't want what these people have. I want better."A couple of years later Rice was winning national awards for his replica car, built with Colie parts. Rice said his K.I.T.T. car is now used by Universal Studios for promotional tours. "For his part, he couldn't have done a better job," Rice said.Helping othersAt one point, Colie and an ex-girlfriend tried to start a Knight Foundation nonprofit to help give people second chances. The organization didn't make it off the ground, but Colie didn't give up on trying to help people."One person can make a difference," he said. "I want to help people out. That's my goal."For several years he's mentored teens, including John Trout, who grew up in the same neighborhood. Trout worked in Colie's shop when the business was first getting off the ground. He said Colie took a risk by going for such a unique and specialized field."He did it. I think it's a testament to being a little bold and following your interests," Trout said. "His interests are only matched by his desire to help other people."Trout has since graduated from college and now lives in Rochester, N.Y. and works in the alternative energy field. Colie joked, "I live through him vicariously."Colie said he might not have gone to college or had children, but he tries to inspire creativity and imagination in anyone he meets, especially those who are trying to figure out what to do with their lives.He says he hopes people see that dreams are obtainable, even if you "fall on your face.""You just have to want it bad enough," he said. "If you can't afford it, you can build it."For more information on Colie's "Knight Rider" conversion business, go to .adiautotech.com.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Roanoke Times (Roanoke, Va.) Visit The Roanoke Times (Roanoke, Va.) at .roanoke.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesmini storage