OXFORD – The Duke boys might not have strayed from Georgia on “The Dukes of Hazzard,” but their famous vehicle has had a bit of help from up North to keep it going.

The original General Lee, the 1969 Dodge Charger with easy access through the windows and phenomenal jumping capability, was recently restored to its original luster. According to James Shine, a former Oxford resident and contributor to the project, some parts were procured from the Pine Tree State.

“Much of the chrome trim, all OEM (original equipment manufacturer) tan interior parts, the center console, wipers and a bunch of items the casual person would never see came from Maine,” Shine said. “The trim was from my personal 1968 Dodge Charger bought out of South Paris, and almost all of the rest were from Vince Ayotte’s salvage yard in Oxford.”

According to the project’s Web site, the original General Lee, or Lee1, was used in 1978 for the shot in the show’s opening credits, in which the car flies over a Hazzard County police cruiser. It also briefly resurfaced in the series’ fourth episode, repainted and deliberately beat up as a wrecked stock car.

The numerous leaps and stunts required of the car usually compromised its integrity, meaning hundreds of cars were used over the course of the show. According to Shine, 321 Chargers were used to portray the General Lee, but only 22 survive today.

Following its use, Lee1 was sent to a Georgia junkyard. It was still there in 2001 when it was purchased by Shine’s friend, Travis Bell. Shine said the car was never crushed for fear that equipment would be damaged by the 400 pounds of cement poured into the trunk to balance out the jump.

Bell sold the car in 2005 to Marvin Murphy, who later approached Bell to request that the car be restored. The work took place in Greenwood, Ind., where Shine resides.

“Travis and I had been friends for years,” Shine said. “I began sourcing out parts to help relieve some of the pressure on him, then I flew in to help with the manual side of things. He liked my eye for detail, so I ended up hashing out the little quirky details.”

“The door numbers were probably the hardest item to get right. We used behind-the-scenes pictures and ended up having the images put into a computer with reference points to set size,” Shine said. “In the end, just like the original, every item that made this a General Lee was made by us because nothing over the shelf was even close to correct.”

The car was unveiled in November 2006 in what Shine said was a dreamlike experience.

“I remember at one moment I was riding in the passenger side seat of the General Lee with John Schneider driving,” he said. “I look over to my right and Bo Duke is driving, we are pulling into the original Boars Nest parking lot (now a church) in the General Lee. It was an amazing feeling.”

After the ceremony, the Lee1 was briefly kept in storage and then in Shine’s garage until last month. Shine is president of Team Lee1. He keeps in touch with those who worked on the vehicle, as well as relevant documents, which include work receipts dating back to 1978.

“My job is basically to answer questions people have about the car, past and present,” he said.

The Lee1 will be featured at noon Jan. 5 and 11 a.m. Jan. 6 on “PowerBlock,” weekend how-to automotive shows that air on cable’s Spike TV.