Sunday, October 11, 2009

Batboat Rebuild: Seat Mystery Solved.

Color Photo From The 1967 Glastron Boats Brochure

Researching how the original 1966 Batboat was built is sometimes kind of tough. It was one of the least used Bat-vehicles in the show (once in the movie and twice breifly on the show. The show appearances were filmed during the movie) and there are only a scant 2 or 4 original photos showing detail.

Sorry for the bad screen capture! One of the rare shots of the interior.

One of the last items that had left me stumped were the seats. There are maybe two or three photos that show them clearly but from behind. The BATMAN movie dvd shows them from above but for a split second.

I posted a quirey with images at the Classic Glastron Owners Association forum and one of the historians, 69 JETFLITE, came up with the answer the next day.

It is possible they are the seats used in Glastron's Jetflite models. I looked through my 1967 Glastron brochure and sure enough, there they are!

The Classic Glastron Owners Association site has a scan of the 1966 brochure showing the top of the seats and they are better dead ringers for those in the Batboat. A 1966 brochure is on the way here from eBay so I can take a better look.


Above: 1967 Jetflite Super Sport V-143
Below: The Batboat In 1966 Before Delivery To Hollywood.



The post '66 Jetflite chairs seem to have the same turned up/ pointed appearance on the top but are narrower in the middle pleated area. The above photo shows a reupolstered pair.

The 1966 Batboat had both tops and bottoms pointed, however. If I can get a pattern off a top, the bottoms can be made the same way. Just need to find a junker '66 seat. That will have to wait for next year, delivery of the '66 brochure and more photos to verify. :)

Glastron forum member FergusonPooleInc says the 1967 seats were blue metallic, the 1968 red metallic, and the 1969 were gold metallic.

Cool.

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