No origins history for the Batboat for a while. My PC is down.

All it had was a virus, a bogus virus protection software that installed itself and wanted me to register it.

I got it to the mall and all of a sudden they say my video would not work. When a monitor is hooked up, no picture.

I take it home and no picture so took it back to see what is up and they said one of the RAM chips died. yada yada yada.

Thankfully, I had backed up nearly everything to an external harddrive the night before.

No more posts from me for a while, including the origin history of the Batboat I had promised. I have a feeling that it will be a while before I'll have a computer to work on.

1966 Batboat Origin Story Emminent. Stay Tuned!

I recently got a hold of Xeroxes of some of the original 1966 correspondences between the Glastron Boat Company and Greenway Productions and their contract to build the Batboat. Will be reading through it all tonight. :)

Stay tuned to this blog for the origins of the 1966 Batboat.

On The Set Of The "Batman" (1966) Feature Film

These photos were recently posted at the 1966 Batman forum.

Apparently, they are among many others from the filming of the movie and series originating from Adam West's personal collection.

These are the only ones featuring scenes with the Batboat, and to my knowledge are unpublished as of this writing.

New Photo of Batboat II Surfaces

Batboat II displayed outside a New Jersey Glastron dealership , May 20, 1967.

The scan was posted at the 1966 Batmobile Forum by johnwb88.

Photos of the original Batboats are rare enough and this is just one of the two dead-on photos I've seen to date looking at the side. This pix is indispensable for finishing my Batboat next spring.

Batboat-Style Steering Wheel Is Now Available.

The steering wheel I mentioned a while back [http://batboat.blogspot.com/2010/08/good-news-batboat-style-steering-wheels.html] that is similar to the one used in the 1966 Batboat is available now from Mooneyes. http://www.mooneyesusa.com/california-metal-flake-4hole-spoke-steering-wheels-p-2357.html

What makes it different in appearance from the Covico wheel used in the original Batboat is the spokes are not symmetrically spaced and there are four holes in each spoke instead of three. However, as far as I have found, this is as close you'll currently get to it in a new wheel.

The New Wheel

An original Covico steering wheel offered by Glastron. They listed it as an option only in their 1966 catalog.

Here are details I turned up a while back on the steering wheel used in the original Batboat.
http://batboat.blogspot.com/2010/04/steering-wheel-identified.html


As of this writing, this new wheel is available as 15 inch width. To my eyes it looks about the same size used in the original Batboat. Covico steering wheels were available in 5 sizes ranging between 12 to 17 inches so who knows for sure.

I found a couple more photos clearly showing the Batboat steering wheel and will scan them later.

An accessory for the boat.

I ordered something to go with the boat now that I recently paid off nearly all of the debt incurred since the recession began. Its custom made by Will Reeb [http://www.willspad.com/cowls.html] and he says it ships in January.

His cowls are of high quality craftsmanship and considered second to only those made by another maker, who's cowls are in the high hundreds of dollars.

I have the motivation now to loose 10 pounds so I don't stress the stitches in my tights. lol

I made my own utility belt a while back. All I'll need is boots, cape, gloves, and shorts.

Batboat Rebuild: Finished for the Year.

On October 14th I was satisfied enough with the cure of the paint that I put the deck back on for the winter. Did it myself with little effort.

Days before, I did a little fiberglass work inside it. Mostly small patches and laminated over filler I caulked in the bow the year before.

As soon as June arrives I will begin to finish this Batboat. There is not much left to do now. The rest is probably easy compared to what I did this year.


Starting to look like a real boat now! :)

I still have to do a lot of sanding and repairs to the splashwell.


Below is somewhat how I hope my boat will look like when done. Its a different hull but I can pull it off.

1966 Batboat II

I did unusually well financially in September so I ordered a Kodak Zi8 camera. It takes good, basic megapixel photos and HD video. Below are my first pix of the boat.



When I order a high speed SD card I can take videos lasting more than 10 seconds. Here is my first video.

Perhaps a few future updates will be videos.

Batboat Rebuild: Painting The White and Finding Adhesion Problems With The Blue

The first coat of white was rolled on the hull on September 29. By now I've become and expert at painting with EasyPoxy. The first and second coat were so perfect and flawless I decided to not do a third.

Rolling on the layers thin enough to almost see though does the trick. The second coat of white gave such a good coverage there was no need for more.

In comparison to a photo of the original #2 '66 Batboat.

My craft is a different model than the one the original Batboat was based on. The white areas followed the lines of the hull. Mine does not have that hull design so the shape was based upon the original boat but also in keeping a little with mine.

By October 3rd I decided the paint has cured enough to remove the fine line and masking.

There were some adhesion problems with the blue paint. As I carefully peeled off the fine line tape some of the blue just peeled right off with it.

Not only that but I found a spot along the bottom edge where I accidentally rolled a little white on the blue. I started taking it off and the third layer of blue peeled off with it.


After seeking advise at the iboats forum I came to the conclusion that the blue came off where the fine line was perhaps because that is where I pushed the tape down too hard when I ran my finger along it for the last time. The solvent in the white paint may have attacked the blue through the tape making it lift and stick to the tape.

It pulled up and it looked like blue gold leaf stuck to the tape. None of this peeled off beyond where the fine line tape was, thankfully.

I've got some touching up to do in the spring!



Usually this is where people would get the heart sinking feeling, however, I don't have those feelings any more. Being that I live in North Eastern Michigan I have become accustom to day by day disappointment and bad things happening. This did not phase me and I'm ready for some light sanding and touching up next spring. lol :)

Batboat Rebuild: Getting Rid Of Over 20 Tires

Luckily Saginaw County Mosquito Abatement Commission accepts old tires at no charge. I used to work there a long time ago and know all about tires and those little bugs. As I collected the tires I drilled holes in various spots to let water flow out.

There were over 20 tires to haul on September 20th. This took three trips.



I shoved them in really good.

Another load is ready!

It looks dirty but the inside of my backseat was protected with at car cover spread over the seats and floor.

The next day the finished paint job looked great and I took off the masking paper and green tape.

Fine-line tape was left on. To mask the area off for the white painting area you just run fine line along the edge of the old fine line put on for the blue and peel that off. This leaves no overlap or gaps in the paint jobs.

Batboat Rebuild: Painting The Sides

On September 14 the weather was good enough to draw the pattern on the sides. I was able to transfer the original Glastron "scoop" design with no problem. The "point" of the original was 10 inches from the stern. I moved it back to 2 inches to more closely resemble the original Batboat.

From there I eyeballed the rest with pencil. No more than an hour had passed and I was finished. Both sides were a perfect match.

Next I used custom auto fine-line tape to mask it off.

The First Of Three Coats

The white area was masked off with dollar store brown packaging paper and green painter's tape. I ran out of that and used Blue painter's tape that was laying around and later found that blue tape is crap for outdoors.

The first coat was painted on the 17th and several days later the third and final was finished.

Batboat Rebuild: September 9th. Flipping the Hull Over

The boat got flipped. Thanks to unaccountable "friend" I did it myself.

Was able to roll it upright and put it on the trailer without any damage at all.




I hooked it up, cranked the wench to pull it from the bed of tires and on to the trailer. Now I'm able to work on the inside of the boat before winter gets here. :)



I was worried that the still slightly soft paint would be damaged but lucked out.

A couple of small spots got scratched but no big deal. The layers of the two primers were rock solid but the EasyPoxy was not. Paint it on thin folks!

I attempted to eyeball the lines of the cigar shaped white area, pencil it in and make a pattern out of cheap, lightweight dollar store wrapping paper.

The wind blew it to shreds.

I did get to trace the original Glastron scoop details from the sides and used those as the basis for the rest.
The idea is to take a pounce wheel, or pattern wheel, roll perforations through the paper....

... place the pattern on the boat and rub it with dark sidewalk chalk. This transfers the pattern to the hull.

This technique is shown in an indispensable DVD set I found on the net. More on that later.