66 Miata Batmobile Build

Thanks Doc! Yes, the foam work looks darn good . . . from ten feet! It looks even better from twenty!

I added a bunch more cross supports to the frame, then trimmed all the supports from the rear to make them flush with the main ribs.

Here's how I make diagonal cuts in foam - I line up the bottom edge with the edge of the work table and line up the yardstick where I want the cut on top.
I got 12 yardsticks for free at a church garage sale - looks like their advertising scheme finally worked!

The rig:

The cut piece:


To trim straight where I've already glued the peices, I glue on popsicle sticks and use them as a cutting guide:


I put in a full day of work today, made the eyebrows, doubled the side supports and started working out the mouth and headlight supports.

here's the view from inside the car:


Here's the frame at the end of the day:


And then my wife gets home from work . . .



(She's very understanding. )

This is positively insane.

I LOVE IT!

d_osborn said:

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i'm pretty sure there was a miata with the 60s batmobile paint scheme in a batman fan film a few years ago. might be worth checking out to see what it might look like...

It was a Audi TT in the fan trailer Grayson I believe.

Anyway this sounds like an excellent little project ^_^ Good luck man!

Making up a new piece on the foam . . .

Great progress... cant wait to see this thing done... Whats the plan? Are you going to make molds and sell body kits? This would be a hit for sure..

LOL

A more nimble, "garage friendly" Batmobile. With better MPG too.

This should prove fun and great progress so far.

This is just..crazy! I love it Great job so far!

I wasn't too impressed with your first sketches but I have to say this is pretty cool.


This thread just might have to be archived.

Wow, you're really making fast progress here. GREAT job.

You're crazy, btw, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

You've got me excited to see the final result.

Wolf

Dude, you are Batspit insane!!! Awesome work so far.

I will probably be heading out to Austin in a couple of months to visit a friend and would love to see this thing in person.

One of the guys that is one of the heads of the industrial design department at the Academy of Art in San Francisco is the guy that originally designed the Miata. I have some friends in there that would probably love to send him some pictures of this when it is done.

That's a great idea. I've been torn between a batmobile, mystery machine, and wienie wagon for some time myself. Good luck to you.

For me it will either be the '66 Batmobile or an MFP Interceptor.

this is looking great, can't wait to see it unfold

I look forward to seeing your progress on this. Very interesting.

Uncertain this may be of assistance but in the spirit of sharing......

Nice snapshot - is that you?

I'm working on refining the shape of the grill opening.

I made a gallery of different shapes from different sources.
If anyone has a preference for what they'd like to see me use, please chime in!



After we get some opinions, I'll share where I got the different shapes from

Looks like this replica did one of each.



Nick

hah, whoops.

I vote for second from the bottom.

The framework looks great!

Second one from the bottom wins it!
(It was you and my wife that voted.)
I got the patterns from:

1. Rough mouth opening in the foam frame.
2. 66 Bat-Manga #1
3. 66 Bat-Manga #2
4. 66 Number 1 TV car
5. 1:18 66 Hot Wheels

I made a template for the new mouth shape:



I marked where to cut:



I used popsicle sticks to mark the cuts:



Cutting the mouth:



New side pieces to match the template:



I went to a classic car junkyard in Belton last weekend and got the front turn signals off a 1962 Thunderbird:



They fit!

I made connector pieces for the lower front:



I needed a bunch of pieces for the side ridge and the wheel well.
I cut wood blocks to the shapes I needed:



I covered the blocks with aluminum tape so the hot wire wouldn't dig into the wood, then hot glued then to my clamps so I could make as many identical pieces as I want:




The side of the front with all the ribs I made today:

I had to trim little tabs off the ends of the parking lights.



I reworked and cleaned up the bottom edge of the front.



I built truss supports to reinforce the headlight platforms.



On the miata:





The headlights I got are 5 3/4" motorcycle lamps with H4 bulbs and diamond faceted reflectors. I got these because the small size will fit in the headlight pockets with enough clearance to adjust them in any direction, and also because they'll be easy to mount and adjust.

this is awesome!! i cat wait to see this done