The 89 MattMobile Build Thread.

I can't imagine how much the shell costs, and because of that I'm kind of really surprised at how much work needs to be done on it. When you say that "EVERY SQUARE INCH of the shell will need attention of some sort", I can't help but wonder why the parts aren't of a better quality. I'm sure it's still less expensive and less time consuming than if you had hand built the entire thing. But, I don't know. If I had spent that much money I would be at least a little unhappy with the product.
 
msleeper said:
I can't imagine how much the shell costs, and because of that I'm kind of really surprised at how much work needs to be done on it.
Click to expand...

Imagine no longer! The shell cost about $7,500 bucks, and about a thousand to get it shipped to me.

But it is what it is. It's a kit. Not only that, it's a HUGE kit. I knew going in that the shell would require a lot of body work, just as any fiberglass car kit does. It comes with the territory, and came as no surprise to me.

That said, just like with prop kits, there are good kits and bad kits. I feel that the kit I got is good. Overall it's got the lines I want it to have, and the imperfections it has are the type that I'm able to fix. I've seen FAR worse batmobile shell kits, and never seen better.
 
$8500 is not bad at all for all the fiberlass and work. Even kit cars like replica 1966 Cobra's need body work done to them and those are small and have easy lines to them.

I doubt any amount of money could've got you a perfect. no work involved, body kit.
 
MattMunson said:
But it is what it is. It's a kit. Not only that, it's a HUGE kit. I knew going in that the shell would require a lot of body work, just as any fiberglass car kit does. It comes with the territory, and came as no surprise to me.
Click to expand...

You know I guess that's fair, I have never worked with anything remotely that size before. I've done minimal auto body stuff, and it was always small sections or individual areas, not an entire vehicle. And none of it was from a scratch kit.

My lack of frame of reference is probably a factor too. I'm actually kind of curious what a bad batmobile kit would look like.

Jedifyfe, please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I would expect there to be a perfect ready-to-use kit or anything.
 
MattMunson said:
The big news is that Bo The Welder is going to make his triumphant return in the coming weeks. I've been swamped with work on the Behind-The-Scenes front, filming stuff for the upcoming "Star Trek Continues" web series, along with a number of projects with Wayside Creations.

Things are still moving along, just much slower than expected. Surprised??? :lol
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Just now catching up on this thread, and the "Wayside Creations" thing caught my eye.

Why?

Because I follow Zack Finfrock on Twitter, and I happened to see one of the pictures he posted and thought, "Is that Matt in the background? Nah..."

But now I wonder...
 
Double T said:
Just now catching up on this thread, and the "Wayside Creations" thing caught my eye.

Why?

Because I follow Zack Finfrock on Twitter, and I happened to see one of the pictures he posted and thought, "Is that Matt in the background? Nah..."

But now I wonder...
Click to expand...

Yup, that was me! Zack, Vince and Giles came down to hang out, and to see the batmobile. I also shot a quick interview with them about Nuka Break Season 2. It too is on my youtube channel.

Nuka Break Team - Season 2 Look Ahead - YouTube
 
I did some more body work today. Just another round of sanding and puttying. With any luck, BTW will be over tomorrow night to start prototyping the shell frame.
 
Have you had to add any additional reinforcements to the body shell? In the first part of the shot where the 4x4 goes across inside the shell you can see there is a little bit of flex to the shell. Will you be adding additional reinforcement to the subframe

It's looking really good and it is a bummer about the wheel well. for the shell?
 
Greylocke, the shell is even MORE flexible than you could ever possibly imagine. It's actually weird how flexible it is. So yes, there will be a huge ton of reinforcing done under the shell before attachment. We are going to build a metal skeleton that will be attached to it to help it keep it's shape.

In other news, I got in a solid 90 minutes of work on the car today, and plan on hitting it with another coat of sandable primer tomorrow. Really good progress all around, and the side and front are starting to look really clean. Friday, Bo is coming over to do some more work on the frame that I spoke of just now.
 
Lear60man said:
I was just wondering how the progress was coming. Sucks when real life gets in the way of fun.
Click to expand...

Real life? Screw that man! The only thing that has been getting in my way is MORE fun! I've been so distracted lately with filming, travelling, and making OTHER videos that the MattMobile seems to have been sidetracked. But fear not, it's still moving :D
 
Wow, can't believe I didn't see this thread before. The '89 Batmobile is my favorite "movie-car" of all times. Great work Matt! I'll definitely will follow this thread now!
 
As an example of being distracted, this Friday I'm acting in a short for one of Stan Lee's projects, and then I'm driving across town to interview one of the cast members of Star Trek:Voyager. Good thing I've got BTW working on the car that day :lol
 
New stuff! New Pics! New Primer!!!!

front_close_up.jpg


passenger_side_fender.jpg


TONS more pics, and my regular musings:
The Project Workbench: MattMobile Update: New Coat of Primer
 
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