That trunk picture is a perfect example of why people should never refer to the many paint jobs the #1 has gotten over the years as: "restoration".
This car has NEVER been restored since the day Ford made the Futura.
While it is of course very sad to see it in such rough shape...I must admit that I often have thought that if I won the lottery and somehow bought the #1 from Mr. Barris, a part of me would like to keep the car in tact "as is" as an artifact as mentioned in another post.
The rust, lack of attention to hidden or unseen areas and such, all lend credibility to the cars real heritage. A concours restoration would be sweet, but a car is "only original once" even though much of the originality is gone on this one. Rust may be one of the few original parts left actually!
No doubt a REAL restoration would be a HUGE and $$ undertaking, because you would want to retain things like that original trunk lid, instead of just easily replacing it with a replica lid.
Keep the pictures coming if you have them, the new details are fascinating and REALLY fun to see! And a movie should be soon to follow....right????
While it is of course very sad to see it in such rough shape...I must admit that I often have thought that if I won the lottery and somehow bought the #1 from Mr. Barris, a part of me would like to keep the car in tact "as is" as an artifact as mentioned in another post.
The rust, lack of attention to hidden or unseen areas and such, all lend credibility to the cars real heritage. A concours restoration would be sweet, but a car is "only original once" even though much of the originality is gone on this one. Rust may be one of the few original parts left actually!
No doubt a REAL restoration would be a HUGE and $$ undertaking, because you would want to retain things like that original trunk lid, instead of just easily replacing it with a replica lid.
Keep the pictures coming if you have them, the new details are fascinating and REALLY fun to see! And a movie should be soon to follow....right????
What a fantastic visit with Mr Barris and the Batmobile!! Will a video
tape of the encounter be available soon? Also as I look at the picture of the Batmobiles engine I can say that it is not a 429 engine but from the Ford FE
family not a 427 it has the wrong intake and heads,too small and wrong bolt pattern on exhaust manifolds. The intake and PVC tube tells us it is a 1966 motor
or early 67, possibly a 4 barrel 390 0r a 428 with the factory luxury car two bolt pattern exhaust manifolds. If the coil is in its factory location bolted to
the head, then I would say it is a 390ci, most 428 have the coils bolted to the top of the intake. It has a cast iron intake and not the alluminum low riser
intake so it is not a 428 PI (police interceptor) motor. The 66 390ci has a good amount of tork and would smoke the hocky pucks quite well but a 428 can roast
the rubber side ways on the Bat-beast.No wonder they did not let Robin drive.
