When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
The transporter just picked her up and she should be here by Friday. Very exciting!
The seller, Craig, is a great guy and sent some pictures and a video. The whole BaT experience was once again first rate. I’ll keep that perspective unless she doesn’t make it down here in one piece! Once she arrives I’ll post my inspection opinion. Right now, I’m feeling really good about this deal.
Those look great for the style of the rest of the car. I’ll give it some thought over the summer while I’m in NY.
I finished the lights. Like the rest of the car, it’s a 10 footer for sure but I like how it came out.
I’m going to finish the hood stripe tomorrow. I think everything hangs together much better than before. I used a strip of ppf to hide some of the unfinished look of the headlight retainers. Might be too much. I’ll live with it awhile and see how I feel. These two were godsends for this job. The plexiglass jigsaw blade ripped through the lexan like butter with virtually no heat. The plexiglass drill bit ensured a perfect hole with little chance of cracking.
Those are your kinda flares, what are you going to do to this one?
Lower the rear slightly and address the issues with the front end. The car also needs a deep cleaning. His driveway is 1000 feet of dirt and dust. This helped me in the auction as he didn’t clean the car well and there are several paint blemishes causing concern that the paint had issues. I’ve already ordered touch up paint and will address these first. Also, I need to fix the taillights. None of them work which is probably a ground, wrong bulbs, or harness, etc. I already have these and a set of LEDs to go in:
The rear needs to come down an inch or so. The 63/64 grill is beautiful with the separate surround that sits under the grill. This grill has to go and the headlights are ineffective recessed, behind the grill, and sitting so low. Plus, I just don’t like the entire look.
Seriously looking forward to seeing your posts detailing what you do with the BaTmobile...... I have thought about getting a car like this, to have fun with, and to be able to make modifications to, to personalize, and to match a style that I really like, more the road race look......
trick will be getting and glueing in the mounting system without triggering a full repaint
I’ve given this a lot of thought and have come up with the following plan:
I have two 1/8” fiberglass sheets that are large enough to cut all four inserts for the sides of the nose buckets the FIA headlight housings will mount to.
Once I very carefully cut the nose and final sand to the exact shape for a friction fit of the headlight housings, I will bond the cuts into the nose using epoxy filets (no cloth). While epoxy does generate heat as it cures, the slow hardener does not get as hot as fiberglass resin. This assumes I can work up the cohones to actually cut the nose!
I ordered the FIA kit with the lexan over size so I can trim for a nice fit. I have the kit and it is of good quality.
I had the buckets anodized in black. They look great and this is important for steps 5 and 6.
i plan on using colored ppf to wrap the front and create a stripe (mustache and stripe). This will cover any paint issues and protect the nose from further damage (there is a lot of road rash on the nose lower valance I will need to smooth out as you can see in the picture below).
Current thinking on ppf color is white, black, or my preference, Vvivid GT Silver. I think the metallic in the silver is a great match for the oem paint. If I go with white or silver, I’ll also wrap the buckets so they blend into the nose.
Potential nose and stripe color I think this road rash will look worse in person
Mark I'm happy you were able make a deal you're comfortable with. You and I were pretty much on point in what we thought it was going to take to separate this one from it's current owner. You have the vision, resources, and skill to take to it's full potential. I'm sure there will be a couple of surprises after you check it over. Hopefully there will be more good ones than disappointing ones. I'm anxious to follow your progress and updates as you sort this one out. I hope it takes a shorter time and less of your budget to get it where you want it to be.
Good luck going forward.
She’s filthy but in great shape. The engine bay needs a good detailing. Also, the clutch was like an on-off switch, catching right at the top of the pedal. That was my first fix! Five minutes with a 9/16” wrench and she’s done. The paint has stone chips and few spots of poor prep that bubbled. Looks like a few days with the touch up kit. I was drawn to this car by the amount of chrome plated parts. Not that I’m a fan of chrome, but I figure if they paid attention to all these details, they hopefully did the same for others. I don’t think longer bolts are going to work to lower the rear, the spring is about 3/4” from the wheel. So far the chrome parts include: front upper and lower control arms including the cross shafts, relay rod, pitman arm, steering column mast, bell housing, half shafts, diff snubber bracket, diff crossmember, I don’t see any engine oil leaks, but the tranny is wet and has a drop of oil hanging from the mount Definitely a one piece front end. When the part came out of the mold, this opening was closed. Instead of cutting out the whole area they left the ends and bolted the headlights to them. Here you can see what I mean. I hate these glass fuel filters. A fire waiting to happen. But first things first. She needs to be proud of her Corvette heritage.
1964 BaTmobile
