...Allbatman.com..

Updated MARCH 08

1.   Where do I get a corgi 267 batmobile?

      The best place is on line on such auction sites as ebay etc.

2.   What about the condition?

      The condition of the car is important  paint chips, broken windscreens, etc. are ok but the

       body has to be  in good condition.

       Check that the fins at the back and the piece of metal between the rockets and the back

       windscreen is not broken, this is very important once this is broken, its not easy to fix!

       If this piece is gone then  DON'T  buy!   

3.   Where do I start?

     The first thing you must do is drill the rivets that hold the base on the batmobile,

       start by using a punch or steel nail to make a pilot hole, then using a very small drill bit

       [1.5mm] Drill down about 5mm then change to a bigger drill bit [4mm] to cut the rivet out.

       Don't go down too far with the 4mm just enough to cut the top of the rivet out,

       when this is all done the batmobile should come apart!

4.   Taking the Corgi batmobile apart.

       Carefully take the two halves apart, be careful not to loose any small parts, springs etc.

       Now you have to get the cage out!, the cage as I call it, is held in place by three rivets

       as above start by using a punch  then drill a small pilot hole  not too deep

      or you will drill through top of the batmobile!

      Then drill with a bigger drill bit  deep enough to cut the top of the rivets.

       This done you can take out the cage, and the rocket tubes, etc....

5.   Stripping the paint.

      There are a few ways to do this, some put the two halves in a bath of paint stripper and

        leave overnight! I like to get it over with  faster by painting on paint stripper, waiting a few

        minutes, wipe off the paint that has come loose and repeat till finished !.

       CAUTION!  PAINT STRIPPER IS VERY DANGEROUS STUFF

       YOU  SHOULD ALWAYS  WEAR  EYE PROTECTION, RUBBER GLOVES

      AND A FACE MASK FOR THE FUMES!

6.   Take stock of what new parts you will need.

     See below for a list of sites to get spares from. Order now and have the parts and

      have the parts ready for when you need them..

7.   Body condition.

      Now the nasty paint is gone the body has to be sorted out, there will always be a few dings to

      the body. Using needle files, even up the whole thing. Go easy here, a little at a time.

      If a wing tip is gone or bent you can try to bend it back into shape, at most you

      will be able to bend it once ! It's a one shot deal.

      If you break it off don't worry about it, you can rebuild the  tip  with car filler etc! 

      Not so easy, but it can  be done . You  need to square off the end then drill straight in to

      the tip with a small drill bit,  then you epoxy  a piece of wire in to the hole and leave to harden,

      when that is done you crimp the wire and then you apply car filler larger than the fin tip shape

     you want then when dry you file into shape.

      Remember if you want the car to look like the 60s series car then you don't need to

      have the fin tips long as the real Batmobile never had fin tips as long as that,

      So if the fin is broken off I usually file them to match the

      real batmobile its less work and is true to the real life 60s Barris batmobile.

      Take out the rest of the dings {there is nothing worse than seeing a batmobile for sale

      on eBay that has been  repainted and you can still see the dings under the paint}

      That's just very  sad!... I use small files {I got a great set in homebase the other 

      day, nice handles on them and cheap too!}You have to make the body as clean as possible

       take a lot of time to do this,  and it will pay off in the long run!

8.   Painting / Redlining.

      I have covered the painting process in the tips section of this site,

      Redlining : There are many ways to red line the corgi batmobile all of them are heart stopping,

      here's a few;

           For the really brave............. you can red line  free hand.

            For the not so brave or if you have a bad heart.......The use of masking tape is going to be

          the way to go here, use small model masking tape this works very well, the trick here is

          to do small bits at a time waiting each time for the paint you have just done to dry, if you don't

          wait you WILL get fingerprints on the paint. Cut the tape into small lengths to work with.

        Other model makers use stick on red pinstripe, this never really works for me, the thickness

         of any tape that I have tried so far does not look great in 1/43 scale .

         4;  And as UK Steve says, Hold your breath when you are doing the fine detail.

         5;  Note... Some people have asked how to get the right colour red for the red lines ..

         what I do is mix a few different reds in a small air tight jar to get the right colour

         only a few drops at a time....Till I get the red I want...

         The type of paint I use is the car touch up paint ..the ones with the little brush inside.

         Paint should be applied in thin layers letting each coat dry before applying the next.

         Apply the paint in this order......

         1: Base coat ... Matt undercoat. (use grey not white)  two light coats.

         2: lightly sand the Matt undercoat with very fine wire wool to get a even base coat and key.

             Apply the first black paint ..... I use Matt black for the first black coat.

             Lightly sand with the fine wire wool to get a good smooth surface and key.

              Apply the first gloss black coat (this can be enough) and a second if required.

             Lightly sand with the fine wire wool (if necessary)

          7; Do you apply the clear coat now or after you paint the red lines ?

             If you are not doing the classic red lines then do apply the clear coat now,

             If you are doing the red lines now there are a few trains of thought !!

             Paint the red lines on the gloss black and then clear coat over them,

            Apply the clear coat first and then paint the red lines on  later.

            Apply one coat of clear then red line and then a last clear coat.

            Different modelers have their own views on this, I do No3.

            don't forget if you get a run on the clear coat you can very lightly rub it out with

            very fine wire wool, don't worry about the very very fine scratch marks as they

            will vanish as if by magic.

NOTE : It is very important to use the same type of paint for all applications ... ie : acrylic paint

              because some paints can react with others ie; enamel paint wont go well with acrylic paint.

         ì.Wheels.

          There are a few options here, you can use the original wheels,   eg; if you have the original

          cast wheels you can just order new tyres and put them on and you can repaint the gold wheels

           using gold met paint {you can also use gold met paint on the other gold parts,

           tow hook ,front chain cutter etc.}

           You can use the original whizz wheels after cleaning them up.

           Or you can build new wheels,   I  use cast wheels from sidkit ,com ,with the bat logos .

           NOTE; You will have to polish these to get them to look like chrome wheels and

           you will have to make your own axles for them {I use 2mm welding wire}

           The bat logos are fiddly paint them first before you take them off the sprue

           this will make life easy for you.....

         THE WHEELS BEFORE APPLYING THE BAT SPINNERS..

         10. The rocket firing assembly.......

         This is the cage part as I call it. This is held in place with three rivets sometimes this 

          is not in good condition but sometimes all it needs is a good clean in soapy water but

          if there is rust on the three flat prongs, clean these and paint on an anti rust

          gel (you can get this from a auto accessory shop) this will stop the rust from getting worse.

          With all this done it is ready to put in the car.

          If  you want to super detail it eg. paint it and  put extra levers on it like the emergency

          bat turn lever I will touch on this later!...

               Cage on left is painted matt black , ready for modifications.
               The one on the  right is just cleaned and put straight back in the batmobile as is .

         Also the thumb wheel needs to be cleaned and /or painted,

          If  the gold finish has faded then you can paint with gold met paint ,this will look

          the same as the original corgi wheel or you can paint it gloss black if you are going for

          the  60s TV look so that it blends with the black body .

        The thumb wheels one painted  black the other cleaned and ready to be

        painted  gold met....

    11. The seats...

          If the seats are in good condition just give them a good clean . If the front suspension

          pieces are broken, you have two options, 1. buy new seats or 2. put in new suspension.

          To put in new suspension you have to drill 1.5 mm holes into a lip in the base plate of the car

          and slide in two pieces of thin wire to hold the front Axel in place .

Suspension kit from Allbatman

         12 . The Windscreen....

         The windscreen usually that comes with your battered corgi 267 batmobile is

         cracked or damaged in some way the thing to do here is to replace it....

         When you get your new screen you will have to clean it up a bit ,eg take

         off The flash that is attached to from the moulding process , a sharp knife will do

         wonders here ! the glass thickness looks too thick to be realistic at the curved frame

         so a bit of careful knife and file work here to thin it at the edges will not go astray...

         If you are not so good with a knife ..leave it as you might slip with the knife and  damage it..

         to make it more true to life you will have to add silver paint to look like the frame

         that holds it in the car..I will cover  the painting of the windscreen , the horns etc

         in another section.......

         If you want it to be like the original corgi batmobile then just fix it in the car without

         painting it .and use a  small bit of glue to hold it in place ..but don't forget you have to assemble

         the horns and beacon  with it .

      13. The Chain Cutter....

          The Chain Cutter is pretty straight forward..... if it  is the original one and it is has just

           lost its paint you can clean it and paint with met gold paint .

           If the pegs on it are damaged in anyway there is no reasonable way to fix it

          ...so you will have to fit a new one ..

          The spring if lost can be got as a spare part.. although I have discovered that the small

          spring in a 3.5 inch floppy disc is very like the original one ,you might need two to get the

          same spring tension . open the disc carefully and the spring will pop out and its more or less

          the same size as the real one, I would only do this though if i couldn't get my

          hands on a spare part.

        Putting the lot together... lay the batmobile down on your stand (A roll of sellotape with some

          kitchen towel over it to protect the batmobile) and start to assemble the chain cutter you

          will notice that the two lugs on the chain cutter are of different sizes... the fat lug goes on the

          drivers side!... now you start by putting in the round spring in to its location just in front of the

           round hole then you put the button pin in the round hole matching the lugs on it to

           the ones in the body

           then you have to lay the small cast trigger bar with the chisel front a slot and a lug on it ...

           the lug goes in front

           the round spring and the spring will keep it in place, then put the chain cutter in place

           with its spring under tension and engage the chisel face of the trigger lug into the v cut

           n the chain cutter.

           If the v cut in the chain cutter is a bit worn rub it with a flat file to dress it up and get a good level

            place for the chisel face to engage it.

          (the way the cutter works is you press the button, it pushes down and retracts the

           trigger back disengaging the chain cutter and the cutter swings out).This is very fiddly work and

           you should study the way the mechanism works as you completely disassemble

             the batmobile for the first time.

           As I have said when you start to put the whole lot together start with the windscreens then fit the

           horns to the bottom of the windscreen and fit in the top half of the batmobile don't forget to put

           the beacon cage in place as well.

           Then fit the rocket tubes in place and the rocket firing thumb wheel and antenna

           now over this, fit the rocket firing assembly (cage) locate the three rivets in the three holes

           and and firmly press into place and use three drops of superglue to hold in place.

           Now fit the dash, steering wheel, and the chain cutter (see above) then

           now fit the exhaust and the flame into it. On earlier models the flame works on a cam

           fitted to the rear axel to go in and out. You can fit Batman in now from bellow if you so wish.

           then fit the front axle ...Now fit the seats ensuring batman is seated properly.

           Now fit the back axle (with or without the cam) and the front axle.

           fitting of the base is tricky because of the chain cutter (see above) start from the front making sure

           the chain cutter spring is in its proper place.

           now fit the base....secure the base with small machine screws or glue rivets in place.

           Some people will use just hot glue througk the holes and round off the glue as it hardens to a rivet

            shape, But I would not advise it.

I have had a few emails asking can you change the antenna without taking the batmobile apart....

Well Its not the best way, but you can do it .. Heres what you do.

Using a dremel with a very small grinding bit, grind away the stub of the old plastic antenna in the body of the batmobile being careful of the paint ...then cut the bottom lip off the new antenna bellow the spring effect on the antenna ..  you can use the dremel to grind down the plastic lip till it will fit in to the hole in the batmobile then place a drop of epoxy in the hole and set the antenna into it.

                        That's all for now!

                 copyright allbatman.com

 Click here to find your corgi batmobile online at eBay!  

Hot Wheels George Barris Batmobile 1:18 Scale Replica .. $35.99

Barris TV and Movie Cars .. $21.95

Barris TV & Movie Cars ..$17.12

 IF YOU COME ACROSS A POINT IN YOUR REBUILD OF THE CORGI 267 BATMOBILE THAT IS

NOT COVERED HERE...JUST EMAIL ME @...........allbatman@hotmail.com

Soon we are going to launch a members only part of the site where members will be able to see more detailed information on super detailing the corgi batmobile to make it as close to the 60s tv show version including plans to build an electronic corgi batmobile and the chance to buy the electronic kit to fit in the corgi batmobile (this kit will be exclusive to members only) and there will be discounts on other parts. and the chance to purchase our own batmobile gift sets. So leave your email with us and when the new members part is ready we will email you with your subscription details.

Thanks to everyone that has signed up!

NOTE*  As I hate spam you wont recieve many emails from me just the odd one from time to time .. I will not be sending you crap sales pitches at any time, so dont be waiting for an email in your inbox straight away.

thank you.