Lincoln Futura

[GLMFAA1]

I got the Batmoble with the TV figures the other day and I dusted off my old Revell Futura kit thinking that Bruce Wayne should have had this as his daily driver. When I was doing some research on the Futura I came across this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9v3lIN9EOY

Which shows Ford designers and engineers beside a RED Futura......

Now the story is that there was only one built and was repainted for a 1959 movie, so I am so confused that professor Peaody and his way back machine as no idea what date to set it at. Maybe there were 2 of them after all.

Isn't interesting that Ford lost the 'Futura' name

greg

[RancheroSteve]

Hard to tell - that film is pretty faded (and towards the red end of the spectrum). Someone suggested in the YouTube comments that the Futura was painted red before it left Ford - maybe after the car show appearances, and because it would look better for this film?

Remember, it was more than four years between the unveiling of the Futura (1/8/55) and the release of "It Started with a Kiss" in '59 - a lot could have happened . . .

[Craig Irwin]

The car was built an Ice blue pearl, and repainted red in the late 50's at the Barris Kustom shop for the movie "It Started With a Kiss". http://www.1966batmobile.com/background2.htm

[RancheroSteve]

That's always been the story, but watch the film - as the original poster pointed out here, it appears red in this promo film.

[RancheroSteve]

And is Barris supposed to have painted it - or did it come to him already painted and/or after the film?

[Craig Irwin]

Funny that that video was posted by the site I linked to ! Go back and watch it again, the artwork the designers are working on is obviously from the early 60's, not the 50's. I'll bet this film was made about the same time as the movie. Unfortunately the copyright dates were cropped.

[RancheroSteve]

Good point, Craig - there doesn't seem to be a definitive date for the film, but it's obviously made at least a few years after 1955 - maybe 1959 or so, like you or so suggest.

I need to sit down and closely watch the whole thing from the beginning.

[Craig Irwin]

The clay model they are working on in your video is called Astreon in the film, I cant find anything on it, but the Si-Fi name and the 61 T-Bird type front bumper would date it at about the time of the 59 movie and repaint.

[Craig Irwin]

Note that they were showing all of the security they used in the design department. I'm sure the Futura and the other examples were used because they no longer held any secrets.

[Ace-Garageguy]

From Hemming's Daily...

The Batmobile’s history actually begins a couple of years before Lincoln debuted it as the Futura. During the development of the Continental Mark II, the Continental division briefly considered building the Mark II as a retractable hardtop convertible. Coachbuilder Hess and Eisenhardt of Cincinnati was then commissioned to build two mechanical prototypes for that project, basing them on 1953 Lincoln chassis stretched three inches to the Mark II dimensions. Only one such prototype, later known as MP#5, was built, so John Hollowell, who was in charge of that project, sold the other modified chassis to the Lincoln-Mercury division sometime before late 1954 for $17,000.

Lincoln-Mercury bought the chassis specifically to use as the basis for the Futura, a car that Lincoln head stylist Bill Schmidt began to sketch in 1952. Lincoln press materials claimed that Schmidt got the idea for the Futura when diving in the Bahamas, but as Jim and Cheryl Farrell wrote in their book Ford Design Department Concepts and Showcars, 1932-1961, while Schmidt did indeed vacation and dive in the Bahamas with Bill Mitchell (who, of course, took inspiration from the sea life he saw to create his own legendary concept cars), Schmidt actually took much of his inspiration for the Futura from jet fighters, as did many other stylists at that time. His double-bubble canopied, canted fendered two-seater concept quickly got approved to become a full-sized and functional concept car, and in late 1954 Schmidt sent the modified Lincoln chassis, a complete set of plans and a full-sized plaster model over to Ghia in Turin. Ghia then took just three months to hammer out a body from metal, paint it a unique iridescent bluish-white, and send it back to Dearborn. Lincoln then added the Plexiglas canopy and debuted the Futura in January 1955 at the Chicago Auto Show.

Photo courtesy Ford Motor Company.

The Futura was Lincoln’s last show car until 1963 and really their last dedicated show car not based on a production car until 1987, so the division continued to exhibit it until 1959, when Barris somehow convinced Lincoln to lend the Futura to Arcola Pictures and MGM for use (painted red) in the film It Started With a Kiss. After filming it went back to Dearborn, then again to Southern California, where it split the next six years between the MGM studio lot and Barris’s shop. As the Farrells wrote, “during that time, the tires went flat, the paint faded, one or two of the wheelcovers were lost and the car generally deteriorated.” Barris continued to work with Ford and Lincoln through the 1960s, however, and sometime in 1965 he convinced Lincoln to sell the Futura to him – reportedly for $1 – then negotiated with Twentieth Century Fox to provide a Batmobile for the upcoming Batman television series.

(As an aside, Dean Jeffries told Tom Cotter that he was originally tapped to build the Batmobile and had proceeded to cut up a Cadillac to do so, but the studio moved up the timetable on him, thus giving Barris the opportunity to provide the car. “The producers didn’t like working with Barris, but they were locked into him because he had the rights to the car,” Jeffries said. “They said, ‘We’re not going to deal with him again,’ so that’s how I ended up building the Green Hornet car and Wonder Woman’s car.”)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The article states that after filming of "It Started...", the car (then red) was returned to Dearborn. It could well have been used during production of the Ford promotional film, already painted red, at that time.

Edited January 3, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[GLMFAA1]

Thanks Bill for the information, That explains the gaps in the timeline with the car going cross country several times. I knew the Ford promo film was late 50 early 60 and wondered how the car got back to them.

Interesting side bar was that when I was in college one instructor I had worked in Detroit as a designer and he said that the designers often would go back and forth between the companies, ever notice the coke bottle Fords and then Pontiacs?

greg

[RancheroSteve]

Thanks for that info, Craig and Bill. I think I've been fascinated with this story for awhile - like most kids of my generation, I grew up thinking the TV Batmobile somehow sprung from "whole cloth". My mind was blown when I found out some years ago ago about the Lincoln Futura and its history. (Yes, I've built models of both now.)

Hey, remember the internet didn't exist in 1966 . . .

[webestang]

I got the Batmoble with the TV figures the other day and I dusted off my old Revell Futura kit thinking that Bruce Wayne should have had this as his daily driver. When I was doing some research on the Futura I came across this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9v3lIN9EOY

Which shows Ford designers and engineers beside a RED Futura......

Now the story is that there was only one built and was repainted for a 1959 movie, so I am so confused that professor Peaody and his way back machine as no idea what date to set it at. Maybe there were 2 of them after all.

Isn't interesting that Ford lost the 'Futura' name

greg

Side note.....The designer they show at his desk at the 12 second mark is Phil Clark. Phil Clark help design the 62 Mustang I and the tri-bar running horse for the Mustang we all still know today.

[gtx6970]

Just to bring this one back up.

Anyone know a good paint match for this ? I want the so called ' blueish white '

I have been wanting to build one of these but the color has me stalled

I was thinking paint it a pearl white with just a touch of blue mixed in the clear ?

[72 Charger]

I have a futura too Bill and I was a bit stumped on the correct colour too . I think that your approach in theory sounds good . But as there was only one car and that was repainted then who is to say what is correct?!

[Edsel-Dan]

For Correct Paint, you will have to include Scale Fish Scales,

as that was what was added to the the Paint then for the Pearlescent effect!!

Also, it was reported that it looked different to everybody, Some seeing blueish,

some more greenish color, others more white or silvery.

Supposedly, it was filmed in the Original color for the Movie at first, but all prints had it

coming out as Dull or Flat. No gloss. The Special effect of the paint was lost

to Film. Many say This is why it was re-painted Red For the film.

A Fiberglass copy was used in the Viper episode 'Car of Fire' (Baxley)

Also Red, with the Chrome only silver paint!!

I am still looking for a copy of that (Actually ALL) episode of VIPER!!!

[Craig Irwin]

After talking to someone that I consider an expert on this car I'm ready to retract what I stated earlier. He believes the Futura was repainted in 57 or 58, possibly at Ford. He stated that the repaint was a quality job and not a down and dirty job as the Barris shop would have most likely done for a movie. He also knew of the film posted above, and stated it was made in 1964 long after "It Started With a Kiss".

Edited March 1, 2015 by Craig Irwin

[Art Anderson]

I can confirm the actual color of the Futura as built and shown by Ford: When I was doing product development for Johnny Lightning, my first "from the research up" project was the 1/64 scale JL Lincoln Futura. Given the emphasis on as much accuracy that could be packed into a 1/64 scale diecast car selling at #2.99 retail, I had to be as accurate as possible for the color. I found references in text referring to the actual color being a light blue pearl, while the existing color photo's show the car being slightly green in shade.

A phone call to Matt Usher, then working in the licensing department at Ford got me the information. According to Matt, the color was called "Ice Blue Pearl", and the base color was copied almost exactly as 1963 Ford Glacier Blue, which that very light blue (sometimes looks almost white!) used in '63-'64. He suggested we try that color, with a pearl clear coat over it, which worked just fine.

Matt further went on to relate that those original color pictures were in the library of the former Ford Rotundra Building, which burned in the early 1960's, and a lot of historical photo's and their negatives were damaged to some degree. From my memory--those old Kokak color prints weren't all that stable, and tended to "yellow" over time--which would account for the rather off-color in official pictures of the Futura dream car.

Art

Edited March 2, 2015 by Art Anderson

[RancheroSteve]

I've got one of those JL Futuras - it's a beautiful piece and the color looks really right!

[Edsel-Dan]

I have the J-L Futura in Both Original color & Red,

and a Hot Wheels in Original color too!!

Thanks for the info on Base color that will make completing the

kit I have easier. though getting the paint will not be too easy

Unless it is still in the catalog somewhere.

If I get it at NAPA I will transfer it into a Jar/bottle as the Heritage Burgandy

hardened/dried out in the can!! I can't afford that!!!!!

[Art Anderson]

I have the J-L Futura in Both Original color & Red,

and a Hot Wheels in Original color too!!

Thanks for the info on Base color that will make completing the

kit I have easier. though getting the paint will not be too easy

Unless it is still in the catalog somewhere.

If I get it at NAPA I will transfer it into a Jar/bottle as the Heritage Burgandy

hardened/dried out in the can!! I can't afford that!!!!!

Jameston Kroon at Scale Finishes can mix that color for you--his paints are first-class!

Art

[gtx6970]

Anyone know if there is a kit tire that is more accurate than the hard plastic tires in the kit .? I looked at he wide whites in the 55 300 kit and the height is not even close

The actual car had some wide white walls on it with the firestone lettering clearly legible.

Just wondering as this kit is on my short to do list maybe later this year

[RancheroSteve]

Anyone know if there is a kit tire that is more accurate than the hard plastic tires in the kit .? I looked at he wide whites in the 55 300 kit and the height is not even close

The actual car had some wide white walls on it with the firestone lettering clearly legible.

Just wondering as this kit is on my short to do list maybe later this year

I can't remember exactly which ones they are, but I used some tires from The Modelhaus when I built mine:

Get'em while you can!

[72 Charger]

That's nice Steve I hope mine comes out looking that good . The colour looks very close too.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Doobie

[RancheroSteve]

Thanks, Dave - I think the better tires made a huge difference. It's not really a difficult kit to build if you can accept it for what it is, take your time building it and apply some more contemporary materials and technology. I built this one quite a few years ago, but I think if I were to do another I'd strip the chrome and re-do it with Alclad or the like.