Resurrection and Transformation in Just Three Weeks....[PIC]

The 1955 Lincoln Futura was designed by Ford on a '53 Lincoln chassis and built by Ghia of Italy. The fully functional one-off concept did the auto show circuit an was then retired. It was loaned out to MGM in 1959 for the movie "It Started With a Kiss" . The original pearlescent Frost-Blue White finish, created by Ghia incorporating thousands of ground fish scales, was painted over in red that the movie's producers felt would stand out better in Technicolor. When Greenway Productions and Warner Brothers came to the Barris Brothers to fabricate a Batmobile for their upcoming TV series, they were only given 3 weeks to complete it. To accomplish this Herculean task, Barris rolled out the derelict Futura out of their back lot storage which they had purchased from Ford for $1. This car was used for every episode but one in the series although it received continual upgrades to the stock rolling chassis for performance and reliabilty while 4 other fiberglass bodied Batmobiles were built for the show circuit. The 5th was actually built as a drag car and Barris bought that one back as well as maintaining ownership of the original.