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Hi, Folks,
I did a bit of digging about the history of the Futura a few years back for a project I was working on.
It was originally built for the 1955 Car Show season, and after its debut it was kept travelling for two years before it was sold off to George Barris, who parked it in front of his customizing shop in North Hollywood. It was cleaned up and painted red for the Glenn Ford-Debbie Reynolds film "It Started With A Kiss", and was then returned to the Barris shop. Somewhere in my files I have a photo of it at this point, with the red paint badly oxidized and the tires half flat. The Futura was chosen to be converted into the Batmobile when Barris was approached by 20th Century Fox and asked to create a car in just three weeks. Changes to the car included reshaping the wheel wells, fins and front grille area, installation of Rader custom wheels, gas-burning "jet exhaust" and drag parachutes, plus an assortment of gadgets, removal of the hinged center section of the bubbletop, and cutting a section out of the top arc of the steering wheel along with an overall gloss black paint scheme. Much of the work was actually done by Dean Jefferies, who also created The Green Hornet's Black Beauty and The Monkeemobile. Additional changes to the Futura during the run of the TV show included replacement of the original drivetrain with units from a mid-'60's Ford Galaxie due to dependability issues.
When I last saw the car up close, about 12 years ago, Barris had added little tags all over the car to indicate various "Bat-devices". My favorite was the "Gas Nozzles" sticking out of the grille, which were very obviously Rain-Bird sprinkler heads painted neon orange. Another of George's goofy gimmicks.
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