How To Create Some BATmagic

This is the photo which gave me the impetus to go ahead with my fabulous new idea – a Nailed It section of the blog where I attempt stuff I shouldn’t.

A few months ago I saw the above photo of a restored Little Tike on a friend’s Facebook page and I had an epiphany. Or is that a BATiphany? Okay, no, that doesn’t work. I definitely had an epiphany then.

“Tracey,” I called out, “come and see this! I want to do this!”

“I don’t think you’ll fit,” she said.

Isn’t she hilarious?

“It’s not for me,” I said. Obviously. “I just want to make one.”

“For your little daughters? Because they always talk about how they want to be Batman?”

So okay, I’m giving it away.

The thing is I’m mad keen, now that I’m a stay at home dad, to try do a few things I wouldn’t normally have time for.

For one thing I’ve started painting around the house. Trouble with that is the kids want to help, so the more we paint the more mess they create with paint, so the more I have to paint. At this point I’m figuring I will need to put a brush over the entire house, inside and out. Twice.

But the other thing I want to do is stretch myself.

I’m going to cook, hammer, spray, saw, glue, knit, sand and sew things to see if I can do them. It’ll be fun and probably a laugh. I can do with both of those.

This whole project has come about because of this meme, which I stumbled across years ago.

I nearly wet myself laughing because I figured mine would look more like the bottom than the top.

I’m calling that empathy. I laughed in empathy.

And if there’s one thing I like doing it’s laughing at myself. This is going to be, I think, a perfect fit because the fact is I fully expect to fail at most things I try. I’ve never, by way of example, successfully made icing for a cake.

So now I’ve finally decided to go ahead with this and the BATcar is my first project – mainly because I figured most the work would be done at the sticker shop so there was a good chance it’d work. They took all the measurements at PC Place down the road and explained they’d be ready the next day.

I pointed at my black, stealth vehicle and asked, “Do you want to put this out the back somewhere?’

I figured they wouldn’t want to leave it in the shop. It wasn’t there on consignment.

“Ummm….” said the nice lady behind the counter, “….do you maybe want us to put the stickers on for you?”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” I lied. “That’d be lovely.”

So here’s my first ‘Nailed It’ entry. Success or failure – you be the judge.

I fully intend doing more of these Little Tikes cars my friends’ kids are finished with and giving them away. Far better to have them refashioned and made awesome than going straight into landfill.

It cost me $12 in spray paint and little more in stickers, and I think it’s a winner, which makes me very, very happy. Mainly because I don’t expect I’ll be able to type that again for a long, long time.

I totally BATrock!!!

If you want to do this it’s really simple:

Step One: Get someone to give you a Little Tikes car their kid has outgrown. This is important for keeping costs down.

Step Two: Remove all the stickers and wash the car. You’re going to need a superpower for this – those Little Tikes stickers must be adhered with superglue. It took me a whole stubby to get them off.

(note: apparently Eucalyptus oil would have saved me some skin)

Step Three: Buy a can of black spray paint which says it doesn’t need an undercoat and will stick to plastic. Try not to look like a hoodlum while doing it.

Step Four: Spray the car. Away from anything you don’t want black, like sheds, real cars or children.

Step Five: Take your black car to a sticker shop and have them print and, if you can, apply the stickers. If you’re lucky they’ll be funny bastards who know how good you are around tools and will ask if you need a warning sticker as well – ha ha guys.

Step Six: Live vicariously through your children as they race around being BATMAN.

Note: If you think this is a ‘failure’ you are wrong or mean. I totally nailed this!

Note Note: No actual nailing was involved in this project, although there was a bucket of soapy water and a scouring pad.

Note Note Note:  I needed a BATnap after this effort so I turned my Man-cave into a BATcave.

Note Note Note Note: Man-cave is my bedroom. I didn’t change anything. Just added me and a BATsmile.

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“Raising a family on little more than laughs.”