"Dunananananananana BATMAN!!!
(From a Cozy Coupe!)
So first let me start off by saying this was in NO WAY my
original idea. I’ve seen the “after”
pictures floating around Pinterest for some time now and have desperately been
looking for a “How-to” so I could make one myself. I have the BIGGEST Batman fan (among 2 year
olds) that you will ever find. Swear if I would let him my son would live
in his batman clothes, eat off his batman plate and watch the old batman (the
animated series) episodes from morning to night. My husband would go along with it no questions
asked… However, for my own sanity I have a limit on the amount I can take in a
day.
I digress. Well back when I first saw the Bat mobile floating around I knew I had to make it but there was no way I was going to take a brand new ($60 or more) toy and paint it. So I’ve been scouring craigslist, second hand stores and yard sales trying to find one. It took some time but I was able to track down the car a few months back, and it was a STEAL! For starters it was coming from a local yard sale site, from someone I’ve purchased other items from (yay for not having to meet up with shady strangers) who just happens to live around the corner. When I got there she told me the car did not have the standard Little Tikes stickers on it (yay, less work for me, because if it did I would have had to peel them off!) So I rushed right over (the day before Thanksgiving) to pick up the car and hide it in the garage until I could get to work on it.
It took some
research but I was able to find a site that referenced painting Little Tikes
plastic toys, and they recommended: Krylon Fusion for Plastic Spray Paint,
which I was able to find at our local Wal-Mart. I started off with two cans of
black paint, first let me say I don’t advise doing this at night, since it made
it hard to see if the paint was even, and thus caused me to have to go back out
the next day and purchase 2 more cans of paint…which I think could have been
avoided had I done it during the day. I wore protective eye-wear because well
I’d never worked with spray paint before.
I wish I’d have thought of a mask…not because of the fumes, those
weren’t really so bad (I did it in our large garage with the door open) but
because I was getting black paint in my tissues for a couple of days after. The
paint dries to the touch in 30 minutes and is completely dry in an hour. If you’re anything like me, I had to be SURE
everything was black. I SHOULD have done
the underside of the car first but I didn’t…believe me it’ll be easier if you
do. Other than that I painted EVERYTHING, including the steering wheel, and the
tires. Make sure that you get the door
completely; I had it open to spray the inside and almost forgot to shut it and
cover the spot near the hinge. Oops! I
will note that the can says any touch-ups should be done within 24 hours or
after 7 days. I don’t know why that is, but I would say cover it the best you
think you can and let it dry then if you need to add an additional coat.
I let it dry for about 5 hours, just to be safe, and then I added stickers to the front of the car and to the door. You could make a stencil (or even cut out Vinyl) and paint it yellow. I had decided to go the sticker route thinking it’d be cheaper than a can of yellow spray paint to do a couple of places. So that’s really up to you, I’m sure there are tons of other ways, and it could even be hand painted if that’s your thing.
Aside from having to make a second run to Wal-mart in total
it took about 2 hours of work, and given my over cautiousness 5 hours to dry (I
won’t count the overnight since it wasn’t really done). I think I’ll have one
very happy 2 year old Batman fan come Christmas morning."
I hope you all love this as much as I do! It came out great and I can't wait to hear how her son reacts when he sees it! :-D
