It works a little better in it's darker version.Not the prettiest Kustom,but I wouldn't kick it out of the garage for eating crackers.
Agreed. Black would have been a better color suited this car. I still love it. Especially the side panels and of course the grille work but am a strict fan of the teardrop lights on these early fords and the side view for those lights don't impress me.
Lets hope its in good hands and doesn't get "updated". I have never been a big fan of the Packard grilles or those sealed beam type lights/bezels, but I absolutely love this car. Very clean.
Ryan,I wouldn't call the car ugly,I tend to think of it as homely but for some unknown reason I do like the car. Normally I prefer the later lower profiles of the 50's & 60's but there is something that just stops me in my tracks with this car. HRP
HRP, I think Ryan is referring to the "conventional wisdom" of all '38 Fords being ugly. Me, I'm not so wild about the '38 Deluxe front end styling, but, like Doc Watson, I really like the '38 Standard design. I know it looks a bit like the International trucks of the same year, but the '38 Standard seems like a very coherent example of streamline styling; even more so than the '37's. As for the Fowler Ford, I'd rather he'd used '40 Chevy headlights, but I like the Packard grille. K6
I also don't care much for the deluxe but love the standards. I'm sure I will be in the minority on this, but I think they have some of the best body lines of the fat fendered Fords.
This car is another example of the superior craft and abilities of Sam Barris. Being a fortynut, I bought a '37 Coupe back in the seventies thinking I could still some of my yearning for another coupe like the '40 I owned in high school. Instead, as I came to know the car it dawned on me the huge difference between the body styles of the late late thirties cars, as opposed to the forty (yeah I know it was thirty-nine when it arrived). They suffered, as anyone knows from Henry Ford's stinginess in allowing them to have been less stodgy. I don't know if he ever regretted that particular choise, like he eventually did for treating his son Edsel so poorly, or not. But, I hold him responsible for what all of us who live with the less than elegant styling that resulted have come to know as a clunky mid-point between the beauty of the thirty-five and six, and the forty design. Don't get me wrong, I came to love my '37 and drove it a lot but Jake Jacobs once offered me a very nice forty standard Coupe for a fair price and I didn't buy it, to my regret. There is a big difference. I curse myself a lot that I didn't buy the forty, and yet, I wouldn't take money for the fun and enjoyment my '37 gave me. And, to me, Sam did wonders with a body style that even Ford Motor Co. dropped the ball on.
I still say if ya take a '38 Ford (standard or deluxe) and put it next to a '38 Chevy, Plymouth, or Dodge, aesthetically speaking I think most would choose the Ford. I'm sure Kurt will do this car justice. Maybe by simply leaving it how it is. It'd take a damn fool to pay around $75k for a car with history and turn it into a technicolor street rod.
I know Kurt is a pretty well respected collector, but knowing that he has it, you can expect it to get the 350/350 treatment unfortunately.
I can just see some cool looking guy with sideburns, shades, collar up on his jacket driving this back in the day! Oh and a lucky strike hanging out of the corner of his mouth
I know Sam Barris built it, and Kurt McCormick now owns it, and both of them had/have great taste in cars, but it's still kinda ugly.
Where are your Barris cars? No matter what he does, it will be on the road and he will drive the shit out of it.. Not sitting behind a computer talking shit on others. Kurt doesn't buy them resto them to keep them locked up. He's buys them to build them they way he wants so he can drive them.
Haha I had to laugh, see below. I respect what Kurt has saved, but street rodding historic customs, eh, I don't likey. Restoring them to how they were originally customised doesn't mean they are un-drivable Kurt obviously has a preference to have certain comforts. fwiw Jim's (Bubba67) latest resto, he ain't no keyboard warrior.
bubba67... Not sure about that. Kurt's an old friend and he likes Caddy mills...can't vouch for this one yet. Jonnie www.legends.thewwbc.net
Actually, I happened to talk to Kurt this weekend. He mentioned the '38 is at the shop as we speak getting the body work done. He did talk about that most all the pictures you see of it are in white primer, although he has seen two of it painted a dark color but had no idea what the color actually was. He was thinking about painting it dark green or maroon, because no one could remember what color it actually was…or never remembered seeing painted at all. He recently talked to Jesse Lopez who said he remembered it being painted black, so black it will be. The chassis is finished and nearly ready to drive….and has previously been mentioned, drive it he will. Not sure that the comments about "street rodding" historic customs were made by anyone who has actually looked at what he has done first hand and crawled all over them? I have. Every single one of his cars is drivable any where. If you see him at a show, you can be pretty certain he drove there. Not too many historic customs outside of Kurt's collection are being driven very far….if at all. Most all of his have vintage motors in them as well. Not only is he neck deep in the '38 at the moment, he is waaaaaaay into the Sam Barris '49 Buick. If you haven't seen the pictures, it was discovered that the bottom half of the car was totally gone so they have replaced virtually all the sheet metal on the bottom half of the car. No small expense I'm sure.
Me too. '40's are ubiquitous at this point. '38's all got used up on the roundy round tracks in the '50's and '60's and are actually rare at this point. The Barris '39 'vert is here in Nevada at the Nat'l Auto Museum (old Harrah's collection). Identical grille treatment. A Barris trademark no doubt. If it was good enough for Bill Harrah way back in the 1960's it just may be worth $75 large now. Hard to say. I do hope the sad eyes go back on though. The sealed beam conversions are vomit.
Seriously? That's the only thing you can come up with? Have you ever been to Kurt's house? Have you ever looked at his cars? Out of the numerous historic Kustoms that he now owns and has saved he has 2 with SBCs in them and one of them, The Dream Truck, has had an SBC in it since late 1954 when the first documented SBC transplant was made. So, what do you suggest? Take the SBC out of The Dream Truck and replace it with a Flathead Ford? So, if you took some time and did some research you would find that the vast majority of his Kustoms are powered by early 331 and 390 Cadillacs...most with tons of ultra rare vintage speed equipment.
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