Just received the Dec Rod & Custom in the post.There is an excellent article by JimA on the Ala Kart and The Sam Barris Merc. In it he interviews George Barris who mentions his shop burned down in 1957, 15 cars were destroyed, the only car to survive was the Ala Kart which was under construction. Anyone know what else was lost in the fire? Apologies if this has been covered before. Russell.
dunno but at that time that number of cars would be in and out of the shop weekly some customs some just regular body type work ...kinda like any modern shop turn over is the way to make money ... doubt if many were "historical' Barris cars some one go ahead please add the facts and correct my opinion
Some of the cars lost in the fire - The "Wild Kat" F100 pickup, totally burned to the ground, roof materials fell on it. Archie Moore's magnesium-bodied Jaguar - totally destroyed, the magnesium burned - Jayne Mansfield's XK-120 Jaguar Ron Guidry's chopped 36 Ford Coupe A Chopped 53-ish Merc they were redoing at the time, interior burned out of it. Car had a lot of work, canted quads, new grille and bumper, and more. Ala-Kart got lucky, that's where the fire stopped, it had some light damage but nothing major. Those are just what are mentioned/shown in Barris Kustoms of the 1950s, which is a Motorbooks International publication. In the background of one of the photos looks like a 57-58 Imperial sedan that the interior is burned out of too. He also says the insurance called it an act of God and didn't pay him a dime for it, and had it not been for his girlfriend (later his wife) he might have just given up entirely on the business.
there was a 56 chev hardtop that they pushed out of the shop just before it burned. belonged to one of the guys girlfriends.. he was famous too, I just can't remember his name. one of the articles made it sound like when the door was opened to push the 56 out, that it sucked the fire through the whole shop.
Dean Jefferies aka "Kid Jeff"...Story goes that he was eating in a diner accross the street and saw the smoke. He called the fire dept. and tried to get any cars he could out. His girlfriends 56 Chevy just happend to be the car closest to the door. If you look in the Barris book, you can see a steel 32 roadster that got burnt too. I have never seen a list anywhere of what the 15 cars were, just highlights of the more famous.Maybe Rikster knows.... I would bet that had to be Barris worst day for a long time...
Interviewing George and all the people for that story was one of the best experiences of my life. That story is almost 9 pages long- and they had to cut it way down to get only that much in there. So much material, and all the people including George were so nice to deal with. He was so complimentary to all the other builders of the era and especially complimentary about the people who had restored both cars. Learned some great things about him- like he still travels to car shows EVERY weekend of the year- and his philosophy that you great ALL people the same. And if you have ever met George he does make you feel special because I remember meeting him years ago and he was so nice and genuinely excited to make a fan feel special. Hope you all like the story, again it was an honor to get to work on it. Jim
That's insane. I can't imagine building the body of a car out of magnesium. Other than being light, what is the point? It couldn't have been that much lighter than aluminum which has to be alot easier to obtain, work and care for.
There is a magnesium bodied Corvette in the Indy museum;light weight was an overpowering goal for some.
JimA Is there a way to get the whole transcipt of the interview? You are right about George being a friendly guy, when I met him a number of years ago when there was a lull in the crowd around, and we had a great conversation about customs.
My God Dont act that way! Id be pissed as hell..Maybe the same God would need to hold his insurance agent against the wall with an AK47 to bottom of his jaw.. Bummer of a loss
Enjoyed the article. Great approach on the background stories as opposed to an oft repeated mechanical recitation. Good read.
That was one of the best articles in R&C in a long time! Any interview I've seen with George, and the times I've visited with him at shows, he does seem like a genuinely nice, car crazy guy. Even if only half the stories he tells are true, he's led a pretty great and crazy life! It's a shame he gets bashed for some of cars he's built/or claims to have built. He will always be the "King of Kustomizers" to me, for what he's done to promote customs as well as the cars he built.
Jim, Might I suggest that you make it a possibility for the full articles to be seen on line by subscribers? If you only could put up 4 or 5 pages of the full 9, I bet there is stuff I'd love to read more on. My son is 15 and read it the day it came in. He gave the the full run down. He has loved the Ala Kart since I brought home a vintage model from a buddy at work for him. He hasn't put it together but he has gone through all the pieces and has read a ton of stuff on it whenever it is published.
Fire and brimstone????? Volcanic eruption????? Meteorite????? Bolt of lightening????? Was anybody turned to a pillar of salt?????
Here is an article about the fire from a 50's magazine with pictures of some of the cars. http://books.google.com/books?id=pm...X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA219,M1 In another book "The Ageless Warrior", it says that Archie Moore replaced his $30,000 jaguar with a old pick-up truck worth less than $60.
Honestly I had been told I could do the story months before- but was stumped at how to make a story about two cars we know so much about interesting. The Rodder's Journal had recently done stories on both of them and they do such a great job I did not want to just come out as a "Cliff's Notes" version of that- to the point I purposely did not read those stories so I would not subliminally repeat them. Finally I got an idea- The story was originally- "8 Guys- 8 Questions", but as you can see a few got clipped off for space. Would be cool if they ran the whole thing on the web- I know they are adding the spec boxes to the web version of the story. Thanks, Jim
Thats a great article! I was a kid in the seventies and me and my friend were building the Ala Kart model from junk pieces we found from old kits we traded for. I met George a few times and he is a showman. He was in the right place at the right time. This issue is also a double cover issue. Subscribers got the Sam Barris merc and the Ala Kart on the cover.
Man, I'd imagine that once that magnesium got going, it'd be only a matter of "get the marshmallows and wait this one out". Act of God, you say? I wonder where they came up with that.
wow..i live a few blocks away from the shop that burned down...will try to take a shot of what is their now, 50 yrs later.
Yes, I saw the actual Ala Kart with the Sam Barris Merc at the Wally Parks Museum, then went to the Peterson and saw the copy. Big let down.
That's not the Ala Kart ... it's Howdy Ledbetter's clone. EDIT: Damn! ... I guess I type too slow ... JimA & menacekustoms beat me to the punch!
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