History Barris Customs '55 Chevy 4 Sale in Hemmings

what people think its worth?maybe not important to some people but history is just about everyhing today, i dont see any collector wouldnt wanna bring this home for the price, im sure a stock 4 door today will be 10 plus, its a barris car with alot of history and not frame off and but nice,

 

I can't believe that more people don't know it right off the bat. As soon as I seen the head line for the post I knew it would be the Jim Seaton car.

Someone mentioned proving it was a Barris car. Too me it's as known as the Hirohata or the Buddy Alcorn Merc.

 

Here is yet another old Jalopy, someone is willing to spend $40 large, to have in their garage. And I would sooner pay that for this, than that rusty '32 I mentioned earlier
http://barnfinds.com/mix-old-new-19...ource=Newsletter+(Daily)&utm_content=morelink

 

Same car....I owned it before Kurt did. Kurt sent me some photos of it after he restored it.

 

Sorry, but it was not original paint in '81. I owned it in '75 and stripped all the old cracked and peeling paint off of it before selling it to a large auction company in Seattle. I was a college kid and didn't have the money to restore it properly, so I stripped the old paint off to make it more marketable to the next owner. It was drivable, but in sad condition. The hood was missing and I had to go to a local wrecking yard to get one ($50.00) to protect the chrome engine compartment from the weather. And as for the phone, it was an extra one we had sitting around the house. Because it was white, I thought it would be cool to put it in the car as a novelty. I also put an RCA 45rpm record player in the car....but somewhere along the line it disappeared with a newer owner. Customs weren't "cool" any longer in the '70s and I was VERY tempted to put a stock '55 front end on the car to make it more sellable, but I got to thinking "no, the master Customizer (Barris) custom built this car, and I'd better leave it as is....maybe someday somebody will appreciate it for what it is, and that I left it alone!" I couldn't get $1000 cash out of it anywhere. I placed my "auto for sale" ads in both the Spokane and the Seattle newspapers under "classic cars" and finally got an interested party (large auction company in Seattle). Actually they offered me a trade for a super clean '67 Mustang Fastback 390-4spd car. Interesting how BOTH cars are worth a Mint today!

 

Wow! More kustom stories getting filled in....
@Moriarity First Fancy Pants, now some of the backstory on this car.

@Curt Brennan Good thing you din't switch out the front clip, might have been lost forever!

 

Just a bit of inconsequential hearsay, but I once saw George Barris quoted as saying that this was his personal favorite build. (I do suppose a similar response from him about any car on the market at the time.)

 

If you look closely at the photo on the left, it will show "The Barris" as I called it back then along with my other cars I owned at the time. '65 Chevelle Malibu SS Convert, '65 Stingray Roadster and my daily driver '66 Dodge Charger. I was a college kid at the time and loved cool cars (which were fairly cheap at that time). I had no shop back then to store my "toys" in, so they sat outside. We lived in Cheney, Washington (near Spokane) at the time and yes, that's snow sitting on all my cars (including The Barris). I lived in that green and white trailer while going to school and my landlord hated all my cars out front. (Across the driveway sat my '53 and '56 Ford Victorias). Wish I still had them all..... ;-)

 

Looks more like George, not so much like Sam.

 

Most college kids had a Beater or scooter at best, you had 6 way cool cars???

 

Curt Brennan - Thanks for info

 

This is the car today. I just took these pics a couple of weeks ago. The car is currently at Mann’s Restoration in Festus MO. Getting freshend up. This is the same shop that just finished the Sam Barris Buick. They say the owner of the car currently is in Oregon.