built by Gene Howard in Illinois and '65 popular customs cover car is up for grabs. sorry I dont have the ebay link but search under Barris or 1950 buick Kustom. its not mine & i dont know the owner just hope it goes to a good home. showrod
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...m=260157014342&ssPageName=STRK:MEBI:IT&ih=016 It's very badass.
Gene Howard died recently. He was 72 years old. He was also a master craftsman who ran a body shop for over 40 years. About 5 years ago he stopped into a body shop when I was visiting the owner, who was a friend of mine. Long story short, he gave us an example of his skills by "hammer welding" 2 pieces of sheet metal together. I was blown away! I'd heard of the technique, but never actually seen it demonstrated. Whenever I think about local "old school" and traditional customizing, Gene howard always comes to mind. May he rest in peace. He was a good man.
"George Barris,..... are all fans of this car" I shoulda known it was fugly with an endorsement like that.
All customs are open to debate boys...It seems a little harsh to condemn a mans work without knowing his intent. Although I do this for a living-I am not a real lover of customs....I personally do not like most customs that are real icons,but that does not mean I have the right to critique that which I really do not know nor understand........
Come on! As far as whacked out pieces of customs history goes, this is pretty tame. With a few mods (ditch those tail lights for starters) that could easily be moved into the far out side of tasteful full blown custom creation. I dig it.
Another Fugly vote here, I understand heritage, history and all that crap but I thought customs were about balance, form and flow...
C'mon, it was built in a time when everything was supposed to be futuristic and spacey. It's both of those things. I'm a fan of the way out Buck Rogers type stuff though. It may be ugly but it's my kind of ugly. I'd take it home from the bar.
grand style for 60-65... lead and bondowork it still has that certain sumtin you won't see any more..its the mix of older customs and wilder imaginations save and preserve this lost soul.. ten years from now they will wonder about these wilder times too
What I don't get is that if you show a wild Barris custom from the era it'll so often get tagged as absolute ugly ass. Then two weeks later post a wild Roth rod and so many lap it up like mother's milk. Pushing the envelope both. No middle ground and no breaking it down. I guess it just goes to show...doody is in the eye of the beholder. Or just maybe, another beer will make it all seem right. All logic escapes after a second. BLEEAAAAH
One mans meat is another mans poison. Yer right Choprods....the gentleman was a very talented individual. but....as stated...I am more inclined to the more mild custom.Just the advancement of the designers original idea... I like customs that flow......... Back in the 60's....the train of thought was sometimes to go extreme(and still today.) I am just a Westergard man.....
I gotta go with Jeff on this one.No doubt there is a ton of work in the car and it was probably all the rage when it was constructed.That being said,I just can't get into it.There were a lot of talented metal men out there at the time and there was a lot of really hideous cars built.Frank Marratta from Hartford CT was one of the best and he built two of the ugliest cars alive;the Pink Beast and that Studebaker with the 8 headlights. Even some of the custom coachbuilders of the thirties and forties turned out some ugly one-offs.Derham was among the worst offenders.Hooper turned out some Rolls-Royce bodies that would gag a maggot. That particular body style needs very little in the way of massaging;it can stand on it's own.Minor dechroming is about all it really needs.Just my odiferous predilection.
In its day this was probly pretty cool .Men were just walking on the moon and all that shit then. Remember the old buck rodgers shows with that Iron space ship with the sparkler sticking out the back I guess that was cool in the 50s. Hmm ahh hell its fugly
I think that's because a lot of people think of Barris as a creepy, lecherous, self-serving, big-mouthed asshole who rode his brother's coattails to semi-stardom. He's perceived as a jerk, hence, his cars suck. Roth, on the other hand, was idolized and hero-worshipped by a whole generation of kids. He may not have always been a choir boy, but he was a true original, an artist, and a genius. He may have missed the mark a few times in his designs, but he actually built the stuff and was a genuinely well-intentioned, friendly guy. He's percieved as a cool guy, hence, his cars rule. That's why.
Ah yes, Sam was gifted with his eye and ability. Plus George has that slimy rep. Unfortunately I know very little about Big Daddy. Hmm...maybe I'll start a thread.
From the front, it looks like a sports car with a Hemi stuffed in it. From the side, it looks like a merc with the B-post cut out. From the back, it looks like two porta-john urinal tubs were mounted on it. It just doesn't flow that well with the rest of the car. Although it may flow well if you peed on it. But I think that could be cleaned up as easy as tossing the two sets of '61 Plymouth lights for one big round light in the middle - like a '59 Buick maybe. You might be able to work '57/8 merc lights into that cove, too, but it depends on just how tall the cove is. Even just losing one set of the Plymouth lights would clean it up enough for me. Outside of that, I like it. But then again I'm the odd guy out it seems like, with exception of one poster above it seems like everyone loves those goofy Ed Roth cars and everyone seems to think all of Barris's cars are ugly. And some of them are. But I like late 50s/early 60s traditional customs, and I just don't get the Ed Roth stuff. That Studebaker custom that got posted on here a while back was great. Give me a stack of late 50's/early 60s car mags with customs in them and I'm sure I can find at least one cool ride in every issue.
I'm not even a fan of customs and I like it. There are plenty of cars out there for people to massage to their liking. I hope the buyer of this one leaves it like it is. Doc.
I wish I could figure out how to post pics on here... I have the popular customs cover photo of this car, and in that photo this car looks way cool, it is just a shot of the rear quarter and back wheel, the photog was probably laying on the ground, and the car was originally purple. When I first saw that magazine on ebay I bid it up to $35 just to see what the rest of the car looked like (I was insane, and later won alot of popular customs mags with that in it for $12, luckily patience paid off...) When I got the copy of popular customs, the car was not as kool as the cover shot. That is probably why it did not get much more coverage. That said , I hope whoever gets it dosen't change it any more than painting it back to its original purple. It would be great to see it in daryl starbirds museum, or back on the show circuit. Once again, here is oportunity, and me with no money......