History The Barris '53 Glazier Oldsmobile is heading off to Auction

Brandon…You just hit the nail on the head!!.It was and still is a relatively unknown Custom before and now, after it’s 50 yr hibernation. The professionally executed paint scallops and pin striping, quad headlights etc is still a matter of taste, I think. Don’t forget, this Olds, is still, (by definition, a mild custom).
Dare I compare the Olds to another Barris creation?…How about the Hirohata Merc? Obviously, there is no comparison! The stunningly beautiful radical Custom was and still is considered to be the Barris brothers best effort ever. The Merc was justly famous when it was built, famous when it was shown and still famous when it disappeared!
It finally emerged with an over the top restoration and went to auction. Does anybody remember what it brought?.. I think it was like over 2 million or something.

 

It reached $75K but It did not sell says on the Mecum site.THE BID GOES ON.

 

The hammer dropped at $1.95 million before fees on the Hirohata Merc. That car is the outlier for customs due to is well known status and appeal. A custom Merc is "THE" custom to most people and that car is THE Merc of all the Mercury's on a lot of people lists. The restoration on the car is actually getting old it was done in the late 90s early 00's if I recall correctly as it was covered in Rod & Custom, hard to recall exactly as I was a pretty young kid at that time.

Its also hard to really know what kind of bump in value the car had with it being a Barris car vs just another survivor custom from a unknown builder. I have wondered that with Taboo over the years trying to just guess a real life value as its priceless to me, but when trying to do insurance recently its been back in my mind. I would be shocked if the car got bid to $40-50k at a similar setting.

 

Let me say, I love customs and love the survivor status of this one.
With that said, it was just one of hundreds of cars to come through the Barris' shop and wasn't a particularly well known one. (at least not on the level of the Hirohata, Aztec, Golden Sahara, etc) and I think the auction estimate was unrealistic. I would thought $75 to $100K would have been strong money for it. I was more disappointed in the Bob Woodward roadster only bringing $170K and that is a much more significant car, in my opinion.

 

I wonder what the bill just for the chrome shop was for the Woodard car restoration.