Does anyone have any hints or rumors to the whereabouts of the Dave Bugarian 51 Merc Frank Songzoni 50 Merc orJerry Quesnels chopped 49. All of the others are accuonted for. I saw some recent photo of Songzonis on the web somewhere and know it was at the leadsled nats in Des Moines in the early 80s painted white and it was from the southwest. Where is it now? Greg Sharp said he last saw the Bugarian Merc under a carport in So Cal in the early 70s.Did it survive?
this was told to me to be a Barris car. ( Sam Barris ) the front end has changed and the inside is gutted. the owner will not sell , show, or work on it.
based on the poor flow and overall ***bersome look of that chop, i have a hard time believing sam barris had anything to do with it...bob
[ QUOTE ] this was told to me to be a Barris car. ( Sam Barris ) the front end has changed and the inside is gutted. the owner will not sell , show, or work on it. [/ QUOTE ] It may be, but I doubt Sam B. would have chopped a car like that.
yea it looks bad in the pic.s. but the hammer welds are perfect. not much lead filler. I was told it was built as a race car, salt flats.
Gonna say, it just doesn't look Sam Barris. The workmanship may be good on it, but the style and proportions are just plain wrong for a Sam Barris chop.
I don't know anything about the Mercs you are asking about but I saw this one locally not too long ago...
That is a really cool kustom. but its no merc... (even thought it does have that "famous merc sidetrim"!!) lol What a neat post! I hope somebody can find you at least ONE lead. How COOL would it be to find one of those "sleeping" in someones barn/garage for the last 40 or so years. I would probably have a coronary on the spot...
[ QUOTE ] is that one restyled to look more like a 49 Chevy? [/ QUOTE ] yeah yeah!! thats it!! "i gots me one of them leadsled chevy mercs!!"
[ QUOTE ] Odd !? Aren't we all a little odd ? [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, but I'm talking from an English point of view...you know....really odd, like 32limey...but worse!! Sorry Kev....well, not really dave
When did Sam build that car, the purple carson topped job? I see it all the time and it is touted as a "Barris" but I never hear or see a story. It looks too much like an intricate later version of an early styled kustom. Does anyone know?
[ QUOTE ] When did Sam build that car, the purple carson topped job? I see it all the time and it is touted as a "Barris" but I never hear or see a story. It looks too much like an intricate later version of an early styled kustom. Does anyone know? [/ QUOTE ] From what I heard on here when Randy originally posted about it several months ago....... It was built by Sam (it does have Barris badges on the fenders) the owner admits it was Sam not George if you quiz him about it tho... It was aparrently badly smashe in an accident & then re-built with those awful wheels. I remember someone on here knew quite a bit about it tho... Hope this helps? dave
[ QUOTE ] The Chevy was built by Charlie brewer of Hamilton OHIO [/ QUOTE ] That's funny. It has Barris plaques all over it (you can see one of them right behind the front wheel well) and Barris' autograph on the dash...maybe it's just a fake???
The Chevy is not a Barris car .Kurt McKormick has been repopping those crests for 25 years. The car is from Ohio. I remember it when it was Black at the nationals in Springfield Ohio in 1982. As for the 40 convert,I remember when it was a different shade of Purple in Cl***is and Custom magazine 25 years ago and it said it was a Barris car done in 56. I have n,ever seen any other evidence that it even existed in the 50s which Im sure it did ,let alone being a Barris car.
As I heard the story the car (purple merc) was originally bought new by Johnny Weismueller ( Tarzan ) and then some doctor bought it off him and took it to Barris to restyle after that the one of the owners got the car from him when it was a shade of Candy Apple red with crossbar hubcaps and had a hopped up Olds with a 6 pack setup which was taken out by him and put in the current awful smallblock 305 had it repainted by Rod Powell and change the dash to the current awful configuration he then sold it to the next guy that wrecked it on the way back from a show and had it repaired and painted the current color you see today he lost interest and sold it to the current owner I heard the new owner was going to repaint it an awful charcoal grey and redo the interior with some awful tweed. I hope that never happens
[ QUOTE ] this was told to me to be a Barris car. ( Sam Barris ) the front end has changed and the inside is gutted. the owner will not sell , show, or work on it. [/ QUOTE ] There must have been a special request for a chop with that shape and radically layed back front window, as Sam had a much better eye for flow and shape than the roof of that 39 coupe. GREAT post by the way 00Mack... thanks
This is a merc I saved from the crusher a few years a go, a friend of mine said it was a barris car but i dont believe him.
Yeah, that two tone green wreck of a car doesn't look anything like a Barris built car. Probably ain't worth **** either. I say crush it, too. Anybody out there got any info on these listed Barris Mercs? I wanna know too. I love this kinda ****. I wonder if McCormick would know. Gawd I would love to shoot the **** with him. Not to jump tracks with your post, but my father had a chance to buy the Sam Barris Buick Sedanette back in 1960 in New York. He had just joined the Navy and already owned his '36 Phaeton and a '51 Chevy fleetline at the time. I don't remember the name of the used car dealer (I'll have to ask my dad), but it was in upstate New York. The car was for sale for $600, and my dad only could afford $400 at the time. His friend offered to lend him the rest, but my dad refused. Dumb mistake. However, my dad test drove the car with the salesman and he said that the only thing wrong with it was a ****on missing off of the driver's seat. He said it looked just like it did in the mags back then, and my dad said it was a kind of dark, almost ***ian red color. (I think that I read somewhere that it was a '52 or'53 Buick color) Anyway, the salesman said that the former owner was jazz singer Buddy Epstein (spelling?). My father and I asked George Barris if he knew anything about the car being owned by Epstein when we saw him at the LA Roadster show a few years ago, but he said he had never heard anything about that. The book, The American Custom Car has a picture of it as it was found in a Greyhound dog racing track back east ( I think Jersey) and then restored. Supposedly, it was so bad that McCormick swapped a whole new frame and lower body panels onto it. Sorry again to change the subjects from the Mercs, but I wanted to share my dad's story of possibly owning a true Barris car, especially one built personally for and by Sam. ****, I would be happy just to sit in it like my dad did. Thanks
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