Kurtis Kraft: A big WOW, it is fantastic! This day made history! Original never seen photos of my all time favorite kustoms. No better caretaker than Rik can found.
This car doesnt get the attention it deserves, it's simple but very effective with a nice stance.Im usually not into seeing a custom without skirts but in my opinion this car can pull it off. Dig It !!!
Sondre, To me it looks like the construction work is done on the neighboring lot. And not on the lot that Barris had their shop. As far as I know Barris rented the shop, and they never did add a section to it. Below is part of a transcript of a phone conversation I had with him about his car. Jesse Lopez; The Barris Compton Avenue Shop was basically a two car garage, but longer, and if you really tried you could put four cars in it. But most of the time the work was performed outside, weather was always good. Sometimes they had up to ten cars in the "backyard of the shop. Projects they worked on and stalled projects of customers that ran out of cash. Nobody complaint about the amount of cars in the backyard and parked on the street. There was always a crowd. Behind the shop was a brake shop. The guy who owned it also owned the Barris shop Barris rented it from him. I think the brake shop can be seen in the photo showing the Lopez Ford from the front. I also think that the car in the background of the photo below is George Barris his 1941 Buick before the front fenders where extended. (See last photo)
Rikster, I do believe that you are correct , I have a photo from a later time frame (It appears that the roof is on the building that is under construction) of the 41 Buick with the fenders completed, parked on the same property.
This isnt an old picture of an Early custom but it is sure built on that tradition .. Ron Kilmer did a great job with this sectioned roadster.. See more pics at: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=480423 Happy Trails, Mick
Yes Rik,that is 100% Georges Buick before the fenders were done and the construction was goin on directly next door to the shop.If you were standing outside the front of the shop looking straight ahead from the street(Compton Ave) the construction was happening to the left of the shop,the jobsite was facing the Rex Liquor store.
That picture with Jesse's car from the front just makes me wish I lived back then,customs were just parked along the street,in front of liquor stores and now days im lucky to see a old car out cruisin, its even more rare to see a custom crushin pavement. Once again Kurtis Kraft... thanks for sharing the pics.
This wasn't an early custom, but I certainly did it with an eye toward the early cars -- particularly the Calori '36: DRD57 photo
1934 and '35 Terraplanes and Hudsons shared body shells and fender designs with the basic difference being almost all 6cyl. cars were Terraplanes and almost all 8cyl. cars were Hudsons with the H8s on a longer wheelbase. I own a '34 Terraplane convert and can add some comments here. I've looked at a lot of Terraplanes in the last 5 decades and I have seen none actually customized until this car but many hot rodded. No other production car used those fenders with the stamping line that represented where the old non-skirted fenders had ended. So, Rikster, I concur this pretty well has to be a Terraplane or Hudson. It could be either '34 or '35; no way to tell with this lack of detail. There seems to be enough wheel base in this car to say it is the longer wheelbase Hudson chassis. It may have originally been a convertible (rare!) but more likely was a coupe that was cut down into a roadster. What customizing would I say has been done? The heavy fixed windshield pillars were removed and light roadster stanchions installed. Factory top bows replaced with a more forward leaning and rakish lined-top. The hood sides may be missing or the 5 doors of the '34 H8 hood sides have been removed or opened up as we may be looking through the engine compartment at a couple of points. The grille shell may have been changed as it looks very vertical and all '34-5 H+T grilles had forward slope to them. The original front bumper was more deeply dipped than a Ford of '34 but this bumper appears straight so may be a heavier later bumper as was common practice. I've taken the Barris /Compton photo into my software, cropped out the Terraplane and enhanced the pic trying for details. It is attached. Also attaching a blue factory brochure pic of a '34 Terraplane at very similar angle for comparison. GREAT PHOTO. Sure would like to know more about the car at Barris's that day, or any other customized pre-'36 Terraplane or Hudson.
For what it is worth, when George signed the dash on my 49 Hudson he just told me how great Hudsons were and that they customized alot of them but they never got the coverage like the more popular makes such as Fords and Mercs. Im in love with that 34/35 Hudson.
GOOD LORD!!! That car is incredible! How did I miss this car? I just looked at all 54 pictures that are on Riksters site. WOW!
A lot of the early custom cars use the Ripple Disk single bar flipper hubcap. Several aftermarket companies made them, and all where based on the Cadillac hubcap from 1935-36. The hubcap was most of the times combined with a ribbed beauty ring. From a stock car, or also aftermarket. But recently I was doing some research and came across two photos of a 1939-40 Mercury with a 1948 Cadillac Grille (Barris Books). And even though I had looked at those photos numerous times I had never noticed the smooth beauty rings. At first I thought they must have been 1948 Cadillac Hubcaps, but then I noticed the 1947 License plate on the car, possible, but not likely. But still, the very small lip of the actual wheel outside of the beauty ring looked so much like Caddy and none of the beauty rings I had seen so far.. I thought. And why would you want to cover up that wonderful Cadillac Crest on the Caddy Hubcap with a Single bar flipper? So I did some more research and found the answer. At least I think this is what I'm seeing in the photo of the Mercury Convertible. The car used a set of Calnevar "Doll-Ups" and then the Chromesides in particular. Perhaps there where more cars that used it, and from now on I will keep an eye out for them, but this combination looks really nice. I guess the Calnevar Chromesides are pretty rare these days. The Whitesides do show from time to time, but I have never seen a Chromed set. Enlarged This Calnevar hubcap ads show the Chromesides on the bottom left side. Here is a nice photo of a WhiteSides (Photo from the hamb) And here is a photo of a nice stock Buick with a set of the WhiteSides.
Here you go, Rikster: Rare doesn't always mean sought-after, found three of these for cheap. They are chromed stainless steel, quite thin metal and will ding easily.
Here is another car with a similar combination Calvenar and hubcap. Only this time Barris used a ripple disk with no flipper to it on this very nice 1941 Mercury Convertible. I like it... a lot!
Here's a couple better pics of the Vince Subias '41 Merc "Black Beauty"......w/ the carson top on and topless.
^^^ Wow. WOW.^^^ Hal Peterson '41 Merc. El stance-o perfecto. Anyone here able to describe the set-up?
One of the best custom pics I have seen. The back of the ol Barris shop in Compton. Got to love the cars and the location.
WOW!!! I just found this & the pics from Kurtis Kraft are AMAZING!!!! Whats the chance of seeing some more? Maybe start a separate thread?
Beautiful. I've not even driven my own project (the Grandpa Car), and I'm already building this one in my imagination. dv
When I was browsing another HAMB thread about Old Bonneville photos I came across some nice photos posted by TROYZ. I always like these old Bonneville or other dry lake photos to look at the back grounds to see if there are any interesting custom cars in the spectator parking area. So I took a look at Troyz photo albums.... and was very thrilled I came across this photo of this very nicely done 1941 Ford with 1949 Caddy rear fenders and what turns out to be an real Carson Top. So I pm-ed Troy to ask about the photo. This is what he replied. "The picture was shot in 1952 at a local hang out called Cy's Drive in. The guy that owned the car was really proud of that real Carson top and all the customization. His last name was Rains and he was a young country western singer from here in Bakersfield, CA. I guess the front of the car was all frenched and really cool looking, i wish i had pics of the front. Anyway, that's what I know about the picture. It was shot by my neighbor Gordon (he was an original hot rodder around here) He's 84 so the details are a little shaky." The photo you see here was scanned from a slide taken in 1952. Thanks for sharing Troyz. Anybody ever seen this car... knows more about it, or has more photos of it? Perhaps the 52 date is a bit to late for this early thread... but I still feel that this car has a nice early look to it.
That Kid must of had the Tiger by the tale. Wasn`t Buck Owens from Bakersfield. Whith the Caddy rear fenders, makes the rear really low. Any idea who built it. The problem with most current builds is that most people don`t get there whitewalls wide enough. It really makes the car stand out. Notice how the fender skirts weren`t extended down. Pretty top notch for `52. Ranks right up there with with the best of them. Sombody has got to have some more pic`s.
Wow !! This little ford is amazing !!! I have never seen this car but I wish I knew more about it. What a beauty .
Here is ours. Not old, but influenced by the 40s cars for sure. And yes, we are working on solid hood sides now!
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