History The Kustomrama Survivor Truck - 1955 Ford by Barris & Dick Richardson

wow....fate or what....wagon gone....CL cruzin....what are the chances ?....score one for a good guy....

 

thanks for sharing !

 

Super cool pictures, and story

 

Thank you all for the great response! I never got my wagon back, but you never know if it might show up. This second part will be the tale from when I picked it up.



Here we have George with the truck. Last time he drove the truck was in 1978.



I fell in love at first, and I just had to have the truck. It has no body rot, straight, and basically untouched and well preserved.



I deal was made, and he pulled it out for me. He wanted $5500, so I could not argue with that. Just the dash is worth that in my opinion.



My american mom, Sonja Serventi checking out the nice interior. Notice the reversed rim, George did that in the early 1960's.



George took me and Sonja for a ride in San Bernardino, showing us different points of interests from the old days. He built this house when he was 21, with a hammer, saw, and the truck.



Same make, same model, almost 60 years apart.



Here it is, reunited with the old Barris shop, 57 years later.



I got it placed in Sonja's garage, and took the front apart the same night I got it. I took all the parts to sandblasting on my way to school the day after, except for the fenders and hood. My plan is to get it up and running in reliable technical shape, then focus on the exterior/interior. I like to finish one part one the cars I work on instead of jumping all over the car.



Mmm, faded Von Dutch striping..



Old memories. George used to go out with his boat a lot in the 1950's. He trailered it with the truck all over the west coast.



And his boat was cool too!



I've saved all the little stuff I found inside it in a folder. Who other collects old ketchup out there?



40 years of grime. If only the grime could talk.. Would definitely been a boring story, just watching the sun go up and down in the field.



The seat don't have a single rip!





Headliner needs to be glued to the top, other than that, it's nice.







Never owned a car with Stewart Warner gauges before!



Old lead, still in good shape!

 

This is how they did it!



Right now, I've gotten this far. I've only owned it for a couple of days, and I only have night times to work on it. The firewall and frame is almost ready for paint. I will receive materials from Arizona this weekend, so hopefully I can paint all the pieces in the engine compartment soon. I get it from Arizona, because California has strict laws with the solvents, and the paint products are better in other states. I ordered a bunch of parts too, that I'm waiting to show up.



In this old photo, you can see where the striping was. George used to have a hood with four rows of louvers, but swapped it later with a solid one, due to the rain.



I blew the photo up, and here you can see it had holes for spotlights. That explained the primer spots in the corners of the dash!



I discovered this at 3am, and went straight in the garage to grind the pillars down. I found remains of the holes under the bondo, brazed shut.



The next day when I called him, he said he had a set of Appleton 552's on it. So now I need a set of those. I bid on a pair on eBay, but I lost the auction..



George also had same exhaust setup as Johnny Zupan had on his truck, only with single pipes on each sides.



Here we are in the 1960's. I only have photo's of the truck from the 1960's, when it was raised, fit with blackwalls, and a home made camper. It also has a rear bumper here, with a trailer hitch. However, notice the striping around the gas filler neck.



He used the truck a lot for hunting in Utah.



Next time I got time, I will write more about the car shows he went to, and the photo's he took there. Here's a little sneak peak, Harold Johnson's 1949 Chevy!

 

This story gets better and better.

 

Second instalment has blown me away, just like the first. Keep it up mate.
Rod

 

This is so freaking cool....

 

It sure is the same artist

 

He liked to take a lot of pictures he said. But he has them stored everywhere, in the garage, in storage containers, in his wife's closet etc. But so far, he has given me a box of old car show negatives and car related stuff

 

Neat.

 

Oh man, what a great story! Thanks for sharing and keep it coming.

 

Holy crap what a great thread

 

This is just damn cool.

 

Supercool story so far...thanks

 

If I were you, I'd have to pull the filler cover off the tailgate and see if the Von Dutch character is still under there. If it is, I'd hang that gate on the wall and build another to duplicate the Barris job.

I sure hope you aren't going to repaint the inside of the truck.

 

Great story & photos!

 

So good to here that another vehicle has been found. Great story and an awesome find.

 

I think George found the perfect owner for his truck! Congradulations!!

 

Great story, definitely subscribed for further postings.

 

Kvipt,

Thank you so much for sharing. This is over the top cool!

John

 

Sure is!

 

that's what I was thinking, except I'd have to sell it for big bucks to finance the build of the truck.

 

all the holy bingo bongo!

 

Love the story of the truck! I have a 54 and need to get it back on the road. Just awesome!

 

I got my '55 F100 in '72, as a 'recovered vehicle'. Paperwork wasn't started, so my bud at the towing company sold it to me for wages paid to the driver...$60.
Also a former 'semi custom', I discovered a long story with it. (I'm the second owner)

 

That is so cool! Could Sam Barris have done any or all of the bodywork on your truck? Or did you mention it already and I missed in my awe over the Von Dutch striping?

 

So frigin cool man.

 

Great story olav!

 

Just picked up some fresh firestone's for it!


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