History Top 5 Barris Kustoms of the early 50s

in my eyes there are very few "hardtopped" cars that look right, this is one of them. hardtops generally have a thinner more flat top , but mostly it is the front end that looks bad to me. I don't know how anyone can look at the front sheetmetal on this car and say it looks better than stock.

 

Looking at the Chet Herbert car again shows where Jocko got the inspiration for his streamliners a few years later....just dawned on me.

 

Recently scored a large pile of Rodder's Journal mags, from an icon of Orlando Hot Rodding. (more info on him and his 3 cars, in due time) Anyways, one of the first ones, I paged through, had the recreation of Buster Litton's Ford Shoebox. IMHO one of the most beautiful of it's kind.

JT

p.s. if I ever had a son, I would 've named him Buster or Butch.

 

Tank Hemi 32 great photo steamliner .

 

It great read about and remember all the great cars they built.

 

The purpose of this list is to showcase 21 of the most famous and most important Barris Kustoms of the 1950s in chronological order.


“George Barris' 1955 Chevrolet Pickup - The Kopper Kart (1957) - The Kopper Kart was built to promote the shop. A spectacular show car that was chopped, sectioned, and channeled. The truck had already been sectioned 5 1/2 inches when George bought it, but the other modifications were performed by Barris. The chrome was copper-plated, and it featured accessories such as a portable TV set and a conventional phonograph in the bed. The record player was played back to the cab via interior speakers, while the portable TV was strictly a luxury item for Sunday picnics and outings.”
Ala Kart
"Richard Peters' 1929 Ford Model A Pickup - The Ala Kart (1958) - The one and only Ala Kart. What might be the world's first custom rod. A true show car. Entirely built to win car shows. Became the America's Most Beautiful Roadster in 1958 and 1959"

Hello,
It was noted that the Kustomrama list is done in chronologic order. Not in “Best Of” or “the best,” etc. That is all good as they are all icons in their days.

Our choices were what influenced us to enjoy local flavor (in 1956-57, a local Ford F100 custom truck was the center point of our Westside of Long Beach neighborhood.) as inspired by those custom cars and trucks. The two trucks that struck the pre-teenage kids were The Kopper Kart truck and the totally different show car, The Ala Kart.

They were different to us as one, Kopper Kart seemed like it could be driven on the So Cal streets like the custom truck in our neighborhood. The idea of a custom car/truck cruising around and also being used for daily driving to work was/is impressive, then and now.

Jnaki

The chopped, neighborhood truck was a pure custom truck and it may have been featured in one of the many issues of those old car magazines. But, over time and growing up, the truck was never identified as one of the original customs of So Cal. If anyone can find the Tahitian Red or Candy Apple chopped Ford f100 custom truck from that time period, we would forever be grateful.

The Westside of Long Beach Ford F100 chopped truck was an early custom, but those more famous builders were our favorites as they graced the car shows and tons of magazine articles from that time period. All icons for sure in the custom car/truck world.

 

1. Jerry Quesnells' Merc built by Barris

 

Jerry's car was not built by the Ayala's it was completely built at the Barris shop. There is an entire photo album showing the car being chopped by Sam Barris. There were a couple of Merc's, the Alcorn and Bettancourt, where a lot of the the body work was done at the Ayala's and then the cars were either finished or redone at the Barris' but this was not one of them.

 

Thanks, remembered it wrong. JW

 

2. Freddy Rowe Merc

 

3. And Hirohatta Merc

 

4. Joe Uritta 41 Ford

 

5. Barris chopped 40 Ford, excuse the wheels please.

 

So nice to see Quesnel mercury still getting talked about, I miss this place.

 

The place missed you ,Jeff .

 

@John Lee Williamson this is the perfect example of a beautiful car that looks completely silly simply due to wheels and tires .

 

With the volume of cars that came out of that shop maybe a top six list or even a top ten list might be appropriate. Thanks for the history it gives me a better appreciation of the man.