Posts Tagged George Barris

George Barris Launches “Kustomized” Chevrolet Camaro Spirit – Automotive News & Car Rumors at Automobile Magazine

Barris Camaro Spirit

Is there any room in this world for another “special-edition” muscle car? Famed custom car designer George Barris apparently thinks so, as he’s lent his name to a new customized — er, sorry, “kustomized” — 2010 Chevrolet Camaro.

via George Barris Launches “Kustomized” Chevrolet Camaro Spirit – Automotive News & Car Rumors at Automobile Magazine.

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1976 George Barris Custom Car Article! Batmobile! Monkeemobile!

Rev up to this ginchy 1976 article from DYNAMITE MAGAZINE! Super car-customizer George Barris talks about his life creating one-of-a-kind show rods, TV vehicles, and groovy rods! George is the creator responsible for the great 1966 Batmobile, from the ABC TV series, among many others! Click to enlarge!

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George Barris – Kustomrama

George Barris

Famous kustom builder, born in Chicago in 1925. George is the younger brother of Sam Barris. George was named after his uncle. After their parents died, Sam and George moved to Roseville, California in 1928 to live with relatives. Seven year old George began to build balsa wood models of cars and planes. By the time he was nine George was entering and winning model contests sponsored by local hobby shops.

via George Barris – Kustomrama.

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The Car 1977

It’s “Jaws” on wheels! A satanic car terrorizes a small Southwest town in this awesome 1977 vehicular horror film, “The Car”. Stars James Brolin and R.G. Armstrong.

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Bat-Fan Tribute Video: George Barris’ 1966 TV Batmobile Car!

Here’s a pretty cool Tribute Video from a 60′s Batman TV Show Fan. It’s main focus is on footage of one of the very best Batmobile cars out there, the one designed by George Barris for the 1966 Batman TV Show!

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Save these Cars – Hollywood, California: Part II

Thanks to the great writers and researchers over at Hemmings Auto Blog for Part Two of the “Save these Cars – Hollywood, California.” A lot of information on what seemed to be some long lost but keenly remembers TV and movie cars. Great photos, too. Head over to Hemmings Auto Blog for the rest of the series.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which turned up here last week, was on a vast list of cars that developed after we posted updates on finding the Better off Dead Camaro, Risky Business Porsche and other iconic movie cars. Since then, we’ve both found some more and had suggestions for literally dozens of others that should be preserved for posterity (if your definition of posterity includes pointing and laughing), but we’ll start with one from the original list: The ‘61 Ferrari California Spyder (250 GT) from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

ferris_bueller,s day off

ferris_bueller,s day off

As we’ve mentioned before, it was a replica, built by our good friend Mark Goyette. Mark says there were three used in the film:

The Hero car. Built by Mark and leased to Paramount for the filming. It’s the one that jumps over the camera, and is used in almost every shot. At the end of filming, Paramount returned it to Mark, with the exhaust crushed and cracks in the body. “There was quite a bit of superficial damage, but it held up amazingly well,” he said. He rebuilt it, and sold it to a young couple in California. The husband later ran it off the road, and Mark rebuilt the front end for him. That owner sold it in the mid-90s, and it turned up again around 2000, but hasn’t emerged since.
Sold to Paramount as a kit for them to assemble as their stunt car, they did such a poor job that it was basically unusable, aside from going backwards out the window of Cameron’s house. Rebuilt, it ended up at Planet Hollywood in Minneapolis, but dropped off the map along with Planet Hollywood Minneapolis.
Another kit, supposed to be built as a shell for the out the window scene, it was never completed at all, and disappeared after the film was completed. Mark thinks he once heard it was eventually completed and sold off, but it could also still be in a back lot at Paramount.

Before we get to the rest of the list, commenters did come up with a few answers:

The 1974 Dodge Monaco Bluesmobile from Blues Brothers. There were a whole mess of them, most destroyed during filming, and replicas have been built almost since then. We can’t come up with anything definitive on the ‘74 Monaco that Jake and Elwood drove, but some of the Mount Prospect chase cars have survived. Allpar reports that of 13 used, eight were destroyed, and three of the remainder are accounted for, on in private hands, one at Disney’s “House of Blues,” and one at Universal’s Famous Fast Cars.
The Landmaster from Damnation Alley is still at home at Dean Jeffries Automotive, near Universal Studios, and has been restored. Dean shows it from time to time.
Rick’s Power Wagon from Simon & Simon has been spotted at a Universal Studios back lot.
The ‘Cuda from Mannix is around; Dan saw it at Mopar Nats a couple of years ago. We also recently featured the Mannix ‘68 Dart in Muscle Machines.
The National Lampoon Family Truckster has been auctioned several times in the last two years. There are a ton of replicas, as well.
But for every car we found, about 15 more turned up. I want to find:

Several Jeeps appeared in Airwolf. Stringfellow Hawke had a blue CJ-7 Renegade that appeared briefly, but there was a Stars-and-Stripes CJ-7 with “Santini Air” script in more episodes. Same Jeep?

Air Wolf 302

Air Wolf 302

I’ve wondered about the Ford F350 Jet Car from Buckaroo Banzai for a while, and have turned up some information on it. It was designed and built by production designer Michael Riva, art director Stephen Dane and Thrust Racing owners Jerry Segal and George Haddebeck; Segal was also the stunt driver. Segal swapped in a Grand National–that’s NASCAR, not Buick–front end, a nitrous-boosted Ford big block and jet thrusters. According to the BB Press Kit, “The jet engine is massive,” says Dane. “It puts out smoke and flame that goes back twenty or thirty feet. That’s what it’s primarily set up for, but it does develop 3,000-4,000 lbs. of thrust which, in real life, gets the thing going up to around 200 mph.” ‘Sure doesn’t sound like something that’d be scrapped. Another back lot denizen?

JetCar

JetCar

The Porsche 356 and later ‘84 Corvette that Bruce Boxleitner drove in Scarecrow & Mrs. King.
Dan wondered about:

The yellow Chevette from The Wedding Singer.
The Cherokee from The Goonies. (1984?–ed.)
The Rambler (Rebel Cross Country) from Mystery Men (on the Ben Stiller theme, a Bronco roadster was blown up in the Zoolander gas fight scene. It must have been a model, so where’s the one they drove around?–ed).
The 1974 Nova from Pulp Fiction. (Interestingly, a ‘74 Nova is specified in the script, and the Tarantino Archives mentions he uses a Nova in Reservoir Dogs and Death Proof, too. Vincent has a ‘60 Malibu. Related: The Oldsmobile as an analogue for despair in John Singleton’s “Four Brothers”–ed)
The Taxi from The Fifth Element. (2178 “Globe Fish” Checker Marathon. ‘Just possible it wasn’t a real flying car, Dan, but there’s a model if you want one.)
1972 Matadors from Adam-12. (It sounds like they only had one single Hero car for the whole series, and there’s a report it was later used on Columbo. None are known to survive–ed.)
And from our comments, regular commenter Jeff Reeves wants to see:

AJ’s targa-top Camaro (there were two–a ‘68 RS and custom Z28) or Mrs. Simon’s Mercedes from Simon & Simon. (There was also a ‘57 Bel Air at some point.–ed)
(Scarecrow and) Mrs. King’s LTD station wagon or later Cutlass Ciera wagon (Wasn’t it an Olds?–ed).
Cody Allen’s customized GMC S-15 Jimmy from Riptide. (Also a 1960 Corvette. The Jimmy was built by Unique, who have quite built countless cars and own 450, see appendix–ed.)
An original A-team Chevy Van. (ibid.)
MacGyver’s Jeep.
Wylie is looking for some real softballs. Happy to help!

Colombo’s Peugeot 403 (Supposedly accounted for–ed).
Roger Moore’s Volvo P1800 from The Saint (We’ve seen it–ed).

Roger Moore's Saint Car

Roger Moore's Saint Car

James Garner’s gold Firebird from Rockford Files (see Nelson’s Garage, below–ed).
The ‘77 Special Edition Trans Am from the original Smokey and the Bandit (One remains, owned by Year One–ed, and there are innumerable replicas of varying provenance), and the 18-wheeler that Snowman drove.
straight6 wonders about

Melba Toast’s ‘70 Chevelle, Bannon’s primered Duster,and the rest of the dazed’n’confused car cast.
The 1976 Lancia Scorpion (Giselle) that Herbie the Love Bug fell in love with in Monte Carlo. (Restored, now in Texas–ed).

Giselle

Giselle

Kathy Bates’ Wagoneer from Misery. “It had those cool slotted rims.” (There was a Blazer, a Bronco and a Cherokee, but no Wagoneer–ed).
Stjohn asks about:

“The Car” from the movie of the same name, 1977. A 1971 Lincoln Mk III, customized by George Barris. (A car matching this description was consigned to RM’s Hershey auction, but doesn’t seem to have appeared at the sale–ed).

automan

automan

The Countach from Automan. (Me too–ed)
The Ultimate Police Car, from an episode of BJ and the Bear. A Plymouth Fury, late 70s.
The Black Moon from Black Moon Rising. (Never mind the disturbing sex scene with Linda Hamilton and Tommy Lee Jones.)
1973 Plymouth Satellite four-door that Frank Drebin would hit trash cans with in Police Squad.
Going deep into the obscure file, Randy H would like to see:

The mobile command truck (s) from Universal Soldier.
Saluting the Adam-12 post, vehicles from Emergency!
emacs wants to know where everything is:

Repolibu

Repolibu

The 1964 Malibu from Repo Man. (probably junked, but Jalopnik has everything you ever wanted to know about casting the cars.–ed).
The car (1975 Mercury Marquis Brougham) from Uncle Buck.
The ‘vette from Corvette Summer (a recurring question).
The ‘vette from Sting Ray (Nick Mancuso).
The Schlepcar from Wonderbug.
The convertible classic from Porky’s.

Ridgemont

Ridgemont

The Firebird Trans AM from Fast Times (”first he’s gonna kill us, then he’s gonna …”). (Camaro Z28–ed).
The 1965 Lincoln Continental from The Matrix.

Cobra

Cobra

Stallone’s Cobra car. (1950 Mercury street rod, auctioned by Mecum this summer. Also see Stallone’s former CSX3127, in private hands–ed).
Maxwell Smart’s Alfa Romeo.
Reggie Hammond’s Porsche Targa and Nick Nolte’s GTO convertible from 48 Hours.
Mad Max’s Interceptor.
All Batmobiles, and didn’t Green Lantern have a cool ride?
Fred MacMurry’s car from Absent Minded Professor.
Brad says:

I saw no mention of Christine (58 Fury), the car from the Stephen “the hack” King’s movie of the same name.
What about Greased Lightning from Grease?
Where is the hood from the Corvette Summer Corvette?
And the rest:

Magnum-Mondial

Magnum-Mondial

Magnum P.I. cars–Ferrari 308s and 328s–came up a lot. Jason W said, “I did some interior restoration work on one of the Magnum P.I. 328s when I worked at FAF in Atlanta in 1988,” but doesn’t know where it is. We heard that Larry “Rick” Manetti owns one, and Magnum Mania reports that as well. However, there may be confusion, as he did own a black ‘84 Mondial. According to Mania,
All of the original Magnum P.I. Ferraris were auctioned off when the series ended in 1988. Larry Manetti bought one of the early GTSs. He reportedly still owns it. One of the cars, a ‘78 308 GTS, is on display at the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in Keswich, Cumbria, England. Also, an ‘84 308 QV is on display at Universal Studios Hollywood, as part of the Famous Fast Cars attraction.

I recall one of the 308s turning up on eBay about five years ago, and Nelson’s Garage in Deadwood claims to have one, along with the Rockford Files Firebird and others.

The Mercedes 560SL from Heart to Heart. Srsly?
Kojak’s Buick. (1973 Regal?–ed).

Kojak

Kojak

Wayne’s AMC Pacer from the Wayne’s World. (Sold by Volo in 2004, not sure where it ended up. There are some prop cars around as well.–ed).
“Being a Toyota Landcruiser fan, I’ve always wondered about that red and white Fj55 in The Lost Boys.”
California speedster and Vette coupe from King of the Mountain.
Dan Tanna’s 1957 T-Bird 1957 in Vega$. (Reportedly painted blue for Richard Gere’s Breathless–ed).
What about the Torino from Starsky and Hutch?
1983 Porsche 944s from Sixteen Candles. Film lore says there were two. One auto and one stick. (There was also a Rolls Corniche that figured prominently. The Porsce was on the original list.–ed)
It’s a big list, people. Lets find some cars.

Many images found at Internet Movie Cars Database.

Appendix: Cars built by Unique:

Feature films
48hrs
A Few Good Men
Always
Apollo 13
Arachnophobia
Back To the Future
Batman
Bill and Ted #2
Black Rain
Black Sheep
Blank Man
Bugsy
Cannon Ball Run
Dick Tracy
Diggs Town
Doors
Elvis and Me
Family of Spies
Fools Rush In
The Hollywood Knights
Homer and Eddie
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom
Judgment Night
Last Action Hero
Late for Dinner
Little Rascals
Loose Cannon
Men at Work
Misery
Mobsters
Neon City
Nutty Professor
Ocean’s 11
Poetic Justice
Point Break
Rain Man
Show Down In Little Tokyo
Smokey and the Bandit
Stop or My Mom Will Shoot
Tango and Cash
The Big Picture
The Boost
The Human Target
Toys
Two Jakes
Undercover Blues
Unlawful Entry
Vampire in Brooklyn
Vegas Vacation
Wild at Heart
Wraith

TV
Alf
Amazing Story
Baretta
BJ and the Bear
Bring’em Back Alive
Charlie’s Angels
China Beach
Chips
Crime Story
Fall Guy
Hard Ball
Hardcastle and McCormick
Hart to Hart
Hunter
Knight Rider
Nash Bridges
Remington Steel
Riptide
Simon and Simon
The A Team
The Flash
The Waltons
The Wonder Years
Vegas
Viper
Wonder Woman

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The Kustom Photography of George Barris!!! OUT NOW ON DVD!!

Here is the info on the newest Barris DVD by the talented guys at The Mad Fabricators Society You need to buy this. See a little known side of the “King of Kustomizers”

Kustom Photography of George Barris

Kustom Photography of George Barris

Well after a year of working on this DVD I finally have them done and available on DVD
Many people don’t know George the photographer.. He was a HUGE part of documenting our history all over the states and brought it all to the magazines for the world to see…

The movie is a journey through 1000’s of pictures that george shot for the mags and his own use..these are all mounted on a 14×17 sheet all hand cut out by Shirley Barrisand taped on to the sheet.. She was a trooper!!
So Brett approached me a while back and asked if I wanted to team up and put out a DVD so I started going though all the pix and was overwhelmed with all the fantastic pix.. but how do you make this into a move?? So I built a rig that allows me to mount my camera and move it forward and back and i’m able to move the sheet left and right… So once I shot that we needed Content :( So Ana Marco (from that mag) set us up with Larry Watson.. so we had him come to Barris and the two sat and went through all the pix and told stories about a bunch of them..(can be a DVD on its own) After that we got a hold of Brad Masterson who is renting the space next to George’s shop on Atlantic and has it set up with a bunch of old Barris Memorabilia and Pix.. George shows us around the shop then we hops into Brads Chopped Chevy and we hit some of the locations the pix were shot at.. After that we meet up with Greg Sharp from the NHRA museum and he gives us even more detail on George the photographer…Along with pictures the are in the movie the DVD will have a slide show feature that will have pix in sections Kustoms, Hot Rod, Bikes etc..that you will be a to hit play and just check out the pictures.. on-top of that the whole thing is Scored Live by the Dynotones…

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1969 Dodge Charger “General Lee” for sale!

Fans of the American TV series “Dukes of Hazzard” now have a chance to buy their own Charger “General Lee”. On September 26, the mythical muscle car shown on these photos will auction by RM Auctions at a one-day event, billed as Icons of Speed & Style, at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California.

General Lee 1969 Dodge Charger

General Lee 1969 Dodge Charger


This particular General Lee is believed to be one of the cars associated with the original television show. Although no concrete evidence is currently available to confirm its use in one episode, its authenticity is supported by signatures on the hood of the car of actor John Schneider (Bo Duke) and custom car builder for the stars, George Barris, whose company helped prepare many of the original “Generals” for the show.

A “real” General!
“Dukes” fans will recall the original General Lee was of the 1969 vintage, as evidenced by the proper grille and taillights. Unlike the ’68 and ’70 cars that were modified for shooting, this particular Charger is a true 1969 example, as verified by its chassis number, and is finished in the traditional bright orange with a hand-painted rendition of the rebel flag on the roof and the instantly recognizable “01” numbers on the doors.

Under the hood is a vintage 6.3-litre big-block V8 (383 cid), which is the same type of engine this car left the factory with. The car has been fitted with the proper after-market alloy wheels that were used during the filming as well as the custom push-bar to protect the grille… when the Dukes chose to push Rosco’s police cruiser or Boss Hogg’s white Caddy.

This General is also equipped with five air-horns that play the whimsical opening bars from “Dixie”, the song of the South, another trademark highpoint of nearly every episode—remember the heroes were Georgia Red Necks!

The interior is finished in saddle tan vinyl just as it was when the Dukes were behind the wheel. In fact, the car even retains its correct push-button AM radio and the interior is generally quite stock in appearance, save for the roll bar of course.

General Lee 1969 Dodge Charger

General Lee 1969 Dodge Charger


One of… 320!
During the run of this highly successful television series, it is estimated that as many as 320 (perhaps even more) 1968 to 1970 Chargers were catapulted across rivers, over police cars, through construction sites or anywhere else one could imagine a car flying in the air, only to succumb to the rather hard landings. After all, to be sure they would stay horizontal as long as possible while in the air, the producers used lead or sand bags in the trunk as ballast!
General Lee 1969 Dodge Charger

General Lee 1969 Dodge Charger


One rumor was that towards the end of production, the supply of fresh General Lees had dried out and people who owned even the most derelict examples were able to raise the asking price, as the production company was desperately in need of cars.

A TV show that lasts
The CBS television network originally aired the 145 episodes of Dukes of Hazzard from 1979 to 1985. The TV series was inspired by the 1975 film “Moonrunners” starring James Mitchum, the oldest son of actor Robert Mitchum.

But the film never gained the popularity of the television show. So much so that nearly 25 years after the last episode was shot, the Dukes still appear every week on TV screens somewhere on the globe. This is why RM Auctions experts estimate this General Lee could fetch between $40,000 and $60,000 US.

For more information about this car or the Peterson Automotive Museum auction, visit www.rmauctions.com.

General Lee 1969 Dodge Charger

General Lee 1969 Dodge Charger

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A 2006 interview with “King of the Kustomizers” George Barris

A 2006 interview with “King of the Kustomizers” George Barris. www.mediawizardproductions.com

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Fleetwood Country Cruize In – LeftLaneNews.com


Leftlane News is a leading source for car news, plus a great resource for researching new cars and reading about future models. Read by car shoppers, enthusiasts, autoworkers, executives, and investors, it is updated throughout the day with the very latest auto news, reviews, and interviews — as it happens. No other site brings together the same degree of timeliness, thoroughness and accuracy as Leftlane News.

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