What you’re looking at is a third generation (1961-1963) Ford Thunderbird that decided factory flair wasn’t nearly outrageous enough, so sometime in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s it got the full George Barris–inspired makeover treatment. Gone are the elegant lines of the “Bullet Bird,” replaced with a long snout, tunneled headlights, a honeycomb grille, and a […]
This next car had me do a double take. And then check to see if it was a scam. How is it possible that a custom car built by legendary George Barris could possibly sell for less than a new Honda Civic? Maybe a really crusty Barris custom that needs total restoration built for his […]
Dick Dean was born Richard Dean Sawitskas, but ditched his unpronounceable and cringeworthy last name when an announcer at the 1959 Autorama car show gave it an impromptu shortening. A customizer by trade, Dick went on to run George Barris’ famous Kustom City, where he did much of the dirty work on classics like the […]
Legendary car customizer and Batmobile builder George Barris passed on to the great junkyard in the sky yesterday, at the age of 89. He was born in Chicago in 1925, but spent his adult years in the SoCal area working on many movie cars including the Munster Coach, 1967 Batmobile, KITT, etc. His imprint on […]