Dick Dean Kustom: 1969 Shala-Vette
Dick Dean was a custom car builder who managed George Barris’ famous Kustom City garage for a few years, and is credited for building (or helping build) TV cars like the Munster Koach, Dragula, the Green Hornet’s Black Beauty, the Monkeemobile, Death Race 2000 cars, and the Ghostbusters ECTO-1. In the late 1960s Dean launched his own line of custom dune buggies built on shortened Beetle pans, including the Shalako and Shala-Vette. This work eventually lead to Dean building the Bricklin SV1 with Malcom Bricklin, but I still think his best design is the strangely appealing (not appalling) Shala-Vette. Find this 1969 Shala-Vette offered for $13,000 in Madison, WI (along with a number of other classics being offered by the seller including a ’59 Morris, ’70 Siata Spring, ’69 DAF 55, and others).
