George Barris - did you grow up here?

I've been fascinated by all the wacky cars of my youth.  Did you like his work?

Monkeymobile

Herman Munster coffin car

original Batmobile

this car - is that an air cleaner below the injectors?   
 

I never realized that all those carbs were just for show.  I always wondered where you get an intake manifold like that.  I always thought his cars were a little over done, but to each his own.

EVERY SWINGING BIT OF IT......pssst his brother was the genius behind all the madness....check out the Hirohata Merc....late

George didn't create the Monkeemobile, that was Dean Jeffries. He did restore the second "promotion car.

A few years back, I worked with a guy from Richmond Indiana. He bought his 32 ford hot rod in 1963 as a young man. Still has it. 
He had hung out with many of the top names in customs, and still does. 
Said George was the showman, but his quality of workmanship was , meh. The brother, on the other hand was a craftsman! As brothers do, they did not always see eye to eye on things. 
I always felt George's stuff was a bit over the top - but at least he put it out there!!

Sam Barris did amazing stuff.

There were exceptions but George pretty much lost the plot by the end of the 1950s, as far as I'm concerned.  Some of the early work out of the Barris shop was iconic, but by the 1960s he was just flinging random crap at a car and calling it custom.

Ian Roussel did a documentary called Back From the Dead which talks about hot rodding in the 50s.   They interview Gene Winfield, show Barris' shop and others I've never heard of.   I get the idea Barris was a hot rod shop that got lucky making a few movie cars.  Pretty entertaining, informative about the culture.

Appleseed said:

Sam Barris did amazing stuff.

 

That is pretty darn amazing. It's just clean and classic. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Sam Barris's Merc was a brand new car when he customized it, too.  And it was his daily driver family car.  Imagine trying to do that with a new car today.

Sam was probably not married at the time, or if he was, divorced when he started laying the lead on the  brand new Merc

Even the Batmobile was just the Lincoln Futura concept painted black with Bat Bits attached.

Toebra said:

Sam was probably not married at the time, or if he was, divorced when he started laying the lead on the  brand new Merc

He was married, with two kids.  

Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself said:

Even the Batmobile was just the Lincoln Futura concept painted black with Bat Bits attached.

There are plenty of Batmobile replicas running around, but it would be neat if someone built a Futura replica.

In reply to stuart in mn :

Gotham Garage did, and there are several others.