George Barris Kustom City building in CA is for sale

[Fire-medic]

George Barris died about 6 years ago, and the family is selling the building where George spent most of his time. If you grew up in the 1960's and you were a gearhead, you knew who Barris was. Just turn on the tv and many nights, his cars would be seen on popular shows: The Munsters, My Mother the Car, the Monkees, Batman, Beverly Hillbillies and more. Movie and tv stars, and recording artists all had Barris make them customs. Sonny and Cher had a brace of Mustang convertibles by Barris. Look in the upper left-hand corner over Sonny's right shoulder and you'll see that they had great taste in motorcycles too. The way Barris designed the front-end grilles, I thought the Mustangs looked like an early-1960's Pontiac Tempest, but the headlights were far-out! They look like Lucas Flamethrower lights or perhaps CIBIE driving lamps, or something purloined from some European coupe or sedan, like a Citroen, which I think used Marchal lamps. In a prescient design move Barris threw vents into the hoods, to resemble the valve covers of a V8 lurking beneath, anticipating the Chevrolet SS396 'pancake griddles' hood brightwork seen on the 1968 models.

The Saga of the Sonny & Cher Mustangs (motortrend.com)


Yamaha YDS7 (motorcyclespecs.co.za)

 

[CaptainKyle]

I loved the stuff Barris done ! I also am a big fan of Gene Windfield and he is still at it ! I love the way they done all the old school bending,molding etc without all the modern day stuff . I have a cable show I watch called Full custom garage and the guy is more primitive with his work .

 

[Fire-medic]

The Anderson Brothers were another of the designers in the '60's who were popular. I like Ed Roth for those ideas he came-up with, just outlandish creations, like the Surfite. A dune buggy with space for one, and a surfboard. But they all worked.
Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth's Surfite is perfectly wacky (autoweek.com)

Since you need something for hauling your bike, try the Mega Cycle, with a Buick V6. That wasn't its first name, and this isn't original paint.



Kyle, Ian Roussell I think is his name. It's fun to watch him work. He has a good eye for design and fabrication.

I have a high school friend who does stuff like that, he restored Mario Andretti's Indy racer, I think it was his rookie year. He's in Jamestown Indiana. He uses an english wheel and sandbags to form the aluminum panels. He builds motorcycles too. The metalwork is impressive. All the burgundy (below) is metal. The thin scoop on the front fender is sublime.




On the H.A.M.B., there is a thread, Who's one of the best fabricators out there these days? A few pages in, a guy from Indianapolis starts rattling-off a list of about 13 names. The first guy he names, did this bike. Most of the names on the list are supposed to be from the area around Indianapolis.

 

[totalcomfort]

Old school craftsmanship at its best