One on One with George Barris

Interview by Gerry Frechette

George Barris needs little introduction, as the King of the Kustomizers has seen and done it all in the custom car field, for going on 70 years now. He shows few signs of slowing down, with many projects on the go, and when he was in Abbotsford at the B.C. Classic and Custom Car Show, he took some time to chat with us.

RPM – What was the first break that was the springboard for you to get going in the business?

GB – There were several ways, but lets talk about pioneering. We pioneered customizing that wasn’t being done. My first customizing job for hire was in 1940, when I put new taillights in a ‘32 Ford for $10. From there, it escalated, into doing more custom work, and I finally went down to Los Angeles to expand myself, and I found out this was an area where people enjoyed customizing. I had a little shop in LA, and when my brother got out of the service, he joined me, and the Barris Brothers became more active in customizing. From there, I moved to a bigger shop in Lynnwood, and we were able to expand a lot of the work that was done, because we had more coverage and exposure.

RPM – You were at the first hod rod show with a car, weren’t you?

GB – Yes. In 1948, Robert Petersen held the very first hot rod show. It was really a racing car show, but I was the only customizer there, with a ‘41 Buick, fully customized, chopped top, Cadillac grille, full fade-aways. And people liked it. Petersen saw the expansion of what he could do, so he started Hot Rod and Motor Trend magazines, and I joined him doing all the photo work, and customizing my cars. In 1949, my brother and I brought the first ‘49 Mercury to our shop, it didn’t even have five miles on it, and we were ripping out the upholstery and glass, taking the hacksaws and cutting away, and made it into a beautiful car. From there, we really expanded into chopping tops and sectioning, and I started a club called Customs of Los Angeles. All our cars were terrific, and we’d go to all the shows and cruises.

RPM – Your business was growing quickly.

GB – Yes it was, and I would say that one of our major expansions was in 1950, when the movie industry came to me because we were exciting. We had hot rods we were racing on the street, and we had custom cars. At the same time, we were growing with Petersen’s magazines, and doing a lot of the editorial work in them because I could do the custom work. I’d set up my Rolleiflex camera on a tripod next to a car I was working on, and take photos of the cars as we progressed. In those days, we didn’t have the tools available today. We had a hacksaw and a wooden mallet, but we were able to do the work.

RPM – How would you describe the changes in custom car design from then to now? What have been the biggest drivers of change?

GB – Styles stayed the same, but workmanship expanded, because the equipment improved. And now, you have catalog cars. If you want to buy something, you can go to the Summit catalog and get anything you want – anything, be it mechanical or engine or whatever. You can build a whole car out of a catalog. In our day, you had to do it by hand, and now you can just buy the grille you want.

RPM – But it is still being done by hand?

GB – Yes, there are a lot of people out there who are still hand-crafting. Like Chip Foose, who learned from his father, and is a great fabricator and customizer.

RPM – You were everywhere in the 1960s.

GB – One thing about the ‘60s, it was the decade that I diversified. I did everything other than cars. I did snowmobiles, motorcycles, toys, books, television…..we just escalated the whole industry. The Beverly Hillbillies, the Munsters, Batman, the Green Hornet, the Monkees….the film industry got us the exposure that allowed us to expand the customizing, to go to higher levels not only in doing the work, but in marketing what we were doing. Major companies like Coca Cola came to us to do cars to back-up their product, because they knew there was exposure for them. So that is what escalated everything to become more prominent for me. And it was all a family operation. My wife was very supportive. She is gone now, but my daughter runs the company and my son does all the computer graphics and electronics. My grandson is in school learning about international marketing.

RPM – Where do you think the hobby and the business is going in terms of the cars, the trends?

GB – The big thing I learned from way back in the ‘40s and ‘50s when I was pioneering, we are now in the 2010s and the world of electronics and computers, and I’m still doing the same thing, pioneering the cars of the 2010s. The hobby you see at this show is important, but most of the work these days is with new cars. I’m doing work now with hybrids and all sorts of new cars, because you’ll customize it, and then you’ll drive it and you’ll enjoy it. It’s not just a hobby car, or a car you’d take to a car show and then take home and put in your garage. So that is important these days.

RPM – Do you see much of the custom car hobby and business outside North America?

GB – I’ve been around the world to many shows, and the hobby is huge. At a recent show in Sweden, in four days, they had 90,000 people there! So you can see that this is not just a sport in the USA and Canada, it’s around the world. So I’ve got my world tour and I can go around and work with people who are into customizing as well as making it their livelihood, and doing their thing.

RPM – How much are you still personally hands-on in the creation of custom cars? Is there a particular part of the process that you still enjoy doing?

GB – I’m designing and customizing this brand new Camaro for a dealer in California (showing us the photo), and I have my staff that does the work. The important thing that I’m striving for is to customize the car, so you can drive it, you can enjoy it, you can go to a movie in it, you can do whatever you want with it, and it’s affordable. This is one of the things I’m striving for.