Gallery: George Barris Shows Car Warriors Who's Boss
01george-barris-car-warriors
A group of gearheads turning wrenches and firing up acetylene torches is about as ubiquitous on TV as a teary-eyed John Boehner, but the upcoming *Car Warriors*, debuting this week on the Speed Channel, has a secret weapon: George Barris. Yes, *that* George Barris, of Batmobile and Munster Coach fame. Along with Mad Mike Martin (left) and Jimmy Shine, the man who put the "k" in "kustom" is going to judge whatever outlandish creations dueling teams of rodders put together in the garage. We caught up with Barris on the shop floor of his Barris Kustom Industries, where the original kustomizer shared his secrets and talked shop. While he's been at this game a long time, we can assure you he's no slouch to trends. "I did the first car in 1938, so of course I'm only 40 years old," he told us. A 73-year body of work sure is worth a retrospective, so we bring you a "kustom" ride down memory lane with George Barris.
02the-batmobile
The Batmobile ------------- When producer William Dozier called George Barris in to his office to work on a concept Batmobile, Barris was struck by the fact that Dozier was including the onomatopoeia of a comic book in the television show. "When I looked at the script and dialog, I noticed he was including, 'Pow! Bang! Whee!'" Barris said. "Every once in awhile he’d have the lettering come into the screen when Adam \[West\] or Burt \[Ward\] did something. Right away when that happened, I made the car follow the same thing." Under time pressure, Barris took an existing Lincoln Futura concept car, hand-built by Ghia at a cost of $250,000, and made physical alterations including the famed bat "face." "When it went 'Pow!' I sent out some rocket tubes. 'Whee!' meant put out the seat ejectors," Barris said. "I made the car become the actor. It was a star, like Adam West and Burt, and it became a major part of the show." The whole process of building the car only took Barris 15 days -- a personal record -- which makes him marvel at the *Car Warriors* crews, who only have 72 hours.
03kitt
KITT ---- It seems that nothing is impossible for George Barris, but some things are difficult. For example, KITT of Knight Rider fame. The producer wanted the car to seamlessly take off into the air, but Barris knew it would look phony if the takeoff sequence was edited each time one of the car's features deployed. "So I put my engineer in the car with the hydraulic switches, and out come the diaplanes, out come the rockets, so we did it in sequence," he said. "Boom, you hit the sky and everything’s working and I don’t have to edit it." "But you’ve got one more problem: How are you going to land this thing?" Barris envisioned parts extending from the car like the flaps on the wing of a plane. "So boom, out come the fenders, out come the doors, the hood, the trunk – everything came out to make air brakes so the car could simulate stopping."
04banacek-amx-400
The AMX400 from *Banacek* ------------------------- Bana-who? What, you don't remember the detective series George Peppard quit after the third season so he didn't have to hand over half his salary to an ex-wife in a divorce settlement? Barris says he's been extraordinarily lucky that for the most part, his cars have ended up in films that have become household names. "I’m looking at my wall, and I’m looking at *The Blues Brothers* and so many different cars – the *Love Bug*, Eat My Dust – every one of my cars," he said. "I’ve got all these movie posters on the wall, and it just seems like they’ve fallen in good." Banacek's AMX 400 still retains the classic George Barris signature of proportionality. Other customizers, says Barris, "chop the top and you’ve got a three inch window and a 25 inch body. Immediately, someone knows that isn’t a Barris car." "We try to keep it in continuity with what the car is, but we enhance it to make it look better."
05the-munster-coach
The Munster Coach ----------------- Like the Batmobile, the Munster Coach became as much a part of a television show as the actors, still recognizable to fans who only saw the show in reruns on TV Land. Barris attributes this staying power to his attention to detail. "I took three Model Ts and cut them into pieces, so I had a six door Model T with all kinds of character to it – coffin handles and spider webs and all kinds of things to make the car more of the show," he said. "Most of the fan mail that was coming was talking about the Munster Coach. So again the car became an important part of the film, just like the actors."
06the-kargoyle
The Kargoyle ------------ Barris argued against using a hearse for *The Munsters* in favor of the Munster Coach, but the hearse he kustomized for the film *Terror on Wheels* ended up as one of his more popular cars. Most recently, it was used in a Halloween episode of *The Girls Next Door*, transporting the girls of the Playboy Mansion. Despite changes, Barris is enthusiastic that the custom car culture is surviving among younger generations. "What really excites me, in the old days, we had to do everything by hand," he said. "We had a hacksaw and a chisel and an acetylene torch." Now, parts get designed on computers and built from fiberglass and plastic, but the draw is still the same for younger designers. "It’s wonderful to see that they’re becoming creative, they know how to put it together, they know where to weld the seams, they know how to make it look," he said.
07the-moonscope
The Moonscope ------------- Who knew that the first Lunar Rover came out of Barris' shop? Barris said that NASA contacted him about the Moonscope's unique wheel design, and he gave them permission to use it on upcoming Mars missions.
082005-toyota-prius
2005 Toyota Prius ----------------- Barris said he was very excited to work on a hybrid -- but the first thing he had to change was the car's front end. "It looks like a Ninja Turtle," he said. So, he got to work. "I took away from the laughing mouth they had on every car, opened up the wheel wells, put vertical doors on it so they come up like Lambo doors, I added a strip of LED lights on the side of the car, so when I decide to make a lane change, the side of the car has led lights going back and forth." That's right: The Prius is now Barris' daily driver. "That’s the one I drive every day, going down the freeway back and forth," he said. "I’ve gotta let ‘em know I’m coming along!" As far as the impact of his modifications on gas mileage, Barris seemed unconcerned. "I don’t even check that. All I know is I don’t have to fill the tank as much as I had to before."
09sonny-and-chers-his-and-hers-mustangs
Sonny and Cher's His-and-Hers Mustangs -------------------------------------- Barris credits his success in Hollywood to his keen ear for what his customers wanted. Unfortunately, when he set out to build a car for Sonny and Cher, the then-married superstars had different desires for a custom Mustang. "Cher said, 'I want a hot pink car with white fur trim,'" Barris recalled. "And Sonny said, 'I'm not driving a hot pink car!'" So Barris compromised, building two cars. He even involved the duo in the production process, putting them behind welder's helmets and paint guns.
10the-super-van
The Super Van ------------- Ah, the '70s. Built for a movie of the same name, the Super Van was previously known as the Love Machine, complete with crushed velvet upholstery, a rotating bed and a French-style telephone in the back. For the film, which, oddly, featured cameos from [Charles Bukowski](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mODHEvNKpAQ) (video, NSFW) and the recently deceased Len Lesser, Barris needed power in the van during shoots. "I had solar cells in the van so that we could run our TV and radio and record players in the van when we were filming," he said. Now, Barris is planning on using similar technology to update a Ford Focus Electric. "I put in solar cells, like I did in the movie 20 years ago," he said. "I put them into the top of the trunks so I can pick up the rays of the sun and recharge the batteries. Now I get 160 miles before I have to recharge it."
11the-manny-hanny-any-car-iii
The Manny Hanny Any Car III --------------------------- Built for a Manufacturers Hanover Bank ad promoting loans for "any car," the Any Car III features parts from 40 different cars all melded onto the shell of a Volkswagen station wagon. A miniature, battery-powered "Any Car" deploys from the hood. Back in 1974, when Barris built the Any Car III, his design process involved lots of cutting and pasting. Now, he's excited by the work that younger designers are achieving with new technology. Recently, when Barris and his 20-year-old grandson set out to build a car, they joined forces with their respective skills. "I said, let me lay out some tapes – and he said, 'Let me do that!' and he puts it in the computer," Barris said. "And I say, wait a minute, can we move the fender down? Sure, we can do that! I don’t like skirts in the back, can we do that? Sure! Then we get into the paint design." "All the experience that I have, I tell to my grandson and he puts it into the computer."
