I think George created a few real gems, and the main body of his work, the goofy, completely over-the-top theme cars for TV and film are something I respect. I think where I have to step away from Barris as a builder is the rather sizable pile of clearly hideous customs that came out of his shop when he had a clean sheet of paper and lots of money to work with. The guy had a really poor sense of negative space and you have to believe he chose styling cues not based on a drawing and hand fabrication, but based on sourcing parts he previously picked up at the Colton Auction and common household items. “Hey! I got these Granada headlights in a box of parts for $10! Let’s build around this!” Build quality? Anyone with an eye can look and see that his interior panels and pieces were horrible. He was not a master at shaping steel, but rather bonding glass. Regarding this particularly hideous monstrosity, he couldn’t stay with a singular era/theme front to rear, square headlights and grills don’t look right on a curvaceous body, split windows from boats just don’t work on anything. I have to say that the rear cowl is rather lovely, but it ends in a tail section that was a result of a fiberglass truck bed topper that knocked up a Ski-doo. If this article were entitled “Kit Cars from the ‘70’s: The Gauche, the Bad, and the Ugly”, not only would it have been believable, but with Barris’ name not attached, this thing would have won the Reader’s Choice award. Don’t buy the 70’s era custom thing. I lived through it. That car has always been fugly. Automotive beauty is timeless. Not ugly enough to stop a clock. Enough with the “let’s see you do better” comments. It is very ok to have a critical public opinion without an ounce of skill or malice. I guarantee this rather scalding post would not have ruffled Chuck’s feathers one bit.
