Barris brothers
George and Sam Barris ran a body shop in Los Angeles and had been among the most famous automobile tuners on the US customizing scene since the 1950s.
Conversion of automobiles
They coined the term Kustom Kulture , which today is synonymous with completely rebuilt bodies from cars from that time. The cars were usually lowered, the bodies (as well as the interiors) were changed in many details and lavishly painted, which still has an impact on various automotive subcultures today.
Prototypes
Sam Barris was the first to chop a new 1949 Mercury (i.e. shorten the roof by a few inches). The original streamlined design of racing cars was adopted in the car styling . This idea resulted in world-famous custom cars such as the Matranga Mercury or the Bob Hirohata Mercury .
George Barris is widely considered to be the father of the Batmobile from the Batman television series of the 1960s, although most of the work on the project had to be passed on to Dean Jeffries for workshop capacity reasons.
Web links
- History of the Barris Brothers (English)