Legendary Lead Sleds | 1950's Custom Cars

[Music] this is known as the San Paris Buick yes [Music] this cars meat I want this car [Music] hi I'm Dennis gage and welcome to my classic car well this week we're in imperial Missouri to visit my good buddy Kurt McCormack and check out a couple more of his amazing cars now Kurt's into historic hot rods and customs and he's got quite a few of them today we're gonna do a couple of my personal faves the legendary Sam Barris Buick and this killer 50 Merc originally done by the Iowa brothers and then finished out by the Barris brothers this is where it all began and what a beginning it was check them out [Music] [Music] Kurt it is so great to be back with you I love coming here you've got such cool stuff always a great pleasure Dennis it's good to see you wait you know you have great customs great rods but it's all virtually all your stuff has some sort of pedigree you're really into these historic customs yes my first Barris car was 1978 that 54 Cadillac Wow well this one this is fresh because you had this but I had never seen it it's it's been in restoration for how long three and a half three years this is the Sam Barris Buick 1950 Buick right that is correct I just think this is a gorgeous car this has got it I mean this is kind of a legendary car yeah it's well known in custom circles this was his car Yeah right yeah so this is 50 and he built it when he bought it in 51 out of an insurance company salvage pool it had burned oh but it wasn't like mashed up no it wasn't hit but it was it had been gutted in a fire so he used that as the basis for his his family custom car these were in fact these were the fastbacks which Buick called their c2 net and it's a beautiful car to begin with yes but then Sam did all sorts of stuff here what all has happened to this car he used a 51 Buick front bumper uh-huh and this is a 53 Oldsmobile grilled it's been vide to match the V of the bumper and he installed 53 Buick headlights and of course shave the hood all the portholes are gone mm-hmm the side trim is 51 Lincoln that's been reversed and for end and side for side oh really so that it follows the body contours nicely because I mean it looks like it was designed for the car yeah and then a chop apparently yeah a nice deep chop he actually had to section the body from the door openings all the way back around under the deck lid and up the other side and dropped the whole roof down between the quarter panels and then the deck lid had to be all cut up into pieces and put back together to fit that new opening holy cow yeah and how about the rear window is that the original window it is the original window it's just leaned forward is it extended and back or not it's extended a few inches and then he built housings to accommodate 53 Pontiac station wagon taillights actually looked great and then the interior is this what it was like when he originally built it yes this is identical there's a couple of pictures that exist that show the interior in color and this is very accurate I love the headliner with the white piping yeah goodness that's just a stock 50 - pretty much isn't it it is is the only change as far as the dashboard goes is we put a 53 Buick steering wheel on it yeah that big monster Buick hood that's not the fireballs no no this is an authentic Buick in fact it's painted straight good colors this is a 425 Buick nailhead out of a mid-60s Riviera Grand Sport dual quad dual quads that's factory carburetors on there Wow I love the air cleaners they are reproductions of air cleaners that were made by a company called high-power well that's great why an dress-up is fantastic - I mean your your plug wires your plugs are covered you know the plate under the intake manifold to me it's just unbelievable and I bet that upgrade makes this thing it completely altered the character of the car it's like driving a different car now it runs like a modern you know happy to be on the highway this thing's got to look great on the road I couldn't tell you I'm always behind the wheel well what if I go behind the wheel and and you'll see what it feels like as a passenger okay all right let's close it up and go all righty well you know this really drives beautifully dude Roy do you drive this much question it's just out of restoration so yeah the longest haul we've done with it since it's out of the shop there's been to Indianapolis last year a little less than a year ago it's about a five hundred and fifty mile round-trip the way this car sits is just magnificent geez I love the stance of this how does it do like on the interstate because I I'm surprised as low as this is there's there's no bottoming out or anything the chassis has been modified in such a way that there's a lot of jump room for the back axle there's a big arch that's constructed into the frame over the back axle so nothing can never bottom out no matter how low the car is so it rides pretty much like a stalker yeah sounds like you've got glass packs on it it's got twin Smitty's on IDs it's got a set of four tube and made headers and all stainless had got the exhaust going through to Smitty's which have a real sweet tone to them sir do it's Alisa San Barris built this in 1952 he started on it in 1951 and 51 this car was a long haul it took 22 months because he did it in his spare time while building customer cars yes he also swore he'd never chopped another fastball I hear that's pretty tricky yeah but he pulled it off first time it worked out very well when Sam sold in 54 his son John needed eye surgery and Sam had only had this car finished a matter of months it went to the East Coast up around New York the next time it shows up it's in the 70s and the car is beat to death it's just like nearly a 20-year gap 15 what yeah Boyd had a rough ride there was no doubt it it looked like it had sat outside in the surf for 15 years so when did they start well they officially went into business when Sam got out of the service in 1946 hmm then they partnered up and opened their first shop Sam very quickly became the craftsman he had an eye for it and the metalworking talent George worked a lot then during that period but he quickly became the promotional guy for the front man yeah the fellow that met the public it was Sam holder yes yes it was the older brother right and ended they did they separate us as a business eventually they did in 1957 Sam went his own way he moved back to Sacramento and became an insurance adjuster seriously yeah really in the later years things started getting a little bit weird too in the customization well it was becoming a little bit more cartoonish almost I mean this is really a straightforward classic custom yeah this car is from the Golden Age of customers gimmicky stuff here no this wasn't built for car shows this was built for styling on the street it's diving on the street I can't imagine having this as my daily driver it's awful nice but you know your your 50 mercs another just stunner what do you say we go back and check that one huh okay let's go get it I can dig that well Kurt you're absolutely right that Buick drives like a modern car I guess what amazes me the most was it never once you know bottom doubt or anything and she's pretty darn low well this is another one low down low down car yeah another historic car this was built originally by what they buy all our brothers yeah they had it first in 1952 they did all the heavy lifting on the car they chopped it and put 52 olds quarter panels on it I don't know if buddy Alcorn owned this car at that time or not but I know that buddy owned it by 1955 okay and at that point he took it to the Barris shop and had further modifications done so what all did they do they did the bumper over-riders the scoops and the quarter panels this side trim they put the 55 Plymouth taillights in the quarter panels painted at this color these hubcaps you know some other minor things and I read that it's chopped about four inches in the front tapering back to seven and change Wow the side trim is interesting what is that the top piece is 55 Chevy Bel Air the bottom piece is a reversed 53 dodge piece they call it the hockey stick this interior looks pretty period - is this how it was it wasn't the the ratty old remains of the original interior were with the car when I got it years ago and believe it or not it was tomato soup red Oh button tuft when they updated it at the parish shop they never changed the interior Wow so it had this really unattractive upholstery job so there are no pictures of the car finished from the old days showing the interior really love your 50 Merc - yes with purple knobs right those knobs are made out of decorator grape clusters that were popular in the 60s yeah he's an oversized green acrylics and I just used a bunch of them and cut them down drill press it made - knobs on I love it a nice wheel - thanks that's one of those mercury accessory wheels they call it a murder a wheel these 52 olds quarters I just find I mean I've never even heard of that before it actually kind of makes me wonder why he did it because it doesn't look much different it doesn't every quarter but from about the middle of the skirt their back is all Oldsmobile and then the Barris shop added these 55 Plymouth taillights just from the shape that you're expecting to almost come back here and see some packets but I really like this I do it too it's so different they're different and they are conservative the back bumper is 52 Ford again with the Pontiac over-riders vide and accessory exhaust extensions this course would have been a flathead car but you're not a flathead guy that's you know so let's go see what you got there okay Wow Wow three carb huh yeah so what are we looking at this is a 390 cubic inch Cadillac it's a 62 you use a lot of those don't you yeah I like caddies these old caddies they're a good fit in a flathead engine compartment for one thing and Edmunds air cleaners are cleaners and valve Co and valve covers Wow it's a it's a factory Cadillac Eldorado three-card manifold so it's a highway Hummer hahaha let's go do some highway humming what do you say clothes are up man Wow you know something I notice right away about this car that yes how high the steering wheel is relative to the other one or maybe it's just that I'm so low sitting in here it's funny you should mention that we cut off the original hoop Ayad shortened the spokes and the inch on each side and then I had a new hoop we rolled out of 3/8 rebar and welded on and then we sent it off to Florida had a recast Wow there we are that's a lot of work oh yeah [Music] sounds like Smitty's on this one too they are they're not smoothies but they're straight through stainless glass pecs it's got all stainless exhaust on it too [Music] might amuse you to know that this dome light is out of a 16 cylinder Cadillac from the 30s Wow very uh Art Deco yes indeed I tell you think it blows me away about it is that she's got Oldsmobile rear quarter yeah 52 olds quarter panels nobody ever even notices and the lead that they used was phenomenal maybe you'll notice on this car the dips are gone from the doors yeah and that's not all wet is it yeah oh my gosh they fill the dip completely all the way back and along the quarter panels that's gotta add some weight yeah one door is about 40 pounds heavier than the other because one door was damaged so badly that it was replaced and the fellow that did the metalwork put a metal cap over all that so it's all hollow and lightweight so one door is 30 or 40 pounds yes Whittle it's the one side a little bit of a starboard so what's the transmission if you got a caddy 390 engine what's your transmission my friend made a kit to adapt of 700r4 to the back of the caddy engine well at the 704 is a nice transmission to match up with it is at 390 so it's major highway cruising it is and idles on the highway now have you have you gone over the road with this one - Oh many times you really had it out of stage number of times a lot of miles on it's been a good old road car this one's my wife's favorite is it really yeah all my cars I'm Dennis gage happy motoring

Channel: MyClassicCarTV

Views: 504,252

Keywords: My Classic Car, Classic Car, Dennis Gage, Ayala brothers, Buddy Alcorn, kurt mccormick, sam barris, george barris, barris kustoms, barris car, barris custom, barris merc, chopped merc, chopped buick, custom merc, custom buick, 1950 buick, 1950 mercury, 1950 merc, 50 merc, 1950's cars, 1950's custom cars, chopped car, barris leadsled, famous cars, lead sled, custom car builder, famous car builder, car collection, american cars, buick, mercury, car history

Id: ZJDQq9oCppg

Length: 15min 42sec (942 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 20 2019