History

Kustom garage sale

MercuryLegendary car customizer George Barris is putting seventy of his creations for Hollywood and other clients up for auction today at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Barris became world famous for designing the Batmobile and exotic cars for celebrities, but he was already King of the Kustomizers on L.A. cruising strips such as Van Nuys Boulevard. About 1964, journalist Tom Wolfe discovered Barris out in the Valley and wrote The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby around him. Today's Daily News writes:

When George Barris cleans out his garage, it's no ordinary tag sale.

The collection includes two of the 1969 orange Dodge Chargers, known as the General Lee, in the "Dukes of Hazzard" series. And there's John Travolta's Greased Lightning 1946 Ford hot rod from the movie musical "Grease."...

Barris expects some of the hottest bidding action on the General Lees ($75,000-$85,000) and Greased Lightning ($65,000-$75,000).

Just as pricey, though, is the beat-up jalopy built for the 1993 movie version of the sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies." It might not earn a primo parking spot with a restaurant valet, but it's a heck of a conversation piece.

"All the props, the rabbit skins are hanging on it, the wood ladder, the pots and pans," Barris said

The auction includes a 1981 DeLorean from Back to the Future Part III and a '55 Chevy from American Graffiti.


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