Chrysler City Coupe

The "Chrysler City Coupe" is the second vehicle in a series, utilizing the legendary designing talents of "Kustom King" George Barris, and the fabricating skills of veteran car builder Jerry Kind. As Barris was always known for substituting C's for K's, possibly we should call this wild kollaborative kreation, based on Mopar's '41 model, the "Khrysler City Koupe" George Barris and Jerry Kind first pooled their considerable restyling and coachbuilding talents in a radical bullet-nosed Studebaker, the "Millennium 2000," back in 2000 (featured in the Jan. '01 issue of sister publication Custom Rodder). The Millennium 2000 was a contemporary interpretation of a much earlier Barris Kustom effort, the Lincoln-based "Golden Sahara," a radically Baroque creation that upped the anti for show cars, forever changing the world of automotive showbiz!

This amazing mixture of a '41 Chrysler business coupe, '82 Corvette running gear, and completely reconfigured sheetmetal (utilizing swoopy '46 Cadillac rear fenders and quarter-panels) makes its statement loud and clear with multiple explanation points. The point being that traditional customizing isn't dead at all, despite current thinking and trends to the contrary where wildly-painted, mostly '50s and '60s cars with minimal, or no restyling whatsoever, roll on the largest diameter wheels possible and are slammed to the ground when parked at a show. Note that even this contemporary trend has its roots going back decades to when Larry Watson panel-painted his brand-new '58 'Bird and lowered the poop out of it--no air or hydraulics were used either. "Brand-new" being the key word here, as this is no longer the case, with the exception of pickups, the import "tuner" crowd, and an occasional lowered and big-wheeled Caprice. Larry showed that one could customize a new car with paint and minimal bodywork, but the custom scene (as we know it) has turned away from the new and once again embraced the old, which now even includes four-doors and station wagons.

If it's traditional customizing and a bold statement you're after, you've simply got to be brave, bite the bullet, pick up the Sawzall, and cut-up some vintage sheetmetal. Then, of course, have the wherewithal (either personal talent or monetary) to put it all back together again. As our responsibility, we must pass the torch (literally) to the younger generation, preserving such skills as hammer welding and leading. If not, we, as custom lovers (both below and above the street rod cut-off year of 1948) may just move into a future that's really boring--a future that is beginning to come to fruition as you read this. The time to act is now! George and Jerry did, and so must you.

Anyway, enough preaching and back to the meat of our subject matter. Jerry Kind of Kinds Auto Body in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, contacted his friend George Barris to get his thoughts on customizing the aforementioned '41 Chrysler business coupe. What these two men came up with is absolutely mind blowing. An '82 Corvette chassis was selected for a base and then stretched some 24 inches (from 98 to 121.5 inches) to work with the coupe's lengthy body. After channeling the body some 8 inches and creating new 18-gauge steel flooring, the body was sectioned 6 inches and the top chopped 4 inches to give it even more of an elongated, lower (it's but 48 inches high) profile, because as we all know, "profile is everything!"

With the basic shape of the coupe set, the "Dynamic Duo" of Barris and Kind were only then ready to start on their major restyling effort. Front fenders were pulled into the doors, and both the front and rear were completely reshaped with custom openings and grilles. Oval-shaped Mercedes headlamps were used, but in a traditional frenched installation manner, well beyond how they are generally grafted into street rods and customs. The LED taillights were injection molded to fit the reshaped tips of the aforementioned Caddy fenders, and the roof quarters were pulled back to the leading edge of something not seen or enjoyed much anymore, a rumble seat. But wait, there's more! Why isolate the rumble passengers? If the roof were replaced with a single piece of custom formed, compound-curved glass (which it was, as well as the windshield), then everyone could enjoy the view. With everything reshaped, blended, and molded, the "Boys" ended up with a 90-percent handformed body that Jerry sprayed in House of Kolor purples. The finished product, with its color coordinated, custom machined 21-inch Colorado Custom wheels, and BFGoodrich rubber, became one big, delicious looking piece of eye candy (would that be Kandy?) that even turned heads among the DaimlerChrysler top brass.

All this and we haven't even opened the doors as of yet, or raised the hood. Under that peaked, beaked, and pancaked hood may be the only place that the Mopar execs avoided, for therein beats a healthy, highly detailed, Holley-injected Chevy 350-cid small-block, sitting pretty behind a Moon tank (for radiator overflow) and a Cool radiator. Pop one of the suicide doors and a world filled with the look and smell of butterscotch-toned Connoly leather bids you enter its baseball glove-stitched environs. The cockpit is perfect with its handmade dash blending into a center console, and dual headrest-equipped individual seating. The carpet is Angora fur, and the steering wheel a polished Colorado Custom single-spoke model mounted to a Billet Specialties tilt column. The doors are even equipped with map pockets in case one decides to occasionally abandon clogged city streets for a change of scenery to beckoning country lanes.

Hey, DamilerChrysler guys, you should consider bringing this car to market, just look at the success of your PT Cruiser. We wouldn't even mind if you swapped out the Bow Tie for a big fuel-injected Mopar V-8 or even a Viper V-10. Of course, the first one should go to George, as Jerry already has his! However, you might just consider shipping Jerry a complementary crate motor though--he deserves it!