Twister T

George Barris is thought of as a custom car builder, and indeed he is, but he's always built hot rods as well--albeit with his special custom touch. As the story goes, George and his older brother Sam's first automotive efforts were put towards a '25 Buick sedan, which they started working on before legal driving age. The dented body was banged out, bolt-on accessories were added, and the jointly owned car was painted by brush with orange and blue stripes. It was a retina-vibrating color combination to say the least, but the boys must have done something right, as it found a buyer. The proceeds of the sale were used to purchase and doll-up a '29 Model A Ford. The car was "customized" to the max (George hadn't come up with the "K" word yet). It had Auburn exhaust stacks sticking through the hoodsides and, as George puts it in the book he and David Fetherston collaborated on, Barris Kustoms of the 1950s, "A slew of accessories from the local hardware store, including aerials, lights, and a mass of hood ornaments." George relates that his first real hot rod was a Deuce highboy roadster, but ever the tinkerer, he replaced the stock windshield with the curved backlite from a later-model sedan, setting it on a rakish angle. One might wonder, "Curved windshields for hot rods 60-some years ago?" And you thought this was a recent development.

After the Barris brothers moved to Southern California from the Sacramento area (George moved first, then Sam joined him in 1945 after his discharge from the service), they opened their first honest-to-goodness shop in the city of Bell. Shortly thereafter they relocated to 7674 Compton Ave. in Los Angeles. Here, George continued to "customize" hot rods when he wasn't working with Sam on customers' cars. And the name of their shop? Barris's Custom Shop, with a Body & Fender Works tag line (no "K" word yet). It was here that George built a low, full-fendered '29 Model A roadster with a Deuce shell. The unique thing about the car is its molded-in V'd windshield. The roadster was used for everything from basic transportation, to street, circle track, and lakes racing. There's a great photo taken behind the Compton Ave. address in Kustoms that shows three '29 A roadsters parked in a row one Sunday morning in preparation for a trip to Corona Speedway. One is channeled, with the license plate inset into the rear panel and '39 Ford taillights added--you know, all the things one might still do today. Another sits atop Deuce rails, and the third is, of course, George's personal car, the roadster. It's interesting to note that the other two have V'd windshields as well.

But enough of ancient history--let's get closer to today by moving the hands of our clock to 1959. By now, George was heavily involved in show biz rods and customs (and yes, custom was finally spelled with a "K" as it had been for several years), providing cars for movie and television productions (see Barris TV and Movie Cars by George Barris and David Fetherston). George kept busy not only with his customers (mostly car-crazed kids of Southern California's youth culture--should I have used all "Ks" here?), but by building and renting cars to studios as well (witness the "Batmobile," and countless others). One such car, a traditional '27 T roadster on Deuce rails, was George's personal hot rod, which appeared on the Robert Young TV series, Window on Main Street. The biggest challenge was to simulate its crashing into a tree with a stunt man behind the wheel--OUCH!

George's efforts with Richard Peters' "Ala Kart" had earned back-to-back AMBR awards (America's Most Beautiful Roadster) at the Grand National Roadster Show in 1958 and 1959, and 1960 brought an AMBR award for Chuck Kikorian's '29 Model A roadster "Emperor" (Milestones, Mar. '01). This was all great stuff, but George had never scored the 9-foot AMBR trophy with a car of his own--a situation that would soon be rectified. As he already owned a TV star car, you can guess what happened next. George had the basic car, but there was a lot to do if it was to go for the gold at Oakland, so the doll-up phase began. As George was also heavily involved in photography and writing for Petersen Publishing at the time, many steps of the roadster's transformation were documented on film, and seen on the pages of Rod & Custom, as well as Petersen's Spotlite Series (little 25-cent technical publications). In fact, the T was used as a demo car for Metalflake painting in the '62 Spotlite Book, Custom Painting Techniques, authored by George Barris, where it is shown being sprayed Peacock Metalflake Green.

As its paint job was most likely the single item that had most to do with its '62 Oakland win, it stands to be briefly mentioned for historical reference. Metalflake was first introduced to rodders at the opening of the "Swingin' Sixties" with Hot Rod magazine's February '61 cover story. The trick was reflective paint additive (the creation of Dobeckmum, a division of Dow Chemical), which was used to paint three vehicles for the article, one of which was Dick Scritchfield's Deuce highboy roadster (yes, the McGee roadster--see Milestones, March '02 for coverage of the restored car). Scritch's rodney was painted red in a matter of speaking, by first laying down silver 'flake, then applying a red-tinted topcoat-much as candy apple red would be applied over a silver or gold base. By this time, however, George was an old hand at applying Metalflake, having sprayed pearls and candies over a 'flake base on his "XPAC 400" air car, which he showed at the '61 Grand National Roadster Show that January. This was the year previous to his win with the "Twister T."

The Twister T was the cover car for the Petersen Spotlite Book titled Custom Upholstering, which George authored as well. Here, he showed many examples of stitchwork, having Lee Wells (who worked out of Barris Kustom City in North Hollywood) stitch the T's door panels in Pearl White and Metalflake Green Naugahyde. Another Spotlite Book, Custom Hot Rods, showed how the expanded metal and horizontal aluminum grille insert for the car's filled Deuce shell was formed and also how to make those nutty ripple shock covers. The January '63 issue of R&C had a tech story on making plywood and foam seats and headrests with a mount created from a bicycle handlebar. Later in August of 1963, R&C would conduct a road test on the roadster as well. (Editor's Note: We realize that there are many more articles on the car we didn't research.) In the aforementioned road test I found that George's Sixtyized hot rod would do the standing quarter-mile at 80 mph in 17 seconds flat with its quad-carbed 270-cid Dodge Red Ram Hemi V-8. Ford hydraulic binders brought it to a stop in 202 feet during the standard 60-0-mph brake test.

Besides the wild paint and upholstery mentioned, the roadster ran quad headlights on polished, cast-aluminum stands, and painted cycle fenders with polished aluminum inserts over its 15-inch Buick wire wheels. The roadster's bolted-on, chromed, split-wishbone mount cut across the Deuce frame's "beauty line" just as it did on Tom McMullen's Deuce roadster of the same era (Milestones, May '01), but then who's to argue with the success of both vehicles--maybe all such era roadsters should have been treated likewise. The Twister T, though garish, reflected its time and the beginnings of the 60s to a "T," and I feel it was well deserving of its '62 AMBR win.

Tracking the history of the Twister T was relatively simple compared to many cars with its ownership lineage. George sold the car right after winning the AMBR award in 1962-63 to Buddy Parrozo who brought the car to his home in Portland, Oregon. Buddy showed the car in 1963-64 at both Portland and Seattle area car shows before he sold it.

Here the lineage becomes a bit murky, but we know that a Ford auto dealership owner by the name of Francis Ford bought the car, circa-1966, from a used car lot that was located on 82nd Boulevard in Portland. He turned the car over to his son who quickly made some modifications, which included painting the interior black. It was in this state that Clyde Rollins of Portland, Oregon, found the car in 1968.

Clyde eventually turned the car over to his son, Bobby Rollins. Bobby is the current-day owner and, between he and his dad, has owned the car since 1968--Bobby has no intentions of ever selling the car. Bobby and Dick Dean get the credit for the fine restoration bringing the Twister T back to its former glory. (For the record, Dick worked on the car in its Barris days.) In speaking with Bobby, he tells us that while the fenders are painted, they really need to be chromed and the edges need to be repainted to be representative of their original look.

It was a real thrill to see the car again at the 50th Anniversary of the Grand National Roadster Show, held at San Francisco's Cow Palace in 1999. I was honored to be selected as an AMBR judge at this auspicious event by the late Don Tognotti, just as I had the previous year. In this capacity I looked at the Twister T in a new light, wondering how my vote would have gone if I'd had the same prestigious assignment almost four decades earlier. Would I have cast my vote for the car? Yep--I do believe I would have, but this is coming from a guy who also had a Metalflaked car in 1961--a Peacock Blue '48 Ford ragtop, with a pearl white Naugahyde interior yet! So, in conclusion, the staff hopes you've enjoyed seeing this 40-year-old "Oakland Roadster Show" winner in STREET RODDER as much as we've enjoyed bringing it to you.