Story and Images John McCartney

This year’s running of the Grand National Roadster Show held at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, was huge on many fronts. First of this year’s show marked the 75th Anniversary of this iconic show which has brought together the best of the best in the custom and hot rod world. However, this year’s show featured a show in the show a special collection of cars that were brought together to celebrate a unique milestone. The milestone that we speak of what would have been famed custom car builder George Barris who would have turned 100 years old this year if he was still with us.

A collection of many of the cars that George Barris built over his career were brought together under one roof for a one-time celebration and get together. This group of cars ranging from famous tv and movie cars to award winning customs were all on display for fans to check out and enjoy.

Along with the cars George Barris two children were on hand to speak with fans and tell stories about many of the cars on display. Joji and Brett Barris had a blast seeing all of their dad’s car brought together as well as the fans reactions as they took it all in.

Folks were able to check out the real deal Dragula from The Munsters tv show owned by John Sbrigato of TV Show Cars fame, this car drew mobs of fans as it has not been seen on the West Coast in well over fifty plus years.  Along with the Munsters Koach from the Galpin Automotive collection was there as well.

Dave Shuten who works and handles many of the cars from Galpin Automotive brought out a Batmobile, the Redd Foxx wild wrecker from the Sanford and Son tv show, the wild Elvira black T-Bird also came from the Galpin collection. The far out Golden Sahara II complete with one of a kind light up tires drew a great deal of attention throughout the show as well.

Joji and Brett present a special plaque and award to each of the folks who brought their cars out for the display. All of these awards were presented on special reception which was held on Thursday night prior to the opening of the show. Building number nine which housed the display during the run of the show was filled each in and everyday as fans, car builders and artists took time to visit this one time display. From Gene Winfield, Larry Wood, Dave Shuten, Robert Williams, Chip Foose along with Barry Weiss of Storage Wars fame were just a few of the who’s who that could be seen admiring the display.

On Friday afternoon many of the members of the Grand National Roadster Hall of Fame came together under one roof in building nine to sign autographs for all of the fans.

Butch Patrick who played Eddie Munster on The Munster’s TV show spent time by the Dragula and Munsters Koach during the run of the show talking with fans about his time with these iconic cars as well hanging out with George Barris back in the day.

In addition to this one of a kind of display every square of inch of the massive Fairplex was filled to the brim with all sorts of customs and hot rods on Saturday. Well over thousand plus cars were on display making it a real treasure hunt for fans to seek out great cool gems at every turn. One really needed their walking shows to see everything that one could see.

For fans that were lucky enough to attend this year’s running of the Grand National Roadster show it will be one for sure that will be talked about for many years to come. No doubt there will never be the collection of cars brought together for quite sometime. The collection of Barris cars will never happen again as many of the cars were brought out of private collections just to come together to celebrate the wonderful life and talents of the famed custom car builder George Barris.

Designer and builder Chip Foose was on hand to sign one of kind posters for his fans 

To everyone that brought out their cars and to all of the folks that took time to enjoy these creations I am sure George Barris is looking down and smiling that his work is still enjoyed by all.

For more of McCartney’s great images from the show, go to: