1953 lincoln Barris "golden sahara" le kustom doré a l'or fin

je n'ai pas pu m'empecher de mettre la "golden sahara" (Barris)...qui pour moi,a ce niveau de qualité est plus un concept car qu'un kustom

 1953 Lincoln Capri originally owned and restyled by George Barris. The car was George's daily driver, and he nosed and decked the car before he took it north for a show. On the way home the motor blew on Dan Landon's 1949 Chevrolet, so they decided to flat tow it behind the Lincoln. On the way back home it got foggy, and out of nowhere appeared a flat bed truck. The car went under the truck, as they went under the truck they leaned over and ducked under the dash. After the smoke cleared and the cops came Geroge needed medical attention for some cuts on his face.They guys were in the middle of nowhere, and George had to walk a few miles in order to reach the local bar were the doctor was at. The doctor was drunk, but managed to clean George's bloody face.
 

From the remains of George's Lincoln, Barris Kustoms built the Golden Sahara for Jim Skonzakes of Dayton, Ohio. The interior of the Golden Sahara was completed by Glen Houser and Bob Houser of Carson Top Shop. The interior of the car featured a TV set mounted in the dash, a hi-fi radio mounted below the TV, a tape recorder installed between the driver and passenger in the front seat, and a complete cocktail bar with its own refrigerator unit installed in the back seat. Golden frieze material and white Naugahyde covered the seats, dash, and side panels. A shag rug with two-inch padding made the floor of the car luxuriously soft to the feet. All interior trim were gold-plated.
 

In 1960, the second version of the Golden Sahara won Best Custom and Best Display at the first annual National Champion Custom Car Show.

Erticle de référence:
http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=The_Golden_Sahara

Dans une émission de TV en 1962

The Golden Sahara appeared in the 1960 movie called Cinderfella, starring Jerry Lewis. June 25, 1962 Jim Street did also present it on the TV-show I've Got a Secreat.

The Golden Sahara II on I've Got a Secret June 25, 1962. (la vidéo précédente)

Where is it Now

Jim Skonzakes still owns the car, and that he has the car stored away in Ohio together with the original Kookie Car. According to a thread on the HAMB, the car was last seen in oublic at a local cruise night in Hamilton, Ohio in the early 80s. It was already then in a terrible condition, and would really need a full restoration

The Golden Sahara 1955
Starting out as 1953 Lincoln Capri Hard Top the “Golden Sahara,” was a futuristic low-slung automobile designed and built from the chassis up by George Barris and his brother Sam. On this particular car, every body section was hand-formed into a Barris design that certainly has graceful eye-appeal.


Golden Sahara at the 1955 Motorama
The bumper bullets, entirely new at the time the car was built, later came out on Cadillac and became famous. Also new was the checkered grille, later to be seen on the '55 Ford. The thin-line rear fender fins, new then, today are seen on more than one make being built in Detroit. The spare tire well, impregnated on the rear decklid, appears on '57-'58 Imperials. Perhaps these were ideas already on the drawing boards in Detroit at the time the Golden Sahara was being constructed; but, like many another idea that is dreamed up by different people in different locations at the same time, George was able to build it first because of his hand-formed methods.


Golden Sahara Interior: Interior is luxuriously "furnished" in pleated Naugahyde, padded top and bottom on twin dash enclosures and encasing TV set. Note the rabbit-ear TV aerial, tape recorder installed between driver and passenger, telephone and mike ready for instant use. Bar has built-in refrigerator. source: Custom Cars 1959 Annual by James E. Potter
Probably the most familiar customizing feature on Barris automobiles is the lowering of the car. George has devised every conceivable method to give the car a ground-hugging, low look, believing simply that a lower car looks better. The chopped top is practically a Barns trademark; he's certainly clone enough of them to earn it. He is one of the first to admit the only real way to lower the car and keep proper proportions in both the upper and lower body areas is to "section" the car. This requires taking out a three-to-four-inch section of metal all around, usually in the widest area of flat metal in the vertical position. This, as you can readily visualize, is quite a task when there are a multitude of angles and contours on nearly every body design. Sectioning, without a doubt, is the costliest of custom modifications. Luckily for enthusiasts, Detroit designers have narrowed the depth of the body sides on the newer cars so such lowering will soon be unnecessary.

Golden Sahara 1955, Front: A luxury automobile at its ultimate, the "Golden Sahara" was completely designed and built by George and Sam Barris from ground up. Transparent top is hinged at center for easy entry; tire is molded into rear deck, as on current Imperials. Cost reported to be in excess of $25,000. source: Custom Cars 1959 Annual by James E. Potter
Another Barris innovation which can be recognized as having started a trend is the "floating" grille. Subsequent to this operation performed on a few cars in the early Fifties, manufacturers adopted the idea, with Pontiac and Oldsmobile being notable examples.
Air scoops — in the hood, at the forward section of the rear fender, over the headlight, and in other places — have long been a re-styling modification practiced by Barris. So have the not-so-apparent "molding-in" (making one-piece by filling and welding) of all body seams, bumper pans, and the like. On earlier customs, the V-butted windshield, forerunner of the curved one-piece glass now universally used, was an idea initiated by Barris. Of course, such metal artistry as trenching headlights and taillights, smoothing off emblems (nosing and decking), and the like are so common today in the customizing field that you can hardly identify Barris or anyone else as the originator; yet these are the modifications most often done by the youthful customizer wherever he may be — in Hoboken or Honolulu.


The main features included high-tech electronics. Five way electronic steering: steering wheel, push button, remote control, floor board covers and voice control. Sensitivity solenoids to open the doors, activate door openers, operate TV, stereo, record player, radio . The exterior was finished with 40 coats of pure oriental pearl which was made from scales of an imported fish. All metal fabrications were 24 karat gold plating. The Golden Sahara was featured in the movie "Cinderella" starring Jerry Lewis.
Article original:
[url=http://machine-history.com/Golden Sahara 1955]http://machine-history.com/Golden%20Sahara%201955%20[/url]

Custom Car by Jim Street as seen on a June 25, 1962 broadcast of I've Got a Secret

Tom Leichty of Michigan built this back in the 1990s. Yes, it's an homage to the Golden Sahara, which I believe is Tom's favorite custom.

From years spent as one of America’s most famous custom cars—touring prolifically around the country and drawing massive crowds and hordes of media everywhere it went—to a sudden disappearance into the garage of its owner, never to be seen again, the Golden Sahara is an absolute legend. And this is one legend that needn’t rely on fables or folklore in order to weave its fantastical tale. Nay, this legend is quite the opposite; as the saying goes, “Truth is stranger than fiction.”

The story begins on a foggy drive home from a Sacramento car show with George Barris behind the wheel of his new 1953 Lincoln Capri Hardtop and friend, Dan Landon, piloting a 1949 Chevrolet. After Landon’s engine unexpectedly blew, the two decided to rig the ’49 up to the bumper of Barris’ Lincoln in order to tow it home.

Barris himself briefly recounted the story in an interview with Jonnie King in his “Hall of Fame Legends” series. “I was towing a guy’s car back because he blew the engine, and we just bumpered it together and back over to Ridge Route—that’s all we had, we didn’t have trailers in those days,” he explained. “Regretfully, we slid under a hay truck with it, and we came out of it alright, but the hay truck bed went over the top and peeled the top off, so the rest of the car was good, but the top was gone.”

Barris went on to say that the state of the car after the accident inspired him to construct his most customized creation to date. Instead of merely chopping and channeling, Barris and his team—namely Bill De Carr—completely overhauled the car with the backing of an Ohio customer who agreed to fund the ambitious project—one James Skonzakes, better known as Jim Street.

Together, Barris and Street dreamt up a truly spectacular custom, more along the lines of a prototype vehicle. They changed the front end so drastically it was unrecognizable and added a wraparound windshield and a custom half-bubble top, a gold bullet bumper and gold-anodized panels on the lower section of the rear fenders that also included integrated scoops on their leading edge, Kaiser tail lights and single tail fins. The resulting aerodynamic design of the reshaped metal body further boasted a stunning two-tone finish of 24-karat gold in place of chrome, and paint that glittered like diamonds. According to Barris, it was “about 20 years ahead of its time,” and its exterior coloring alone was an innovative, albeit unconventional, foray into the creation of what Barris says was one of the first pearlescent paint jobs.

“The one thing I wanted to get, was that I wanted a gold pearl, and there was no pearl in those days,” Barris explained. “That was in the early ‘50s, so where would I go to get gold pearl? You can’t just take white and put gold in it. So Shirley and I went down to the fish market, and I remember fish were very ‘pearlish’ looking. And I had the fish guys turn all the sardines over so their bellies were showing till I found the right belly that had the gold. So we took it and scraped the scales off the belly and put it in a jar and took it back to the shop and mixed it in with a natural cellulose clear lacquer and toner lacquers. And then I based it in a very dull white and then sprayed that over it, and it just came out really pearly gold. The only problem was it was very hard to smell it because it smelled like a fish.”
Barris’ shop teamed up with Glen Hauser’s Carson Top Shop for interior treatments, which were made to perfectly match the two-tone exterior coloring. Gold and white brocade fabric dressed the seats, padded dash and door panels, and the floor featured plush white mink carpeting. It was equipped with a television in the dash, radio, tape recorder and even a refrigerated cocktail lounge in the rear.

Barris dubbed the final product “The Golden Sahara,” and it made its public debut in 1954 at the Petersen Motorama held at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles. It served as the star of Barris’ extensive lineup of custom-built cars at the show, and it was displayed on a large turn table so every one of its gorgeous custom curves and angles could be admired, glittering under the big lights with its stunning pearlescent fish-scale paint.

The car was a hit at the Motorama, and demand for its presence at other car shows and events was immediate. From 1954 to 1956, Street took it touring around the country to various shows and “rented” it out for displays at dealerships to attract curious crowds that might be converted to customers. The tour was a promotional endeavor Street undertook, in part, to recover the costs of the car’s build, which had come in at a shocking $25,000. It was hugely successful, as dealerships and companies clamored for the opportunity to use the car in commercials, in print ad campaigns, on magazine covers and more. “Motor Trend” named the Golden Sahara “The $25,000 Custom” on the cover of its May 1955 issue, and the Seiberling Rubber Company commissioned its use as the “face” of the company’s “Tires of Tomorrow” campaign. All of the attention served to convince Street that investing in the car even further would surely pay off.

In 1956, Street commissioned the Delphos Machine and Tool shop out of Dayton, Ohio, to take the car to the next level. Bob Metz took the lead on the rework, altering the windshield, hood and roof, and adding stacked quad headlights with frosted covers. Further gold plating was added to the sides of the fenders, and the car was fitted with new twin-V tail fins and new bumperettes. Jim Rote was brought into the mix to design an electronic control system for the car that would allow for a plethora of steering options, including manual or standard (the steering wheel for which was completely removable—column and all), pushbutton steering on both the driver and passenger side, and a centered uni-control lever (like in an aircraft) that could also regulate acceleration and braking. An automatic braking unit using antennas as sensors to “look” for things in the car’s path was installed in the front bumperettes, and the wheels were made with glass portions that lit up and acted as turn signals, while the tires boasted a revolutionary rubber compound developed by Goodyear that allowed them to actually glow in the dark.

The electronic control system also included voice control and a remote that could open the doors as well as start and kill the engine; the same remote could even compel the car to accelerate and brake—effectively categorizing the car as autonomous, with no need for a driver.

The entire affair was straight out of the future or one of the popular sci-fi films of the day, and the final cost of the alterations brought the car to an estimated cost of a whopping $75,000. Public interest skyrocketed even more dramatically over what was now being called the Golden Sahara II. A self-driving, remote-controlled car in the 1950s with futuristic styling and a jaw-dropping overall appearance (and price tag) was an exceptionally sensational thing that gripped the attention of the nation. People couldn’t get enough of the car. Everywhere it went, its impending arrival was announced in newspapers and on the radio with announcements like “Car of the Future Being Displayed Here All Week” and “See the $75,000 ‘Golden Sahara,’ Here for This Week Only!”


So popular was the car, that it was used in the 1960 fantasy-romance film “Cinderfella” starring Jerry Lewis, Ed Wynn and Judith Anderson. It was selected for use due to its amazing presence and entirely unique, space-age appearance. The car’s automatic operation features proved to be key in the film as well, allowing Jerry Lewis to dramatically descend the red-carpeted steps of the movie mansion and be welcomed in the grandest fashion by handle-free doors that opened on their own as he approached.

Immortalized in film and celebrated as one of the most innovative, futuristic and generally awe-inspiring vehicles of the decade, the Golden Sahara was a celebrity in its own right. Street continued to tour the car around the country, and in the late ‘50s, he bought an entire case of mechanical toy robots known popularly as “Robby Robots” from a manufacturer in Japan and used them to display the car in an elaborate manner that furthered its otherworldly look. He’d surround it with “angel hair” and place the tiny toy robots in and around the vehicle, as if the entire thing had magically materialized from outer space somewhere. Another ploy he used to attract crowds was enlisting his wife at the time, Gloria, a former Miss Florida, to demonstrate the car’s various features—but more captivating than her beauty was the fact that she would do the demonstrations while completely covered in gold body paint, adding just another element of intrigue to the spectacle. These displays helped the car dig itself even deeper into the hearts and minds of millions—adults and children alike.

In 1962, the car was featured on the game show “I’ve Got a Secret,” during which Street was asked by host Gary Moore to demonstrate a selection of its impressive capabilities, including its ability to travel sans-driver.

Despite the car’s fantastical presence and prolific reputation, as the ‘60s drew to a close, Street discreetly but abruptly withdrew it from the show circuit. Without explanation, the car simply vanished from the public’s view—never to be seen again. But while it may have been lost, it was far from forgotten, and as decades passed, enthusiasts and fans of the car naturally began to ask each other, “Whatever happened to the great Golden Sahara?” The answer, however, was always the same; no one really knew, and all they could hope was that it was still around somewhere, quietly awaiting the day that it would emerge as the icon it once was—reclaiming its rightful place as one of the most dramatic and awe-inspiring custom cars of all time.

With the advent of the internet and the development of discussion forums, many enthusiasts took their conversations about the car and its whereabouts online in hopes of getting answers; but even there, most discussions echoed the same theory, that Street likely stored it away somewhere or possibly even destroyed it, and few expected to ever see it again.

Now, nearly 50 years after the car’s disappearance, those thousands of people whose curiosity has languished starving for answers and hungrily awaiting visual confirmation that the Golden Sahara still lives will finally get the gratification they’ve sought for so long. This May, the Golden Sahara will emerge still untouched from the Ohio home of Jim “Street” Skonzakes, where it has indeed been stored since its disappearance in the 1960s. For the first time in decades, the car will be available for public viewing in its as-discovered condition as it graces the stage of Dana Mecum’s 31st Original Spring Classic Auction. Certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the car’s appearance will not only mark its reentry into the world that has long vied for its return, but it will also mark a momentous occasion for one fortunate and ambitious collector as it crosses the auction block in search of someone to carry on its unparalleled legacy. To own the Golden Sahara is to own possibly the most memorable and certainly the most interesting car born of the 1950s, spawned from the ingenuity and talents of the eccentric but brilliant Jim Street, George Barris, Bill De Carr, Bob Metz and others. There is nothing like it in the world, and there will never be another like it again.

the Sahara in Geveva, yes those are the famous glowing tires.

Goodyear and Klairmont Kollections unveil restored Golden Sahara II on translucent Goodyear tires at the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show

In collaboration with Klairmont Kollections, Goodyear unveiled the restored Golden Sahara II at the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show. An iconic custom car of the 1950s and 60s, the Golden Sahara II was one of the first concepts of autonomous vehicles and was fitted with glowing, see-through tires that were custom developed by Goodyear.

The 1950s and 60s were a period of intense innovation for Goodyear. We partnered with mobility pioneers in everything from lunar exploration to land speed records. Goodyear’s collaboration on the Golden Sahara II project was our first step in shaping the future of autonomous mobility.

Henry Dumortier, Vice President Consumer for Goodyear Europe


Developed by Jim Street and legendary custom car designer George Barris, the Golden Sahara II was a platform for testing new electronics systems. It featured a control system with an aircraft-inspired control lever for acceleration, braking and steering and an automatic braking system that used sensors to detect potential objects in the car’s path.

The car’s tires were developed by Goodyear using Neothane,
a translucent form of synthetic rubber, and contained internal lighting, which allowed them to glow.

This was part of broader research by Goodyear into the feasibility of tires that could help improve visibility in bad weather conditions or be wired to light up when a driver hit the brakes.




The Golden Sahara II is a unique vehicle and a part of American motoring history. My team and I are proud to have partnered with Goodyear in bringing this iconic vehicle back to life at the 2019 Geneva International Motor Show

Larry Klairmont, founder and owner of Klairmont Kollections
„

In its heyday, the Golden Sahara II toured the United States, featuring on television and in films. It then sat in a garage for the best part of 50 years until Klairmont Kollections purchased the vehicle from Mecum Auctions in May 2018. The Golden Sahara II was restored with the help of Speakeasy Customs and Classics in Chicago and was presented at Geneva on four, newly-built Goodyear translucent tires.


We are truly honored to have once again been a partner in the Golden Sahara II project. Discovery and innovation continue to be the core of what Goodyear does. Working on projects like the Golden Sahara II and the concept tires that we present at Geneva is an opportunity to stretch our imagination and envision the possible products and services of the future.

Henry Dumortier, Vice President Consumer for Goodyear Europe
https://news.goodyear.eu/world-premiere-of-restored-1950s-autonomous-concept-vehicle-golden-sahara-ii-with-goodyear-tires/?fbclid=IwAR24OQ8oC39iKLmoI8q22dh3no08XkZq2eCNfy05I9md38uMlNS09_DiXUQ