Surf Woody - George Barris - 1965

George Barris' "Surf Woody" custom car from the 1965 auto show season . Includes magazine articles about the car, the model kit and it's derivatives, and pictures of the actual car that I took in 1983 at the Harrah Auto Museum as the car awaited auctioning. If you have any other information on the car, please leave a comment with your email address so I might contact you.
http://public.fotki.com/Vince/surf_woody/

The Harrah Auto Museum had three auctions to sell off excess vehicles before being downsized into the National Automobile Museum. The Surf Woody was one of the "excess vehicles". Imagine how I felt when I came out of one of the buildings and saw my favorite custom of all time in this condition! The car was sold in the summer of 1983 for $2500...I hope the new owner didn't strip it for parts. Sigh...


The only missing parts that I could see were the carbs, superchargers and pressure pots, a piece of wood trim, the Barris crest, the antique telephone, and the rear window. Many other parts were damaged. Probably the hardest thing to replace would be the telephone!


Weird angle, but I was trying to photograph as much as possible without touching the car- I figured that I was being watched. I would have loved to have opened the hood for some shots of the engine and chassis, but I was too chicken...

Great stuff and I really was glad to find your photos. I'm building the latest kit of the surf woody. One thing I don't understand is why amt didn't include the duel rear wheels? is it because of changes to the kit in the past or were they just lazy.

Note how the rear duallies were achieved. Most of the chrome was pitted with rust, and some of it had been spray painted silver. I don't even want to mention the orange "labelling" of the parts.

"SURF WOODY"

Designed to haul a a motorized surfboard on the roof, it has a 105 inch wheel base and a super wide tread – 66 inches in the front, 87 inches inches on the rear where there are dual Mickey Thompson drag racing slicks which will enable the car to plow through deep sand into the best surfing areas. Astro steel wheels have dual spool plates with walnut covered spokes.

The frame is special constructed of two-inch diameter 4130 chrome moly tubing and is surrounded by a supporting network of ⅝ inch tubes shaped to the body’s contour. Fastened to the floor pan with eight quick remove bolts, the eye catching steel body carries a large number of technical ideas. The doors operate electrically to fold out to become entrance steps and are lighted with fluorescent tubes. Headlights are horizontal fluorescents while the entire rear section is a huge tail-lamp. Square chromed tubes support the naugahyde covered top and there are Philippine walnut inserts where rear side window would normally be and is also converted into an open roadster with Reynolds Aluminum extrusions. The interior is finished with custom design oil painted surfing complete wall scene. Body contoured airfoam seats are electrically actuated into a gentle wave-like rocking motion. Topping the luxury features, there are two Sony TV sets plus a Muntz six speaker stereo tape music system.

Equipped with a Ford Cobra engine has its power increased by two Paxton super chargers mounted on a MT ram thrust manifold with a Dupree chrome dome fuel pump and finned air cooled valve covers. There is no steering wheel, it turns by push buttons on a single uni-control-stick, that also operates the accelerator and disc brakes.

Other components are an automatic transmission with a Hurst Dual-Gate floor control, independent traction master torsion bar suspension that incorporates a Mercedes 300 swing axle in the rear and Airheart disc brakes on the two front wheels. One of the more unusual features is the fuel tank – a 10 gallon beer keg converted to a new purpose and completely triple chrome plated.
http://www.barris.com/carsgallery/kustomshotrods/surfwoody.php