Perusing Paul’s extensive collection of car books (I mostly look at the pictures), I was struck by the number of cool Tbird customs by legendary George Barris.

For all our square-Bird friends, here’s a beauty: the 58 “Ultra-Bird”. Barris customised this t-bird for his wife Shirley’s birthday, painting it in 30 coats of Candy Red with white pearl outlining, adding 18 side louvres and illuminated hubcabs. It won the Motor Life ‘Car of the Year’ in 1959. Shirley is marvelling at how George managed to convert a miniature car into a full-sized version just by the application of Kolor Crome products!

So blog readers, what do you think of custom cars? Sacrilege… or you can’t get enough of the chopped, channelled, sectioned and lowered?

Check out some background on George here.

Image from Barris Kustoms of the 1950s by George Barris and David Fetherston.

When it’s hot in Perth, it’s gonna be Flamin’ Hot in Mundaring… and Sunday was no exception. And to intensify the discomfort, there was 90% humidity too, and some-one had the great idea of ordering black Tshirts!

The annual Cranksters Pipeline Picnic/Cruise from metro Perth to the Mundaring Hills was a huge success (declaring an interest here – I’m a Crankster member). We had over 175 entrants, and possibly a few stragglers joined the line snaking up the hill. Several nice Thunderbirds too.

The Mundaring Hotel publican had welcome amber brews awaiting the thirsty hordes. A few ventured outside to browse the marketstalls after the steak sandwiches and roast dinners were polished off. There was a free raffle for the major prizes donated by Cranksters’ generous supporters – and you’ve never seen an elderly gent move faster when he was announced the winner of the Adultshop prize (suddenly the walking stick was redundant – maybe Mundaring is the Lourdes of the 21st century).

Check out a few pics here in the Gallery.