Barris Compton Ave Shop

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BARRIS COMPTON SHOP

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George and Sam Barris worked out of this small shop on Compton Avenue in Los Angeles for 3 years. In those years, they created Custom Car Magic, and established themselves as the top Custom Restylers in the USA.

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The Barris Shop at Atlantic Blvd in Lynwood (used from 1950 to 1961) was the most famous and most prolific Barris Shops of them all. But the small shop at 7674 Compton Avenue in Los Angeles where the Barris Shop was located from 1946 to 1949 might have been the most important. It was at this shop that the what we now cal typical Barris style was developed. It was in this shop that George Barris created his live changing 1941 Buick convertible. It was in this shop that the first magazine featured cars were created that would put the Barris Customs name on the map all around the USA. Everything that happened at this shop made sure there would be a future for the Barris Custom Shop. A future in which the Barris name became synonym for anything Custom. Lets take a closer look at this small Los Angeles shop, that changed so much for us Custom Car enthusiasts

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George Barris opened his first body shop in 1944. The small shop was located in Bell, California. In 1946, after his brother Sam Barris had joined George in shop, they found a new, a bit larger location on Compton Avenue, just a few blocks away from their old place in Bell. The new shop was located in a building with two garages. The owner of the building used half of it for his own Brake shop, and rented the other half to George Barris. The garage could house at least 4 cars, and the parking space in front and behind the shop allowed for a few more cars to be parked and worked on. We know that the majority of the work on the car was done on the car sitting outside the shop.Painting of the cars was however done inside, although there was no real spray booth. When a car was painted the floor would be watered down, to prevent the dust to fly into the wet paint during painting. Despite these poor painting conditions, it is know that George Barris was very picky about his paint jobs and these hand rubbed paint-jobs he did were looking really amazing.

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The Compton Avenue shop was the building ground for many famous, trend setting and iconic Custom Cars. To name a few in no particular order:

• Jesse Lopez 1941 Ford coupe,
• Johnny Zaro 1940 Mercury,
• Al Andril 1940 Mercury,
• John Vera 1941 Ford convertible (later owned by Johnny Zaro),
• Dick Fowler 1938 Ford,
• George Barris 1941 Buick,
• Sam Barris 1940 Mercury convertible,
• George Barris 1942 Cadillac,
• Marcia Campbell 1949 Chevy Convertible,
• And many more known and unknown restyled cars.

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Brothers George and Sam were very productive at this shop, They were both very young and spend a lot of time at the shop. By the time George had finished his 1941 Buick the style for the shop was sort of set, and the customers started to come in to the shop for the Barris look. But at the same time there was still a lot of experimentation to find the right way of doing things and making each car look better. Judging from the surviving photos it seamed like every car that came out of the Compton Avenue shop looked fresh with new ideas, yet sill very recognizable as a Barris Kustom. It is truly remarkable that that such a great number of really great looking Custom cars have been created in such a small shop. Of course we have to keep in mind that due to the mostly great weather, the whole parking space around the shop was basically shop as well.

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George and Sam allowed the car owners to work on their own cars at the shop during the whole process of Custom restyling as well. This way the owner could save some money if they did the disassembling, sanding and other “easy” work themselves. For George and Sam this was convenient as well since they could then concentrate on the fun stuff or creating, and could handle more customer cars at the same time.

The shop was called Barris’s Custom Shop. What is really special about this is that the word Custom in the name is still spelled with a “C”. We know that George already started to write the word Custom with a “K” Kustom from the mid 1940’s. But still the shop name would be Custom Shop for at least most of the time the shop stayed in the Compton Ave. building. He would refer to the cars the shop created as Kustom Automobiles with a “K”, but the name Kustoms would not be officially connected to the name Barris as in the shop name until 1949, or 1950

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The sign on the front of the building has quite a lot of writing on it. The main sign above the door reads: in bold letters BARRIS CUSTOM SHOP and on the left side of this the name SAM and on the right the name GEORGE. Below that in even bolder letters. BODY & FENDER WORKS. Below that in a bit smaller letters … AUTO PAINTING … The 7674 number is painted on the bottom far left side of the building, just above the door.

The section between the two doors has been added at a later date and reads.
COMPLETE CUSTOM WORK, below that in smaller letters; – CUSTOM PAINTING, PLATE-INSET, -CHOPPED TOPS, BODY MOLDING.
And diagonal; ROADSTERS CHANNELED on the top and PUSH BUTTON DOORS on the bottom.

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The backside of the shop

At the backside of the shop there was a large empty lot. In several photos we can see multiple project parked in that section. Possibly just waiting next in line to be brought closer to the shop to be worked on. Possibly the owners temporarily ran out out of money and the project were just parked there. On the backside there was also a drive way that allowed you to access the rear located parking and the rear door of the shop. The garage door that opened to the E77th street belonged to the Brake shop and was not used by the Barris shop

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Jesse Lopez on the Barris Compton Avenue Shop
The Compton Avenue shop was basically a two car garage, but longer, and if you really tried you could put four cars in it. But most of the time the work was performed outside, weather was always good. Sometimes they had up to ten cars in the “backyard of the shop. Projects they worked on and stalled projects of customers that ran out of cash. Nobody complaint about the amount of cars in the backyard and parked on the street. There was always a crowd. Next door to the shop was a brake shop. The guy who owned it owned the whole building George Barris rented the shop space from him.

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Advertising and business card

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Barris’s Kustoms with a “K” ?

George Barris started to write the word Customs with a “K” Kustoms, in the early to mid 1940’s. The cars he created he would call Kustom Automobiles. But on the shop wall of the Compton Avenue shop the name was Barris’s Custom Shop, and as we can see on the check from August 1949 we can see that the official address was also listed as Barris Custom Shop. There is one photo of the Compton Avenue Shop that shows the name with a “K”, but all I have is a small poor resolution scan of this photo, and on there it looks like either the “K” for Kustoms was written on the photo, or it was done rather quick on the show wall sign. In all other photos I have seen of the shop Customs is written with a C. The Barris Shop was officially renamed Barris Kustoms after the move to the new Atlantic Blvd shop

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The shop Address

For everybody who has been able to visit the former Barris shops in Los Angeles and Lynwood they all know how the shops location relate to each other, but for those who have never been able to visit the former shops I have created this map to show where the shops are located.
The Barris Shop had 4 different addresses before it moved to its last North Hollywood location in 1961. From the first shop in Bell, Ca we have not been able to find an actual address. If anybody of our readers know the actual address of this first shop George Barris had in 1944, please let us know.

• 1944 – 1946 – George Barris first shop in Bell (The shop was most likely named: Barris Custom Shop in Bell, but we do not have an address)

• 1946 – 1949 – Barris Customs 7674 Compton Avenue, Los Angeles.

• 1949 – 1950 – Kustom Automobiles 4120 1/2 E. Florence Avenue, Bell.

• 1950 – 1960 – Barris Kustoms 11054 Atlantic Blvd, Lynwood

• 1960 – 1961 – Barris Kustom City 11054 Atlantic Blvd, Lynwood

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