Larry Robbins 1948 Mercury

LOOKING FOR A CAR

Several Barris books show photos of George Barris working on a 1946-48 Mercury coupe, and of George working on installing a 1949 Cadillac grille, during the first steps of the chop.

However, non of the photo captions mentiones the name of the owner or if the car was ever finished. For a long time I’ve searched for photos of this car. But couldn’t find anything else but some early construction photos (see inset photos)

Until Palle Johansen bought the April 1950 issue of Motor Trend Magazine. Of course he did! It had some construction photos of the Jack Stewart 1941 Ford in it. A car he owns and is restoring.

This is an issue that wasn’t in the Custom Car Chronicle collection. Imagine our surprise when we found  a photo of the mysterie 1948 Mercury in it.  The car had a name and the photo showed the near finished body work including the chop.

Larry Robbins apparently was the owner of the car. He  asked Barris do his magic on it. And WOW… what a great looking 1948 Mercury it became. The 1949 Cadillac grille looks so great in this car. It makes you wonder why you don’t see this used in this type of car. And the chop and long hood is amazing.

So far, all we know is that the car was most likely finished. And we have a name: Larry Robbins. Remember that name folks! Hopefully we will be able to find more photos of this really great looking early Barris Custom in the future. We’ll keep you posted.