Sam Barris 1940 Mercury

SAM’S ’40 MERCURY

Sam Barris’ first full custom was this wonderfully restyled 1940 Mercury Convertible with Padded Top and Speed Boat stance.

We are not 100% sure this is actually Sam’s 1940 Mercury, but more than likely it is Sam’s car under construction in front of the Barris Compton Ave. shop. The windshield has been chopped, and the side trim shortened as well as the hood smoothed.The car had black wall tires, and used Calnevar white dress-up wheel covers (to simulate white wall tires). The padded top is still missing at this point.
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 The photo on the left shows Sam’s Mercury completely finished, with black wall tires. Note that the car still had the antenna on the factory stock location, centered on top of the windshield divider. The car also uses a license plate on the front, mounted on top of the DeSoto Bumper. The photo on the right shows the car with white wall tires, the antenna was now gone, and the license plate looks to be mounted in front of the bumper now.
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After Sam Barris had left the Navy, he moved from Sacramento to Los Angeles, Southern California. There he joined his brother George Barris, together they started the Barris’s Custom Shop. (Later known as the Barris Kustoms).
One of the first full customs Sam would build for himself was based on a 1940 Mercury Convertible. Sam build the car around 1948, although there are some reports mentioning that the car was build in Sacrament, before Sam joined the Navy in 1942. Perhaps he already owned the car back in Sacramento, and had started to customize it then. But we believe the car was finished around 1948, at least in the version we show it here in this article.

This 1940 Mercury was Sam’s only car to get around with. So most likely it was customized over a longer period, doing the work in his spare time after shop hours and in the weekends. Its not the first 1940 chopped Mercury convertible with a padded top. And most likely the Barris brothers had even done one or more similar to Sam’s for customers. But despite that or possibly because of that Sam’s 1940 Mercury came out absolutely perfect. The proportions on the car are absolutely perfect. The speed boat stance and the perfectly shaped padded top make this car look like its speeding while standing still.



This very poorly copied photo comes from the Johnny Zaro Collection. But since there are only very few photos of Sam’s 1940 Mercury left,  we show it here anyway. This photo also shows the car with the license plate mounted on the front bumper. The antenna has now been installed on the drivers side front fender towards the back, on a slight rearward angle.
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Sam chopped the windshield just the right amount on the Merc. The windshield height combined with the height of the side windows, and padded top is dead on perfect. Sam shaved the door handles as well as the trunk handles. He also smoothed the hood and created a unique mechanism to open the hood with only the lower portion of the hood trim. The side trim on the hood was shortened several feet. To give more weight toward the rear of the car. The rear fenders were molded to the body. Extra metal shapes made sure the fenders are now smoothly blending into the main body. The taillights were removed, and the holes filled. The front fenders were also molded to the body.

The car was lowered more in the rear than in the front, creating a wonderful speed boat stance. The 1940 Ford/Mercury teardrop fender skirts increase this effect as well. Sam choose 1937 DeSoto ribbed bumpers to go on his Mercury. At that time it already was a classic custom trick. The ribbed bumpers worked perfectly with the ribbed single bar flippers which Sam installed. In some of the photos in this article we can see that Sam used black wall tires at first. But later he switched to white wall tires, which give the car even more class.

Sam installed one single motor cycle taillight on the drivers side of the rear bumper, just outside the bumper guard. There is at least one photo of Sam’s Mercury showing the rear bumper without the guards, and with two motor cycle taillights installed. Sadly we have no info which version was first, but most likely the singe taillight was done first, and perhaps to many Police stops might have decided Sam to install the second one.
Sam had the padded top made by the Carson Top Shop. The Carson Top shop is known for creating the top on standard jigs. Apparently the shop built different jigs for the most popular cars to come in for Carson Tops. We also know that the Carson Top’s are known to be more boxy that other padded tops. Most likely Sam insisted on a little more flow on his top, and perhaps it was build using one of the jigs. The top of Sam’s Mercury flows really nice, especially if you compare it to some other Carson Tops on 1939-40 Mercury’s.  Perhaps the top was created by somebody else, and not by Carson as was mentioned in some other publications?

When all the work was done, Sam painted the car in a medium blue. Some documents, including some of the Barris books speaking about green paint on Sam’s mercury. But several old timers, who knew Sam from back in the late 1940’s, have confirmed Sam’s Mercury was indeed a wonderful medium blue.



Colorized by by Rik Hoving shows how the car could have looked like back in 1948. The photo was taken in front of the Barris Compton Avenue shop. The front license plate has now been removed. We can also see the wonderful flow of the padded top really good in this photo.
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The photo above shows that the car had unidentified bumper guards installed, and only one motorcycle taillight mounted on the drivers side next to the guard. Notice that the rear window had been taken out in this photo.
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This low-angle photo of Sam’s Mercury parked along side of the Compton Ave. Barris shop shows the perfect speed-boat stance of the car really well. The Barris brothers were experts in getting the right stance for their cars.
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This photo shows the car with two motorcycle taillights. The bumper guards are now removed, and the license plate is mounted behind the bumper.
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According the stories Sam did not have his finished Mercury all that long. The finished car drew quite a bit of attention, and when somebody offered him the right amount of money for it he decided to let it go, in order to be able to pay the bill’s. Sam did not keep track what ever happened with the car after he sold it. It might still be around today. There are some rumors the car is found, and currently being restored. So far the remains of this car, which is an early custom 1940 Mercury, have not been identified for the full 100%. Sam’s car was very nicely done, but there were a lot more cars with very similar body modifications, so it will be very hard to positively identify. Lets keep our fingers crossed and we see a restored Sam barris 1940 Mercury convertible on the roads once again.



Reference and more info

• Hop Up magazine, May 1953
• Barris Kustom Techniques of the 50’s Volume 3



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