The Sam Barris 1950 Buick Restored AGAIN!
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We just saw some photo of the Sam Barris 1950 Buick being freshened up by owner and custom car collector Kurt McCormick on the Pharaohs Car Club St.Louis facebook page.
This is really great news and hopefully we will be able to see the body in bare metal this time.
Previous owner Jim Walker had Dave Oakes restore the car in the early 1980’s after the car had a very rough live and Jim found it in a field.A TWO part article on the history of the Sam Barris Buick can be found on the Main CCC-Site HERE
How the car was found
Early 1980’s, after the restoration was completed and the car is now owned by Kurt.
The car was bought by Kurt some time after it was restored and had been used and at many shows ever since. The car has been on loan to the Starbird Museum for some time and since a year or so it has been back in Kurt’s garage. And now its time for a complete redo so that Kurt, and all the custom car enthusiast can enjoy it for many more years to come.
Here are some photos of the work Kurt is doing. And hopefully we will be able to share some more photos of the restoration here on the CCC-Forum.
Photos from the Pharaohs facebook
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Another photo from the Pharaohs Facebook page showing a bit more on the Sam Barris Buick.
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Wow! I had no idea Kurt was going to go this far into it. Kurt was gracious enough to let my family and I stop by his house last fall when we were in St. Louis and give us the grand tour of his collection. I was drooling all over the car getting to see it for the first time (I had the spread from Hot Rod with it and the rest of Jack Walker’s collection on my bedroom wall as a kid) and Kurt pointed to a nailhead nearby and told me he was going to put it in the Buick so it would finally be a driver. He said the straight 8 that was in it was nearly dangerous with it’s lack of power for keeping up with modern traffic. As I think most folks know, Kurt drives ALL the cars in his collection and never trailers them to shows, so driveability is important. The car really didn’t look in bad shape at all, especially considering it was restored 30 or more years ago….waaaaay better shape than my Merc which was only done 20 years ago.
I won’t make the KKOA show this weekend, but I expect to be seeing him in a few weeks at another show we both generally go to. I’ll have to get the lowdown. 🙂
sure looks like it needs some work. makes me feel good to see this is done right!
lets hope they find a more period correct looking paint..it looks very modern in the pictures! i have never seen in it in person, so it could be the pictures!
its great we have guys like Kurt to keep these iconic cars alive!
please keep us posted!
-palleSome new photos from the restoration of the Sam Barris Buick from the Pharaohs car club.
I really hope this section will also be brought back to bare metal…
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I had hoped to visit with Kurt this weekend about the car at a show we both generally attend. Unfortunately, he was unable to make it at the last minute. In one of our emails back and forth a week ago or so he mentioned how he got to this spot of redoing the whole car. His intention originally was to just update the drive train with a nailhead so as to make it more driveable and able to keep pace in modern traffic. Once it was down to the shop, the guys there wanted to repaint it and use it in their booth at the Grand National Roadster Show (?….I think that was the show he said). Once they got the interior out, it was discovered that body mounts and structure were rusty and needed attention. Not willing to let such a treasure be shortcut, Kurt decided down the whole thing goes for a full redo.
What is that fan chamber under the seat? Is that original?
Thats the heater fan. Its similer to my 49
Some new updates on the restoration of the Sam Barris Buick from the Pharaohs Facebook pages…
The acres of “swiss cheese” rotten metal removed from the Sam Barris ’50 Buick. Car had spent a big part of it’s life back East, which helped to contribute to it’s deterioration.
All replaced steel had to be hand fabricated from 20ga sheet. Strengthening ribs were duplicated exactly with hand made templates. Truly concourse level work.
Inner bracing and body supports were fabbed and duplicated to replace the rusted metal.
Inner and outer rockers were created and replaced.
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Lower quarter skin created with shrinker and English wheel from 20ga sheet
Informational shot here of the top of the driver’s door on the Sam Barris ’50 Buick. If you look closely you can see a trough that Sam created to catch water and redirect it to this “engineered system” he came up with because he eliminated the outside drip rails. The water is routed down and through the body via piping and out the quarter panel. If you look at the photo posted that shows the inner rockers, you will see a black tube exiting the inside of the panel.
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