They were sleek two-door fastbacks; they were station wagons. They were the Custom Cruisers, built by George Barris for the Ford Motor Company.
It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words, so we’ll spare you the time and let the two photos above explain the Ford Custom Cruiser. The premise is obvious: With the push of a button and a little electro-hydraulic assistance, this ’66 Galaxie 500 could transform into a station wagon or a sleek two-door fastback coupe. Commissioned by the Ford Motor Company for the 1966 auto show circuit, the Cruiser was built by famed customizer George Barris of Barris Kustom CIty in North Hollywood, California.
We’ll let you judge how useful or practical the feature was, and we doubt if there was any production intent at Ford. Still, it was a pretty neat gimmick and an attention grabber. Motorcade, a Los Angeles magazine (1963-70) published by George Bhen, founder of Popular Hot Rodding, devoted the cover of its August-September 1966 issue to the Custom Cruiser, with a two-page photo spread inside. “First it’s fastback . . .then it’s a wagon,” Motorcade pondered. “Is it just a dream car?”
Never one to leave well enough alone, Barris created a second fastback-wagon hybrid for 1967 and dubbed it the Custom Cruiser II. (To be honest, we wouldn’t know if it was an all-new car or the previous Cruiser updated with ’67 Galaxie sheet metal.) With aftermarket custom wheels and metalflake gold paint, it wowed the crowds at the Ford display at the 1967 New York Auto Show and elsewhere. Once the ’67 car show season was concluded the Custom Cruisers were never heard from again, so presumably they were destroyed.
MCG,
I suspect you are correct, I am unable to find any evidence of either version existing after 1967. Barris almost never destroyed complete & runnung vehicles, he either kept them for his own use, or put them up for sale. It’s likely the Custom Cruisers were owned by Ford, not Barris.
Another reason I suspect Ford owned them was if Barris owned the 1966 version, and Ford decided to produce a 1967 version, Barris would have likely torn apart the back end of the first cat to use the same pieces in constructing the second car, in an effort to save build costs.
Ford Motor Co [like GM] almost never sold concept cars, and destroyed those they didn’t deem worthy of retention. GM’s policy was to destroy rather than sell, largely due to questions of liability. An exception was sometimes made if the car was customized from an existing car with a VIN. For example, Henry Ford II’s Mustang.