Kustom Kool

Written by Matthew Martz

Back when Ed was still “little” and Barris was just the “prince,” Red Harden was among a handful that helped shape Kustom Kulture, influencing everything from pop culture to the cars we drive today.

No guy ever forgets his first car. In a lot of ways, our first car can affect who we become. Sometimes we remember cars more than we remember the girls we took out in those cars. Red Harden remembers the first time he saw a car that changed who he was, and although he was still too young to drive, it was the prettiest car the 10-year-old had ever seen.

Parked on a street in Joplin, Missouri was a 1936 custom Ford built by Joe Wilhelm—once one of the greatest custom car builders of his time—and it was love at first sight for Harden.

“I didn’t know who Wilhelm was at the time,” he recalled. “But I remember thinking that it was the prettiest car I have ever seen, and saying to myself ‘that’s what I want to do.’ ”

And while Harden’s name may not be as recognizable to some as George Barris (creator of the original Batmobile), Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, or Darryl Starbird, he is every bit a legend when it comes to transforming ordinary vehicles into works of art.

For the past six decades, Harden has been skillfully bending metal, shaping sweeping fins, adding Frenched headlights and recessed taillights, shaving door handles, scooping hoods, sectioning bodies, and blending cocktails of candy colors that are sprayed onto the sheet metal skins of his custom-made chariots.

Born in Bakersfield, Harden moved with his mother to the small town of Prior, Oklahoma when he was just six years old and, after rough times, found himself in an orphanage. But it wasn’t long before this vehicle van Gogh began running away from that temporary home...a whopping 35 times.

“It took me that many times to figure out what I was doing wrong to get caught,” Harden said with a grin. “I made up my mind at 12 years old; I wasn’t going to get caught this time and ran away to New York.”

It wasn’t long before Harden discovered that living in the subways and streets of the Big Apple was not a place for a kid. After riding the rails for a few months, he decided to hitch a ride to Los Angeles.

Ambitious and young, Harden landed in Burbank in 1960. Timing couldn’t have been better as the ‘60s ushered in a new era of custom rod building. Changes involved wheels and tires, with a competition influence bringing mags and wider rubber to the scene. The same racing inspiration also led rodders to use newer, bigger, and more raucous engines that pierced through voids in custom-cut hoods.

The ‘60s also saw the evolution of the show rod. Flowing streamlined designs with radiant colors, and amazing artistry all blended together. What began with cars like the Ala Kart in the 1950s evolved into a radical new rod form that spawned untamed creations like Roth’s bubble top cars, Dean Jeffries’ Monkeemobile, Dave Puhl’s X Altered ‘34 Ford Coupe, and Starbird’s Li’l Coffin, also known to die cast collectors as the Demon or Prowler. Gone was any pretense of actual street use; these cars were built to push creative limits and dazzle car show spectators as well as budding young enthusiasts.

Harden found himself in the middle of this custom car builder’s Mecca and, as fate would have it, landed a job with Joe Bailon, a car customizer credited with creating the paint color Candy Apple Red.

In time, he would hook up with legendary customizer Bill Cushenberry, who in 1964 moved his business to North Hollywood, literally around the corner from Barris Kustom Industries. The entire area was bursting with testosterone-driven grease monkeys building chopped and stripped-down speed machines. Cushenberry ruled the ‘60s custom world, and would take Harden under his wing. The two became longtime partners and friends until Cushenberry’s death in 2005.

“Bill was unbelievable; he taught me so much, and we built some great cars together,” Harden said pointing to a picture on his office wall, one of a futuristic show car named, “The Silhouette.”

The 1963 hand-built machine sat on a shortened Buick chassis, and was originally powered by a Buick engine. The wheels on the car were fully exposed, but the angular body was strictly space age in shape, while the Candy Apple Red metal flake paint job, “fender well” headers, and crazed bubble top made it one of the most recognized cars in the world. The Silhouette was fully operable, and appeared in the movie Beach Ball in 1965. The car was such a huge success that Hot Wheels and Revell made a model of the car.

The Silhouette was stolen in Bakersfield in 1983, and has never been recovered. “We’ve gotten a lot of leads over the years, but nothing has ever panned out,” said Harden. “If we don’t find it soon, I’m just going to have to build another one.”

Harden’s obsession with cars has only grown over the years. He continued his quest to create the coolest car he could and, as a result, became a pretty good metal shaper himself, rounding off the edges, chopping tops, and even creating his own mélange of pearl paints from ground up abalone shells.

Throughout the 1960s and into the early ‘70s, Harden began working on Hollywood studio cars for movies and television and customized cars for the stars and numerous athletes including Dodgers Steve Garvey and Ron Cey, as well as Celtics legend Larry Bird and actor Dale Robertson.

“I worked on a lot of interesting cars in those days,” added Harden. “That was a good era, especially for custom cars. They had individuality, and we would customize them, turning them into something like a fine piece of jewelry.”

Harden’s most notable contributions were to Dragula, used in the hit TV series The Munsters, KIT from Knight Rider, and the General Lee, a bright orange supercharged 1969 Dodge Charger bearing a Confederate naval jack on its roof that grew to be more popular than Daisy Duke’s shorts in The Dukes of Hazzard.

However, the early ‘70s seemed to mark the beginning of the end for what many consider the glory days of rodding and customizing, and it was in 1971 that Harden returned to Bakersfield. The arrival of the GTO, and the ensuing rise of the muscle car, often bears blame for the decline in traditional rods and customs. Many speed freaks had already turned their backs on Deuce coupes and roadsters, wrenching instead on jacked-up ‘56 Chevys. Brand new production street customs, meanwhile, were being pumped out by the thousands in Detroit.

“Those ‘50s and ‘60s cars were in an era by themselves, and now they’re trying to come up with new models of old cars to try and reach the guys that couldn’t afford them back in the day,” Harden explained. “But it’s nothing like having the real thing.”

Today, Harden has turned his talent into a career as the owner of a collision repair shop. But bringing damaged sheet metal back to normal isn’t nearly as much fun as turning normal cars into something extraordinary, so in his free time, Harden has continued to follow in the footsteps of his childhood heroes while dreaming up the wildest rides since Mr. Toad. The results have been a long string of knockout customs.

And although Harden has built hundreds of custom cars and has owned over 1,000 automobiles during his life, this renowned custom car builder said he is not finished yet.

“To build a car from the ground up; a real one-of-a-kind is challenging,” added Harden. “I have something in my head, and I want to build it before I am too old.”

So if you see a car that resembles George Jetson’s “Space Car” cruising Bakersfield, don’t be alarmed, it’s probably Harden showing off his latest creation.

Article appeared in our 28-2 Issue - June 2011