September 14, 2013

Dean Jeffries Automotive Styling Estate Sale

Woody Uncategorized 3077 Cahuenga, cahuenga blvd, Custom, damnation alley, Dean Jeffries, dune buggies, ed big daddy roth, Estate Sale, george barris, Jeffries Automotive Styling, tin snips 1 Comment

To a certain type of person, this estate sale was the event of the season. If you were into drag racing, Indy cars, hot rods, or sci-fi movies, the estate sale at Dean Jeffries shop on Cahuenga Blvd was a place to score some mementos, random parts at below swap meet prices or pay your last respects to a legend in the automotive world.

George Barris, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and Von Dutch may be more well known, but Jeffries should be right up there with them in the pantheon of car culture. It was Dean who was commissioned to do the Batmobile in 1965 before handing it off to Barris because he couldn’t finish it under the studio deadline. It was Dean who built the Green Hornet “Black Beauty” which we all know is a better car anyway. It was Dean who built the Mantaray, which not only looked as good as any of Roth’s cars, but I bet handled better (after all it was based on an old Maserati F1 car chassis). He built & painted Indy cars, the first Cobra, helped on the GT40 project and more. To sci-fi fans he will always be the man who built the amphibious, fully functional, 8 wheel drive Landmaster for “Damnation Alley” as well as countless other cars for Logan’s Run, “Diamonds Are Forever”, “Roger Rabbit” and more.

Anyway, so it all had to go, and they were selling it cheap. I bet $2500 would have gotten you the entire contents of the place, including the 2 original bucks for the Kyote dune buggies. Here’s some stuff I scored.

Replacement speedo cable for your Landmaster? I may go back tomorrow and pick up the Landmaster/bus shift lever & console that is still sitting there.

Not sure if this is from the Landmaster or maybe from the “Diamonds are Forever” moon buggy

This I was told is definitely from the “Logan’s Run” car.

All this stuff? $20! Next time I am shaping some metal I will feel better knowing I’m using Dean’s hammer and tin snips.

No idea what these were for. They are actually fiberglass, not metal. Inside is marked left and right. No idea what exactly I will use them for, but that pair was only $10.