I think you'll find some disagreement about the builder of the Cosma Ray. According to Andy Southard's book, "Hot Rods and Customs of the 1960": "With the help of customizer Darryl Starbird, Bob Greenwade of Blackwell, Oklahoma turned his 1964 Corvette into the 'Cosma Ray' and it was named Best Custom at the 1964 National Custom Auto Fair in Indianapolis, Indiana."
I know that Sondre Kvipt shows it as a Barris kustom on his site, but others disagree. Barris' site calls it: "A 1968 Corvette custom styling concept by Barris Kustom City." I guess he thought about it a bit so it's his concept. Right. Sure.
I think both both Barris and Starbird have done their share of "claiming" credit for kustoms, but I think Barris is probably the more blatant of the two in doing so. Frankly, since George took credit for the Hirohata Merc that was mainly built by his brother, Sam...and that was a part of their splitting up as partners...I haven't had a very high opinion of him...and I wasn't old enough to drive when that happened, but I could read between the lines in the magazines. It was shortly after that that I met Ed Roth and my whole outlook on things changed. I crossed paths with Roth numerous times in my life...which was kinda strange, cuz he mainly lived in the LA area and I mainly lived in Utah or Fresno, Ca. I saw him shortly before his death and had seen him a couple of years prior to that. We both hit a pretty hard bottom at about the same time. And we both recovered from it. Anyway, I've attended all the "official" Rat Fink Reunions except the very first (I was in the hospital at the time) and have come to regard his widow as a friend. Doesn't have anything to do with Barris or Starbird, but it illustrates where my interests went as far as kustoms are concerned. There are photos of my visits to the reunions in the "Cruisin and Car Show" section of the website in my profile.
Moving right along, Rik Hoving, who I view as a pretty reliable source, has a copy of a magazine page that states, "Darryl Starbird built this wild Vette....George Barris...takes credit for the apricot pearl finish." I've attached that here.
The car now resides in Starbird's museum near Tulsa, Oklahoma. If possession is 9 tenths of the law as the saying goes, then I guess Starbird has it.
For what it's worth...
RtR
