He moved to Los Angeles at the age of eighteen to build custom cars for private buyers, including the Hirohata Merc in 1951.

Barris's company designed and built vehicles for multiple television series in the 1960s, including Batman, The Munsters, and The Beverly Hillbillies.

[1] He moved to Los Angeles after turning 18 years old to "become part of the emerging teen car culture" and opened the "Barris Custom Shop" on Imperial Highway in Bell, California.

The Hirohata Merc was shown at the 1952 General Motors Motorama auto show and was so popular, it overshadowed the best work of Detroit's top designers.

After taking two AMBR (America's Most Beautiful Roadster) wins in a row, the car made numerous film and television appearances, usually in the background of diner scenes.

[3] Barris also used the body of Pulsator (designed by Nye Frank) on his snowmobile dragster show car Ice Kutter.

[4] Barris is the subject of the title story in writer Tom Wolfe's first collection of essays The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.

According to Barris, some of his first film work was making soft aluminum fenders for a police car that crashes into the rear of a Mercedes-Benz convertible in North by Northwest.

The golden Rolls-Royce displayed the detailed work of Barris and included hand-etched window glass by Robb Rich showing butterflies, roses, and hummingbirds.

These include golf carts for Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Ann-Margret, Glen Campbell, and Elton John; and 25 modified Mini Mokes for a record company contest involving the Beach Boys.

NASA engineers designing Martian rovers and vehicles were interested in the Moonscope's 6-wheel spider suspension and large wedged tires.

[citation needed] Between 2002 and 2006, Barris also designed two custom Cadillac hearses for episodes of the cable television series Monster Garage.

[21] Over a decade after the release of Back to the Future Part III, Barris restored one of the DeLorean time machine stunt cars.

[citation needed] In 2007, Universal Studios officials sent Barris a cease and desist order demanding that he never again make "misrepresentations regarding any involvement with the Back to the Future films".

The order called upon Barris to remove images of the flying DeLorean from his company's website and to restrict displaying any replicas of cars from the films.

Back to the Future writer/producer Bob Gale said, "George Barris had absolutely nothing to do with the design or construction of the DeLorean time travel vehicle.

Barris died on November 5, 2015, in his sleep at his home in Encino, Los Angeles, California, fifteen days before his 90th birthday.