Page 48 - Australian Paint & Panel March-April 2020

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People Matter • Dick Crawford
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MARCH / APRIL 2020
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speed to smash their way through the blockade. But it wasn’t that simple, the locals gave chase shooting spears at their vehicles.
Crawford said they were travelling in a Toyota truck, a Nissan Patrol and a mini- moke with a canvas roof. Guess who was driving the mini moke with the canvas roof which just happened to be the last car in the contingent? “I put my foot down but I was the last car so all the spears ended up getting stuck in the canvas roof,” he says. After making his escape Crawford decided to return to Lismore to work with Dennis Braid on custom cars.
When it comes to customization Braid also has an impressive resume, but he is probably best known for the KITT car that was used in the Knight Rider television series.
Braid and Crawford soon joined Bar- ris in the United States and together they created some epic cars from the Batmobile to the Munster’s Koach.
“The original plan was to go to the US for six months but it ended up taking me six years to get home,” Crawford says.
But those six years provided Craw- ford with the opportunity to build cars for some memorable movies in- cluding the 1978 film Corvette Sum- mer with Mark Hamel of Star Wars fame and the Stunt Man movie star- ring Peter O’Toole.
With such a fine body of work being showcased on the silver screen it didn’t take long for other Hollywood actors to seek out the boys to modify their own private cars away from the movie set.
That’s when Crawford worked on John Wayne’s 1975 Pontiac Grand mod- ifying the roof so the Duke could step in and out of his car without removing his Cowboy hat.
Inevitably, Crawford made his return to Australia establishing his own com- pany with Dennis Braid. He also began doing Rolls Royce modifications with Ash Marshall of drag racing fame.
Marshall was the first drag racer to top 200 miles per hour on Australian soil.
With such a spectacular work history its hard to describe Crawford’s career as anything but legendary.
However, ask Crawford and he reck- ons that when it comes to Australia’s auto repair industry there is no shortage of legends.
RIGHT:
Dick Crawford (centre) at a recent Worldskills event.
BELOW: Crawford with the Monkees car and other crazy Barris creations. Elton John was also a custom customer.