The 1941 gold colored Ford Custom in the Mathews Collection was built as a tribute to the legendary Barris Brothers. The two brothers were customizing heroes who pioneered and contributed to trends for car enthusiasts during the 1940's. The Barris Brothers were true stylists - chopping tops, sectioning and body channeling as well as making other extreme aerodynamic alterations. Like a Barris Brothers' creation, the Mathews car is a one of a kind custom job, which took over thirteen years and cost nearly $200,000 to build. As such an excellent example of personal customization, the car has been featured on the cover of Custom Rodder magazine in May 1994, and at both Autorama and World of Wheels Hot Rod festivals.

All of the customization work was done by Rod Powell in California for the then owners, two executives of CASI (Championship Auto Shows Inc.). He created this Ford Custom from a 1979 Corvette chassis, which he stretched 13" and then hand formed all of the interior. Unfortunately, the 1941 Ford Custom is now too valuable to drive and is used only as a show car.