I just posted these to Hot Rod photos from the Watson Collection. Most of the photos in this collection are about Custom Cars and Factory stock with Watson paint jobs. But there are a few Hot Rod photos in it as well. This photo of Bill DeCarr working on a Model A Roadster for owner David C. Martin was taken at his Artesia Blvd. Shop. The Hot Rod had a Buick engine, sectioned 32 Ford grille, and a 1940 Ford Dash which was filled and had new round gauge pods grafted in. Bill can be seen here working on the rolled panel on the bottom of the body, perhaps there was a full belly pan. The 1959 El Camino sitting in the back is Jerry Preston's Custom that Bill worked on and that was later painted by Larry Watson. And here is another Hot Rod photo. Larry Watson and his crew had just finished the lay out and taping of a set of flames on this Chevy Hot Rod. Tape and news papers...
as Larry would say.... Love It! for me..... I missed out on the really cool years. Thanks for sharing.
I'm so glad that this great collection is finally shared with the public!! Keep up the good work Rik! I'll let you know if I stumble across some names for some of the unknown cars
That's great!!! I love seeing the hay trucks across the road. I have friends and family that had daries in Artesia, Paramount, El Monte, Cypress, Bellflower area back in the 60's. My grandpa told me that he had friends with Watson painted cars...wish I could find some photos!
Rik, you have a unique talent to pick a car in the back ground by just a half shot of it's side and still be able to tell who built it just astounds me! Thanks for the education.
The Model A which was owned by David C. Martin back in the 1950's is still around today, now owned by Robert A. Barmore. Roger O'Dell just send me these two photos of the car as he got them from the current owner. The bad photo is from the 1980's and the red version is more recent.
And here are two more photos from the collection. (Top) Here is another Larry Watson Bike photo. Its a bit hard to really see good what is going on in that paint job. But the gas tank is sculptured and molded into the frame. A pearl white or silver base with a multi hue candy fade paint job... (Top) Larry Watson was best known for his Custom Car paint jobs. But we have now seen he did some Hot Rods, quite a few bikes, and with this photo we can also see he did a couple of boats as well. Powerful speeds boats where very popular in the 1960's and you could see them all customized at any Custom Car show around the US. So it was only natural for Larry to show his talent on some of these. Nice SHop photo showing a Watson painted Corvair to the right. A Hemi powered wonderful painted and upholstered boat, and Corvette getting ready for a new paint job.
Trying to place the year of the custom bike photo. The style of the bike looks late 60's or early 70's, but the latest model car in there, looks to be a '60 chevy. The truck says "Smog Control Installation", and looks to have Rally wheels so that kinda places it as mid-60's or later. Think that "West Coast Choppers" needs to send that truck owner a check for the logo...
I'm pretty sure it's just chrome wheels Keith always had the latest at Genes Chrome & Muffler. Larrys shop was next to Genes 1961-1963 was the years I think.And because of the traffic on Lakewood I'd guess early 61. And I've got another picture of it at a show in front of a 60 Pontiac. Roger
That is Larry Garmon's bike. It was shown at the Winternationals car show a year earlier in Car Craft. Unfinished with tall handlebars. This pic was probably taken in 1965 - right at the point when California enacted a strict anti apehanger law and the bike was shown subsequently with the low bars seen in the pic. Larry unfortunately passed away before the bike was finished and his widow Marion showed the bike at many venues in his honor. The bike has a small Wassell peanut tank molded to the frame over which Watson brazed molded sheetmetal panels. Very elaborate especially for the times. I was fortunate to be able to spent time with Larry and talk about bikes. He had a small envelope that had "100 bike negatives" written on it. I hope it survived.
It's first version was blue with ape hangers, then this paint version shown, One of the show pictures of the above paint, has a date on pic of Nov 64
Thats what I like about the HAMB... somebody eventually will identify nearly every old vehicle that gets posted over here. Thanks Here are two more photos of Larry Garmon's bike being painted by Larry Watson. The first photo shows the 3D flames on the tank very well... To bad these pictures are not such a good quality as the others.
Just another day at the Bill DeCarr / Larry Watson Artesia Boulevard in Bellflower Shop... The "helpers" are prepping and/or buffing the cars in the drive way of the shop. A great view of the Louis Bettancourt/Johnny Zupan 1949 Mercury. Bill had added Studebaker pans to the car, both front and rear, and installed Quad headlights, and had just covered it in dark gray primer...
i could be be wrong but i think those are bob's boys buffing that car out. i think his name was bob i remember watson telling me him and barris used to take there cars to a black guy to polish them out cause his guys were fast and cheap an they did nice work. do you remember him roger?
Rikster... Many, many thanks for sharing these ! I know the humongous task it is to catalog, scan, document, upload, resize, etc., the large volume of pix that Larry had, but you've nailed it ! Jonnie
Thanks.... but I have not scanned these... However I wish I could have though.. I would have loved to sit down for several weeks and hand held all these precious photos and put then on the scanner myself. I did get all these photos on discs... the hard work of scanning them had already been done. And now its my time to catalog and document all of the photos as good as possible on my site. And make sure Larry gets the best coverage we can give him.
Well it's still a lot of work Rik and all your hard work and the amazing collection you are building will be an incredible source for traditional car lovers for generations. Thank you so much for your dedication and passion. Jack
Can someone save these pics and upload'em from his computer? I have filters that block every photo sharing site and cant see shit! And can only check the net from spare time at work. thanx! im dieing to see this......
The Jalopy Journal
