Yes "Buddy Bob" and helpers, he colored sanded & polished a car for $25.00 back then, he worked out of a old gas station in the town of Huntington Park, I think it was on Miles Ave & Randolph St., it was about 10 miles west of Bellflower. RIK, THANKS for posting Larry's great photos!
This thread RULES! Thanks Rik. I especially love the "behind the scenes" shots that Larry kept, because you rarely see that stuff anymore.
Rikster, your blowing my mind, the pics of him painting the bike, and the bike is too much. I'm savoring each pic.
Larry Watson painted both cars in this photo. The 1961 Dodge - silver & purple flames - belongs to Walt Drews, and the 1957 Corvette red & black peper flames belongs to Pinky Richards. Walt Drews is the father of Mark Drews who now owns the Bob Creasman 1940 Ford coupe with fade away fenders.
Rikster, Thanks for posting these pictures. It must have cool to have been Larry Watson at that time. Young, creative and a long line of customers. What I really like is that Watson was doing new things at the time like scallops, panels, lace, fades, stretched flames, bright colors and making them work. His paint design solutions look so "right" today but that's because paint design has continued to reach back to those days and so today we're comfortable with those combinations. But at the time some of it was a real risk painting onto an actual car - like who would think shooting through a lace curtain would work on a hot rod? Look at all the dull civilian cars in the backgrounds. There was a lot of wild things you could have done to get attention back then but Larry got attention not by being over-the-top garish but he did it by adding the outrageous cool factor. Please keep this thread going.
Larry Watson's legacy is tantamount in the history of customs. His body of work will endure the test of time. Good taste is timeless...Viva Larry Watson !!!
Thanx Rickster, what super history shots. Man no shortage of goose bumps with this iron. You can feel the intense spark in his eyes painting the bike. Tremendous. ~sololobo~
Unidentified 1958 Pontiac mild custom with a slightly off white pearl paint job by Larry Watson. Not long after this Larry would add a thin blue turquoise outline around all the body edges. But this simple version looks so good already!
So many great pics! That '58 Bonneville is KILLER! Rik, I can't wait until those Watson files you have are unlocked
You are right on ! I think if I had to have a nearly "stock" mild kustom it would have to be a 58 Bonneville or 58 Parisienne !
few more... Another Larry Watson Pontiac paint job... But this time it is one from 1957, painted a lime gold candy over a shaved body. The car is lowered, four bar spinner hubcaps on medium white wall tires. Both lake- and Bellflower-pipes. The photo with the unknown owners girlfriend or wife was taken on the side of Larry's Rosecrans blvd. Bellflower Shop. Larry Watson painted this unidentified mildly customized 1955 Pontiac in a dark Fuchsia with lavender flames. The photo taken at one of the indoor car shows in the early to mid 1960's shows Doug Vido's 1960 Pontiac - butterscotch pearl with red fades - in the back ground. Buick wire wheels and thin white walls where the best choice to run on your custom. Fresh out of the paint booth is the 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix Larry painted with the first lace paint job for Doug Carney. Larry is doing some fine tune work on the paint. This car looks so good... but it must have been a sensation when it was first done and shown and driven around.
Larry's 9012 Rosecrans blvd. Bellflower Shop has been a perfect location for some very nice group shots. James Potter shot some incredible photo there with a bunch of Larry Watson painted Custom cars in different set ups. Larry took the opportunity and shot a lot of photos himself as well. Perhaps not as bright and sharp as James Potter's transparencies and negatives. But they are incredible beautiful anyway. We can see the 1957 Pontiac I posted a few days ago, as well as Larry's own 58 T-Bird, the Chopped 1956 Mercury with super wild paint job, and another 58 T_bird painted in a similar way as Larry's own custom... Another behind the scenes photo... Larry took this photo at Bill DeCarr's Artesia Blvd. shop. Wow two 1958-60 T-Birds in the shop getting custom body work and prepped for another of Larry's famous paint jobs. Take a look at the rounded hood corners and the hood and front fender scoops on the ex green T-Bird. Mild but very elegant body work. Bill DeCarr was not only a very good craftsman, he had/has the eye as well.
"Buick wire wheels and thin white walls where the best choice to run on your custom." Probably still are. Does anyone make faithful reproduction of the Buick wire wheel?
http://www.hobbycar.com/buick.html I'd love a set but can't afford the $2500 price tag So I settled for a set of star wires
Thanks for the info. bob-o. Went to the Truespoke website and found the you don't have to buy the wheel and tire package, you can get the ( premium stainless steel) wheels by themselves, but still pretty pricey... __________________________________________________________________________ Premium Truespoke Stainless Wire Wheels Price: $2,150.00 for the set of four Truespoke wire wheels and center caps with Buick emblems. 56 Stainless steel spokes and stainless steel nipples. American-made and hand-polished stainless steel spokes and nipples. Your choice of 3-bladed spinners or smoothie type cap. Truespoke Three year limited warranty. Shipping and tires are not included. Custom sizes available at extra cost.
Some more photos of Larry Watson's Personal Collection... Here is a photo that Larry took in November 1959 of his own 1959 Cadillac in front of the Bill DeCarr shop. Larry Watson and Pinky Richards stand next to Pinky's 1957 red & black peper flamed Corvette. Looks like everybody tried to looks like Larry. The car went thru several faces first in a lime yellow paint with pinstriped flames on the cove panel. Later Larry repainted it in red with the flames that can be seen here. And added some extra striping to the flames in the cove. Bill Hines gets credit for the body work on the car. There are several photo of the 1957 Ford Thunderbird that was restyled by Barris Kustoms for Mitch Nagao, in the Watson Collection. It looks like this photo was taken at Bill's Artesia Blvd. shop. Perhaps Mitch was looking into further modifying his 1957 T-Bird by Bill, or perhaps for a new paint-job by Larry.... Jack Arnold had his 1956 Mercury painted by Larry Watson in white with swoopy dark red/maroon scallops. The car was mildly customized with custom taillights made out of four 1956 Packard taillights. The car was shaved, nosed and decked. This photo was taken in a park that was used a lot in photo shoots in the mid/late 1950's. Ed Borgotte owned this just a little lower than stock 1957 Pontiac. The only customizing we can see are the hubcaps, and the wonderful Larry Watson paint job. Ed paid Larry $170.- for a complete pearl light green with candy green insert paint job. This was on May 13, 1960. Besides this photo Larry also kept the original receipt - No. 3861 - for his work. Larry Watson painted Willys coupe... I have to say that I don't really care much for Willys.... But this one with the Watson paint job and the wheels the thin line white wall tires and the stance does work for me. The Busonic in the shop looks to have soma damage repair work done to it. Genes Muffler Shop was next to one of the Watson shops, and they also sold custom/hot rod wheels in their House of Rim's shop. Larry Watson painted this 1959 Chevy sedan delivery in a wonderful pale pearl yellow. Together with the custom wheels that changed a lot on this car this was a perfect rolling billboard for the shop... Ricky Cooper had several cars painted by Larry Watson. And Ricky loved rainbows. So Larry painted the perfect candy rainbows over pearl paint on at least three of his cars. In this photo we can see two of them. In once of the bills from larry that he saved we can read that the total bill for one of these 16 coats Acrylic Lacquer candy over pearl paint jobs cost $650.- in 1971, and this included sand rub and wax! I wonder if one of these cars is still around.
Thanks Rik,these pictures are just stunning,that 56 mercury in the park is a great photo.I also dig the cad in front of Bill's shop,thanks for posting.
The Jalopy Journal
