Another Larry Watson painted Custom Car that we have not been able to identify. Even though this 1960 Ford has been shown in a few magazines in the 1960's the name of the owner was never printed - or at least not in the magz I have. The paint and color combination on this 1960 Ford are rather unique. Off white pearl base with fogging in yellow and orange and pinstriped in dark brown. Larry had just finished painting the car in this photo and the chrome was just been put back on the car... but the bumpers and chrome wheels are still missing. This car also featured a wild interior in brown with a lot of fur... This late after none photo taken at Larry's Rosecrans blvd. shop (the background is the building to the right of Larry's shop) shows a mild 1957 Ford and 1957 Plymouth that Larry had painted. Both cars are unidentified, and this is the only photo showing these cars - at least with these paint jobs. The 57 Ford is one of the nicest I have ever seen. Very fine outlines in what looks to be white, candy apple red on the main body, and silver on the top. Perfect stance, even with stock hubcaps, and The spotlights and lake pipes and some chrome removal are the only other customizing... Harold Johnson's 1949 Chevy Fastback sitting in front of Larry's Rosecrans blvd. shop. Again a fuzzy photo... like a lot of them in this collection. But I guess that adds a bit to the mystery of them. The Gold 1957 Pontiac to the right we have seen before, but I cant recognize the dark fuchsia car sitting next to the shop.
I believe the dark fuchsia car sitting next to the shop is Richard Axcell's 1954 Buick that he built when he worked with Larry. I was fortunate enough to talk to Larry a little bit about that car last year. One of my favorites. Here is the the thread I started on that car: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=435806&showall=1 Thanks Rik!
It could very well be. The original much larger scan I have is to fuzzy to tell for sure. But the car was built at the same time this photo was taken.
Larry Watson's shop at Firestone Blvd in Downey had such a fantastic sign to attract attention. Bob Horak's very nice mild Custom 1964-65 T-Bird is sitting in front of the shop. The car is painted a very nice shade of magenta purple. Inside the shop we can see Ed Roth "Road Agent" that was also painted by Larry... Larry Watson painted the 1957 Buick for Kermit Hanson with some very slick flames. On the rear quarters he striped the name of the car the "snatch Wagon" and added a small cartoon. This photo show the sketch he made on paper to show to Kermit before he would paint it on the car...
And Larry's 1959 Cadillac at the Artesia Blvd. shop. What a fantastic car this is. The size of the outlines and "scallops" is just so right, and gives the car such a pleasant slightly slimmer feel to it.
Watson Rocked, one of my favorite painters, loved his flames and his panels. One great one lost for sure. I did some flames on my kids 53ford treehouse and my wife said they looked like SEAWEED, I said HELL YA, WATSON STYLE. Thanks for shareing the pictures, they are AWESOME
Another - just another work day out of the Larry Watson life - photo. A very nice nice purple 1953 Chevy in front of the famous 9012 Rosecrans Blvd. Bellflower Shop. mostly stock body, lowered to the perfect stance, lake pipes and four bar hubcaps on white wall tires... To the far right we can see "Moonglow" Duane Steck's 1953 Chevy with its fresh coat of Larry Watson Candy blue. The 1957 Pontiac getting ready to get painted is unidentified so far... 1958 Corvette LaVonne Bathke
Tom Braggington's 1951 Cadillac freshly painted by Larry Watson. I have no idea what the black shadow on the left of the photo is, perhaps somebody ducking to get out of the way? The car is parked in the back of Larry's Rosecrans Blvd. shop, and must have been just out of the paint booth. Parts of the masking paper and tape are still on the car, and the rest lays in front of it on the floor... Larry painted it candy red over a pearl white under base. With pearl white outlines, and a fine metallic gold top. LaVonne Bremmers Corvette at an mid 1960's indoor car show. LaVonne's Corvette went to several different versions. And all where painted by Larry Watson. Next to the Corvette we can see Doug Vido's 1960 Pontiac, also painted by Larry...
Larry Watson in his spry booth laying down some black paint for the flames on Pinky Richards 1957 Corvette... no protection what so ever... In issue #23 Of Kustoms Illustrated I did an article on Don Loster's 1959 Ford Galaxie. Don had his own business installing hydraulics in many cars that ended up being painted by Larry. This photo of Don's Galaxie was taken by Larry in front of his shop. The car now was in its second version with it Lime Murano Peal paint job. If you look inside you can see that the dash is still painted in its first Fuchsia to silver fade.
Rik, do you take requests? How about the 1958 Pontiac with the oh so radical panel job??? Would also love to hear any info on the paintjob itself. Like how many colors? How much masking tape, lol? How many hours? And et cetera. And thanks for all the awesome pics!! And thanks for what you do to preserve custom history!!!!!
Ed Roth anxiously peeling away the taped of starts on his Rotar, to see how his designed paint job looks like. Larry Watson took this photo in his paint booth shortly after he finished the paint job on the Ed Roth creation. The red paint news papers just pulled from the lower body are still on the floor. I love these behind the scene photos... This snapshot taken at Bill DeCarr's shop shows some really nice and subtile body work on one of the many T-Birds Bill and Larry Watson worked on together. Larry had previously painted this Bird with some wild panels and outlines. After the new body work he would add a single color to this car.
Today I got the new issue of Kustoms Illustrated in my mailbox (advance copy). Another fantastic issue by Luke. In this issue #29 is the second installment of the Larry Watson Personal Photo Collection that I created. Among a lot of other very nice Larry Watson photos there is a spread devoted to the Golden Sahara II. When Larry and Bill DeCarr worked together at the Artesia Blvd. shop Jim Skonsakis had his Golden Sahara carrier truck customized by Bill, and later painted by Larry. This photo which was not used in the article shows both the truck (background) and the Golden Sahara II at this shop... what a sight!
i love the customized front end, but regret the superb panel paint job ! thanks again for sharing that amazing material Rik!
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