History Larry Watson's Personal Photo Collection

Larry Watson veiling gun close up photo.







Great snapshot of Larry Watson at what Larry is doing best... painting.Larry is seeing here doing some repair work on the Don Loster 1959 Ford. Apparently something happened to the drivers door top portion after Larry had painted it Fuchsia for Don. A year or so later Larry would paint the whole car in Lime Moreno Pearl....







Nice Color photo of the Ray More (Pete Angress) 1952 Ford. Larry always revered to this car as the Ray More 1952 Ford. Larry and Pete Angress went into business later on, and things did not always turn out the way it was supposed to be. After that Larry never called this car the Pete Angress Ford. But lets get back to the car. Ed Schelhaas performed the body work including the 1953 Chevy Grille shell, 1955 Chevy headlights, and 1955 Lincoln taillights. In this great a bit faded color photo we can see all the orchids painted on the Dash and even each dash knobs has a small orchid painted on. Most likely done by Larry Watson. Larry also painted the car in a wonderful Purple Orchid and white. With wonderful lavender scallops. Later Larry would paint this car in a deep candy wine, with gold outlines.








Here is another photo of the Ray More 1952 Ford from the Larry Watson Personal Photo Archive. When the car was first done by Ed Schelhaas the 1953 Chevy grille surround was still chrome plated. Later the surround was molded into the body, and painted body color. The custom made grille first did not have the teethe we can see in this version of the car.








Ever wondered how a 1960 Mercury would look in a 1961 Ford.... well good! Very good! This wonderful teal painted 1960 Ford was photographed by Larry Watson in front of the expanded Bill DeCarr Artesia Blvd shop. The car, all covered up in sanding dust, is a wonderful mild custom with a Larry Watson paint job. Bill deCarr was responsible for the body work which included the adaption of the modified 1960 Mercury grille.

 

I looked on Historic Aerials (dot com) and the 1952 and '53 aerial images do show many open fields, especially to the east of Artesia/Woodruff. You can also see the housing subdivisions creeping in. Long time ago!

 

One of my favorite early '50s Fords, especially when Larry painted it in the Candy Wine and Gold version. The car was pretty low, too.

 

Here is another photo of Nick De Mattie 1957 Ford Ranchero. My good friend Jay Komoto who was close to Don Loster, who in turn was good friends with Larry Watson and a lot of the guy's at the shop in the early 1960's told me some more info on this car. This is what he wrote...

"Nick De Mattie 57 Candy Root Beer Silver Metalflake Flamed Ranchero. Nick was the original builder and owner. Nicks pickup was probably done in the summer of 1964. Art Chrome did the bodywork, small details such as a scoop where the fin starts behind the door. Also small tube scoops on top of the fenders. Joe Perez did the tuck & roll interior and tonneau cover over the bed. Joe did it in a silver metalflake material (quite popular in 1964) This may have been one of the last flame jobs that Larry Watson did. Notice it is totally different than his other flame patterns. Nick and Don Loster went to Downey High School together and were close friends. Don Loster may have done the Hydraulic Lifts on Nicks Ranchero, I'm pretty sure he did."








Slightly faded photo of this unidentified 1954 Buick from the Larry Watson files. As far as we can tell the car came from Santa Barbara and Larry painted it a fine metallic silver with candy purple fogged panels. The Lancer hubcaps, lake pipes and slight California rake looks fantastic on this Buick.






Jim Boyd's 1963 Ford Galaxie.





A bit blurry.... but still so cool. The 1966 LA Sports Arena Custom Car Show with 54 cars all painted by Larry Watson.








I always love photos that are worn or stained etc. They most of the time show that the owner of that photo really loved the photo, had special memories with it, or more than likely with the car in the photo. This stained and torn photo of the Larry Watson 1958 T-Bird in its last paint version is one of those photos. I think Larry had this photo taped to a wall in his shop for a long time. There it got the paint splatters, and was it torn when something hit it. But Larry must have loved his T-Bird, and this particular birds eye photo taken at his 1960 Rosecrans Blvd shop... It is a really great photo.

 

Great pics Rik once again,the arena one is pretty cool. I really dig this ford.

 

Cut55,

The area just to the east of Woodruff and across the San Gabriel River was known as "Dairy Valley." Now the entire area is built up with Tract homes and the Cerritos Mall. Back in the 70's we would ride our dirt bikes all along the river bed and adjoining dairy fields. The "Red Car" tracks, later operated by the Southern Pacific ran through the area north to LA and south to Huntington Beach.

 

A friend of mine Jim Williams was a later owner of the Ranchero, still has a framed photo of it in his home.

 

I love the "double striped" white walls on the Ford
Someone needs to bring those back.

 

In 1971 Larry owned this shop at 10506 Burbank Blvd. in North Hollywood. The Custom age was a bit over and Larry was painting a lot of European cars there. Mostly single color cars but still with wonderful Larry Watson Custom mixed colors. This MG is a great sample of that. The shop wall still has the horizontal two tone gray bar design he first had in his 1960 Rosecrans blvd shop.








Some of the photos from the Larry Watson Personal Collection just pop at you... This is one of them The soft yellow/orange pearl on this 1963-64 Corvette is just so bright that is absorbs all the surrounding light. It looks like it is really glowing. It makes me wonder how big the smile was on Larry's face when he first drove this car from the shop into bright daylight. The thin whites and 5 spoke wheels make it pop even more. And the rest of the photo with the nice big in the background sure help as well.

 

I do dig this color and combo a lot. Rikster any other angles to highlight another one Watson's Masterpieces? Thanks

 

Rik, thank you for documenting Larry's legacy for us like this. We really appreciate it!

Tommy

 

Double-stripe whitewalls--I need a set of those. Anyone at Coker listening?

 

Yep, pretty darn good, but definitely a convincing argument for using all four headlights rather than just two!

 

[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]

"Detroit Iron" nothing like it

 

Some car come almost as instant Custom Cars straight from the Factory. The 1963-64 Buick Riviera's is one of those. They need only very little to look so good. Here is a perfect sample from the Larry Watson Photo Collection. And unidentified Buick in a wonderful candy blue green with a pearl pale green roof. The perfect color combination set of with the fine line white walls and Astro Supremes a slightly lower stance and you are all set and done!







Another black&white photo from the Larry Watson Collection is this unidentified 1956 Chevy with a set of really good looking scallops. The photo is taken in the early 1960's when Larry moved in with Bill DeCarr at his Artesia Blvd shop. Bill was expanding the shop hence the construction stuff in the background. The car had al its emblems removed for that ultra smooth look. The grille was replaced with an aftermarket tube unit, and both lake pipes and bellflower tips where installed after the car was nicely lowered. The car looks fantastic in black&white, and it really makes me wonder how it would have looked in color!








Another black&white photo from the Larry Watson Personal Collection. A really great looking 1950 Chevy Convertible. Only very mildly customized with some emblem removal and addition of a one piece windshield. The stance is really low and looks great with the Lancer four bar hubcaps, and even lower due to the lake pipes. It looks like the car uses a set of real Appleton Spotlights, which is pretty rare for the early 1960's. And the scallops added by Larry look really great on this one. I especially like the way they wrap around the front fenders coming from the hood. No owners name on this one, only thing I know for sure is that the photo was taken at the Bill DeCar/Watson Artesia Blvd shop in the early 1960's. To bad about the slight damage on the grille.








Great snapshot of Bill deCarr taking David C. Martin's Buick powered 1929 Model A roadster out for a spin at his Artesia Blvd. Bill Did the body work on this car, and Later Larry would paint it in a lime gold. Bill deCarr is best known for his body work on Custom Cars, but he also did some work on Hot Rods. The construction work going on on the right is the building that was later hired by Al Lazarus who would have his bike shop there.








For all the custom Car enthusiasts one here... Luke Karosi has published yet another fantastic issue of Kustoms Illustrated. Issue #31 is filled from cover to cover with nothing but Custom Cars. With great articles on teh Long Beach Motorama, Lead East, the Lonestar Round Up. A great article on Ron Volpe's 1957 Ford and how it evolved over the years. Yaril Quintana's cover Shoebox convertible Custom. And of coarse another article from me on the Larry Watson Personal Photo Collection showing all Chevies this time, including two more photos of this Harvey Budoff's 1956 Chevy. Get a copy!

 

heres the new K/I

 

No muff too tough
We dive at five
If dirty we leave at 4:30

 

Now THAT'S a well equipped bathroom! Hey Dave, will you be around Monday so I can get my copy?

 

hey larry.. ill be here!

 

I looked up this building on Google Maps, it's still there but has been remodeled - you can recognize the entry door and window, the garage door is gone.

 

Thanks for that... I was not aware this shop was also still "Around"

 

Larry Watson Corvette candy fades and striping...





Here is a photo showing the front of the Larry Watson candy fade painted and striped Corvette...







Two semi Customs parked in front of the Artesia Blvd shop. Snapshot from the Larry Watson Personal Collection shows a 1958 Chevy custom in misty pearl rose with a greet looking all white tuck&roll interior, dummy spots and not visible in this photo four bar hubcaps. Note the rear view mirror fuzzy surround, which was a big trend at some time. The Olds is even milder with only a nice pearl paint job. Also note the size difference in these two cars... the Olds is huge.

 

Hey,

Cool picture of the Olds & Chevrolet Rik, but what's parked in front of the '58 Plymouth in the background, a Fiat?

Is Bill Decarr (Ortega) still alive?
Thanx.

"Humpty Dumpty was pushed "

 

Yeah looks like a Fiat 600 Multipla in the background... really small, especially compared with those huge US cars

Yes, Bill deCarr is still alive.

 

What great great flow of well done paint ideas.

 

I'm crazy about the panelings, but the paint on that Vette is something crazy !

 

The Olds parked next to the chevy belonged to Bills wife .

 

Here is a very nice snapshot from the Larry Watson Personal Collection. A just dropped of Model T-body sitting in the drive way of the Bill deCarr/Larry Watson shop at Artesia Blvd. Not sure if the body was dropped of for Bill to work his magic, or for a fresh Larry Watson paint job. But whoever owned this photo must have liked it very much. The black photo corners indicate it was in a photo album at one point. And then somebody took it out to tape it to something. I wonder what ever became of this body...









This photo appeared in one of the BarrisTechnique books, but it was rather small, and for some reason in low res. So I was very happy to find a great scans of it as part of the Larry Watson Personal Photo Collection. I think it is a really great photo showing some really great Larry Watson painted Customs. Sure it would have been better if it was shot in color, and perhaps it was, but so far all we have been able to find was this Black&White photo. Two of the cars in this photo have still to be identified. We have more photos of those, but so far nobody has been able to remember the names of the owners. Perhaps some old timers who where into Customs back in the early 1960's recognize these two guys.
The other cars are: (left to right)
- John Busman 1956 Chevy
- Unknown 1956 Mercury in candy gold and butterscotch
- Unknown 1956 Chevy white and green
- Jim Doss 1958 Chevy Impala
- Bob Mayfield 1959 Chevy
- Larry Watson 1958 T-Bird.

 

Wow...great black and white photo's.Kind of reminds me of the Lynwood city hall shot with the 3 mercurys.Something special about a panoramic black & white.