History Larry Watson's Personal Photo Collection

Hey Mike!.. You trashing argyle? In my day it was the height of style. Just look at that..Watson ruled!

 

No way Chuck---I think it was simply brilliant!

 

Gary's shirt is so damn Punk Rock

 

I absolutely agree! This thing is perfect....Best I've ever seen from my Favorite era...Mild can be so incredibly amazing! Nobody did it better than Watson....Thanks again Rik....................

 

You are right about that not being flake as we know it today. It was "glitter" like you find in the craft stores. Glue was brushed on the area you wanted to decorate and the "glitter" was sprinkled on to the surface and allowed to dry. The excess was then wiped off and the rest stuck. Metalflake came along later. I believe it was the interest in the "glitter" method that led to the development of "Metalflake".
RodP

 

Maybe this sort of thing, Paul...

 

Great info on the glitter on the hubcaps... I was not aware of that.

Here is a black and white photo showing the glitter on Saint's hubcaps a bit better.


Another nice close up photo of Larry striping the fresh intricate scallops on the Saint Vasquez 1950 Chevy Convertible. As you can see this photo is not staged. Larry is actually striping in this photo. There are several photos published in the 1950's and 1960's of Larry striping cars where he holds a clean brush on an already finished striping. But not in this photo. To bad this is not in color, which I think would have been intense with the flash reflecting the sparkles in the glitter on the hubcaps and great paint job on the car.

 

Best sign EVER!








Jim Jackson decided to create a nice mild Custom out of his four door 1956 Chevy Bel Air Sport Sedan. Jim did most of the work on his car himself starting with lowering the front and rear and adding lake pipes to make the car look even lower. The hood and trunk where relieved of the bright work and the holes filled, but the door handles and trim on the side remained on the car. Four rows of louvres where punched into the hood. Jim installed spinners on the stock hubcaps which gave the car a nice custom look with the use of original parts. Then it was off to Larry Watson for a nice subtile paint job in pale blue and white. Then Larry added some very stylish and subtile gold/bronze sculpts and outlines to the car. The thin outlines around the wheel openings make the body looks slimmer. The extension on the front fenders for the gold paint into a scallop on the hood peak is really nicely done. Larry outlined the gold in white and added some mild white pin triping on the blue paint and some light blue to the white panels. Jim added some dummy spots and a nice two tone interior.
This discolored photo of Jim's Chevy is on the early version of the car. Later Jim would add some chrome bullets to the parking lights, and Larry would paint a weirdo figure on the front quarter panels.







There are a few photos of this unidentified supper black 1957 Chevy with nice pale yellow to orange scallops in the Larry Watson Collection. But this low angle photo is the nicest off them all. Its shows how nice the scallops on the side flow with the body and the trim. Judging the style of the scallops these where done in the 1956-58 period when Larry scalloped a lot of cars with similar styled Scallops. The car is nicely lowered and optically even more with the use of the lake pipes, has nice white wall tires with Oldsmobile three bar hubcaps. Not visible in this photo is the Renegades club plaque in the rear window.








Larry Watson photographed by Jim Potter while he was duplicating the flames he had laid out on one side of this 1949-50 Mercury, so that he could have the drivers side a perfect match. We can see the wide tape Larry used to tape up the great looking flames. There is no date on this photo, but by the looks of Larry and the style of flames I say this is in late 1956 or 1957, before Larry developed the much longer sea weed flames. This black&white photo was used in an article on scalloping (round-up and how to) in an issue of Car Speed and Style magazine. The author of this article was James Richards, which was a name used by Jim Potter when he wrote for magazines on the east coast. The strange things is the photo caption does not mention anything about what Larry is really doing in this photos. The photo caption read: Masking and layout work is fairly tedious. Whether you want flames or scallops, the procedure is the same. First, scribe off the pattern and outline it with masking tape. Next, fill in the areas not to be painted with tissue or newspaper, sand the bare surface and clean it with wax remover, then use the spraygun. Sounds simple?
The inset blow up of a part of the photo shows an News paper ad from one of the newspapers Larry used. Nothing special, just that its nice to read that Dutch (my home country) flower bull are being sold thru and ad in California during the mid 1950's.








It is really to bad this really great photo of this very purple mild customized 1953 Chevy is so blurry. The huge finger print shows this is only a small portion of the photo blown up, which is not the reason why it is blurry though. The photo was blurry to start with. Larry's Rosecrans shop wall is always an amazing back drop for any photo, but the way this car is parked in front of it, the colors… just really great. Unfortunately there are also no other photos of this Chevy in the collection.

 

Yes...that sign is spectacular and so is that 56 4 door hardtop.I would of ran the skirts but thats just me.Thanks for posting.

 

hey Ed, this advertisement is too cool for school!!! You wouldn't happen to have any idea what year this is from with you?
Paul

 

Paul, this is from 1959....

 

Jerry Cohn's 1950 Chevy Hard-Top painted by Larry Watson. This black&white photo from the Watson Personal Collection shows the car before Larry added the scallops. In this black and white photo the car was already painted a wonderful metalflake and pearl two tone teal. It also shows the details in the interior with the tuck&roll panels and the fuzzy carpet including the pedal covers by Paul's Custom Upholstery, who had a shop next to Larry's.








The 1957 Pontiac has always had one of the best side views of any of the 1957 brand cars… at least to me. The factory side trim makes the car slide thru the wind, makes it look like its going 100 miles an hour standing still. And in this case of the Larry Watson painted car it even gets better when they removed the door handles and badges, and Larry added this absolutely perfect pearl lavender and candy purple to accentuate the great lines of these cars. The bellflower exhaust helps with the flow some more, and my guess is the paint job is really fresh in this photo, and the hubcaps will be added later. Unfortunately this is the only photo of this car, so I have no idea what it looks like completely finished, nor who the owner was. But I do know that this is one classy looking mild custom…









Larry Watson painted quite a few 1957 Chevy's in his career, here is another nice one. It looks like most of this car was left mostly stock and all the customizing was done in the stance/wheels/tires and the paint job. Some of the body badges where removed and then Larry added a wonderful combination of pearl ice green on the main body and candy dark green on the top. The car was set on a forward rake with small size white wall tires on chrome reserve wheels. The camera man - either Larry himself or Lowell Helms was helding his camera high above his head… which really creates a nice shadow for this photo.










1958 Pontiac Bonneville with yet another amazing Larry Watson paint job. This time Larry had the nerves to paint this huge land yacht in a off white pearl which maded the car look even bigger, and out line it in a soft blue pear. The outlines visually make up for the light main color of the car and "section" and lower the car without doing any actual body modifications. Larry added some thin lines in the light blue color surrounding the Pontiac starts on the rear fenders to break up this large section. And he also repeated this on the top of the fenders. The hood peak - hard to see in this photo - was also accentuated in the light blue color. The only real body modifications on this car is the removal of the Bonneville scripts on the trunk, and the hood and the trim pieces on top of the front fenders and on the trunk next to the Bonneville script. The car was lowered just the right amount and set on the right size white wall tires dressed up with 1957 Doge Lancer hubcaps. The interior looks the be stock, but there are only three photos of this car in the Collection and none of it shows the interior really well. The owner added a set of spotlights, as well as a hitch with a nice chrome cover, perhaps indicating the owner was into boats as well. A couple of month ago I showed one other photo of this same car, a bit washed out side shot of it.

 

It looks like there is not much interest in the Larry Watson photos anymore... Most likely because most Custom Car enthusiasts have moved away from the HAMB due to the lack of Custom Car content here.

Let me give it one more try and see if there still are some people who can enjoy these really amazing and unique photos from the Larry Watson Personal Collection.


Larry Watson painted Jaguar E-Type... Brilliant pearl Blue white walls and chrome wires.








Another Larry Watson painted Jaguar E-Type. This time in a wonderful pearl yellow and black wall tires.









And here is an Jaguar E-Type Larry painted in pearl pink for Bill Frie... This one had thin line white wall tires mounted on chrome wires.








Another Larry Watson painted 1957 Pontiac. This time in a simple but striking candy green and light gold metallic combination. The body has been smoothed a bit before Larry added his wonderful paint job. The color coded four bar lancer hubcaps and the white wheel wells are a nice touch that set the car apart.










Great looking black&white photo of Ron Dulin's 1956 Plymouth Fury. This photo has clearly been hanging on a wall for a long time judging the pin holes on the corner and the stains and fold etc. I have always liked Ron's Plymouth, because this car was more than just a Watson paint job. This car had some nice custom body work done to it. Which included extended finds on the rear fenders, reshaped and raised rear wheel openings to match the front openings. Scoops in the rear quarters, The stock grille sides where narrowed and the center replaced with a 1954 Chevy grille. This photo shows the car in its last (known) Watson versions with the panels done in magenta and purples over a white base.









Another photo of Agie Winn's 1956 Mercury painted by Larry Watson in Candy Tangerine and Gold. I believe the body work on this car was done by Bill DeCarr. In several other photos Agie's Mercury can be seen in primer or under construction in the back ground. In this photo we can see how the wild sculptured scoops on the side and on the rear fender work together. This photo also shows the 1956 Packard taillights and extended front fenders. The side trim seams to be made up of 1956 Buick trim on the sides and 1958 Buick trim on the rear quarters.

 

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Rik, your postings of Larry Watson's photos are amazing and historical. I really look forward to each additional post. Please keep them coming.
.

 

I for one would be disappointed if you did not post anymore of Larry's photo's.... I have missed them lately.. and are glad to see you back posting.... I would think there are many more like myself...

Roy

 

Please keep these amazing posts coming. Much appreciated.

 

Keep it coming man, some of us are still here (mostly because of this thread!)
Paul

 

Love the pix and the post lots of history thanx for doing it...Rod.


Sent from my iPhone using TJJ

 

I'm still here. If I had anything to ad, other then fantasic pictures and thanks posting, I would!

Marty
Marysville, OH

 

keep them coming!!
I'm adding a email subscription so I can see when this thread is updated, looks like I was 5 pages tardy this time....

that front shot of st. vasqueses 50 convert with the hood open made my morning!

 

rik, been following all the updates here and in kustoms illustrated. please keep them coming. would love to see any that you have. being born after this period i really don't have anything to add,so i don't respond to the thread but always follow it as i'm sure others do the same. any chance of all the photos being put in a book?

 

Rik, Please keep the photos coming, this thread is (and has been) a huge inspiration for my Monterey build.

Thanks

 

the 58 ponch from 4/5/12 is gorgeous.

Rik, please keep posting!

 

I hope you continue posting these and any thing else 'custom'. I hope theres more interest than you think !

 

Rik, I beleive that every event, or chance meeting, I have been to this year, that someone has mentioned the pictures. I think they are being copied and sent to other people, especially someone that knew Larry. It's really keeping Larry's memory alive. Thanks Roger

 

Please keep posting these wonderful pictures. I look forward to seeing updates. Not sure why you think we don't enjoy and cherish seeing these pictures, but I assure you, there are many people who do. There have been almost 140,00 views of this thread.

Thank you Rik for sharing these with us.

 

Post 704's '57 Pontiac is breathtaking.

 

Keep it coming Rik! Love the history and insight into one of if not the best custom painter of all time.

 

Please, Rik, keep 'em coming! These pics are truly a gift to those of us who are still in awe of Larry's work after all these years. Thanks so much for sharing them here

 

Same here. I look forward to the updates, but didn't want to clutter up the thread... please keep it going!