History 4 1959 Photo's of Larry Watson painted customs

Rikster always has the coolest pix...

 

Green Plymouth definitely a 57, dual headlamps instead of quad.

The paint on the 56 Merc (root beer and gold) reminds me of Sam Hollingsworth's 57 Nomad that made the cover of R&C in '67 and also onto the box art of Revell's 57 Nomad model car when it first came out about 35 years ago. Hmmm, I wonder what my 56 Nomad would look like in those colors?

 

Oh my gosh. Can't believe I didn't look at the damned headlights. And I OWN one of these cars! LOL

Alright, did some digging, and I found that Plymouth on another car cover. Anyone here have the magazine itself? Are there more pictures of it inside?

Even looks like the same parking lot as Rikster's photo.

July 1960 Motor Life

 

-meant to crop out the Mopar-

 

Nope I don't have it... I guess there are more inside... if so I would love to see them... plus a larger version of the color shot on the cover.
Thanks for showing the cover.

 

Panel paint is the best! I love all the cars in the photos and it is great to see some vintage photos! We all know who the King is and the style will hopefully live for ever!!!!!!!!!!Thank you!
Stretch

 

MOTOR LIFE story was to vote for Custom of the year--Starbird finished#1
Plymouth was #18------58 Chevy #21
Plymouth also in feb 60 Motor Life-page 56
will send pictures when dial-up allows

TWOCHOPS

 

Amazing photos indeed!

By the way, if you know anyone who needs one of those gold sailing ship emblems for the '58 Plym, I have one I can sell.

 

Yup, that Grease Machines book is the one I got for Christmas that year. Errors and all, it sure was influential in turning a 7th grader on to old customs....now my wife wishes that had never happened! LOL.

 

I know this is a rather old post....

But a few weeks ago I was contacted by a guy who said to have a friend who claimed to have one of the Larry Watson painted cars in this post.
This guys name is Jerry Preston, and he had the 1954 Ford with the panels and fades done by Watson. And not only that but he also had a 1959 ElCamino mild custom painted by Watson.

The guy promissed to email me a few more photos of both cars, and after waiting for a while I recieved a few emails this weekend with some very cool photo's attached.... thought I would share them...

I really happy to have finally been able identify one of the unidentified cars in these photos.

Thanks to bobby Eidem for scanning the photos.

Two new photos of Jerry's 1954 Ford. Jerry claims this was one of Larry Watson's first panel paint jobs. He has no idear what hapend to the car. He sold it and never saw it again.






And here is a photo of Jerry on the left and Larry Watson on the right looking at Jerry's car on one of Larry's private Museum walls.




Another car owned by Jerry, and painted by Larry Watson was this wonderful customized 1959 ElCamino.

According to Jerry the car was painted Watson "Pearl Banana Gold". Larry painted this car four times over a period of four years, and this color was the last one for it.






The top was painted with webbing, most likely done using a veiling gun...
(nice interior as well)




I'm still trying to get some more info on these cars.. and when I do get it I will add it to the post.

 

Rikster I love reading your posts because I always know I will get to see a glimpse into the past through the photos you share. Thanks.

-Tony

 

A couple of years ago, Rodders Journal did a large color feature on a Japanese book featuring that very perfect custom period of '57-60 and they showed many professionally taken photos of cars that never appeared in any of the little or big magazines back in that day ( Which I know first hand because I bought all those books the day they hit the newstands back then).

I carried around the name and publisher of the book for quite a while but never found it, then I placed a special order for it at Border's and they called several weeks later to tell me it was unavailable to them. Does anyone have that book?

There are two problems with publishing any book such as a considered Watson project. One, finding enough photos, which in the case of Watson, we know they exist, but rounding them all up in one place with publishing rights is a difficult task. For example, several years ago, I was looking for car photos that Bob Hegge took in the Midwest during that same period. He had as much stuff published as anyone then...vast collection. He was deceased, so I spoke to his son who didn't have the knowledge or desire to catalog the collection. Another example...Daryl Starbird without a doubt has the largest collection of car feature photos of anyone anywhere. He put on hundreds of car shows and took feature photos of everything and was widely published in the car mags and indeed had the photos I was looking for. Somewhere. When I asked, he told me they were not cataloged.

Problem two in publishing a book: This is too small of a niche in the market for a large pulisher with good distribution. So a small publisher is the only hope and it's difficult to break even on a relatively small run, although the advent of Amazon does make that easier.

 

I recall seeing magazine coverage of one indoor car show, with Watson as its featured painter, that had THIRTY cars he had painted!
This guy was prolific!

 

Rikster,Thanks so much for sharing.Watson is my favorite painter.The shots of his work that you don't normally see are great.Again thanks for sharing.Dave

 

Rikster, thank you so much, it must be a lot of work to track down all this history.

BIG THANKS!

 

Shot in the dark but this wouldnt be a later version of the 52-54 Ford in the infamous shot (rear quarter shot) infront of Watson's shop would it? Prolly not if 3 pages and nobody has mentioned it haha.

 

Nah, different car.
I ***ume you are talking about this photo. That is the Pete Angress 1952 Ford
Custom taillights



Versions of that car...

 

That 56 is amazing.

 

Wow, great stuff. Watson's paint jobs are just too cool. They very well prove the point that you don't have to do extensive body work to have an outstanding car.

 

Ha! I definately win the "wasnt even close" award!

 

That "Kustomland" book Ryan had mentioned on the JJ a couple of day ago is mostly Watson, I got my copy yesterday and thumbed through it.

http://www.motorbooks.com/Store/ProductDetails_40318.ncm

 

Wide whites and spinner caps, takes me back to the turn of the decade from '50s to '60s. I was eleven.