History Larry Watson's Personal Photo Collection

i was at the now current shop at 1016 E Artesia Blvd. this weekend getting some work done on my wife's car. i printed out the rooftop pic and showed the supervisor. he said the orig paint booth was still intact at the far corner. (at right on google street shot) he also said a magazine came out last year and shot a bunch of pics of the single stall last year, but he couldnt remember the name. he kept the printout and i snapped couple pics to share. its pretty dirty inside with lots of stuff and a 65-66 Mustang waiting for work. thought i'd share.

 

Great to see those pics... thanks for adding them to this thread

 

Its Watson time again. Here is a nice snapshot from the Larry Watson Personal Photo Collection... Larry has just been painting the top of a T-Bird with a candy root beer base and multi colored cob-webbing. Thats Al Lazarus standing on the left of Larry.








I have always loved Terry Hollaway's Watson painted 1957 Plymouth. I think its one of the better outline paint jobs Larry did. The colors are rather unusual, but work so well on the car. And the effect of the outlines create an instant custom car out of it. It makes the car look longer and lower.
It is to bad this great photo was cut out, and teared up at a moment in time. But apparently Larry liked it enough to tape it back together and save it. And I'm glad he did because I really love it.








Larry Watson painted the Corvette of Lynda Planett with some very subtile fading candies over a pearl base. The paint job looks very much like the Chromalusion that became very popular in the late 1990's. Only Larry's paint job did not shift colors when you walked around it.
The effect must have been very spectacular back then. There are most photos of this car that will show the paint much better than this one, and I will show those later. But I really like this photo of a well dressed Larry standing proud in front of yet another killer creation. Anybody recognize the location?

 

Cinerama Dome, Holllywood?

 

Thanks.... must be it
Cinerama Dome 1963 by architect Welton Becket | 6360 Sunset Boulevard | Hollywood | Los Angeles

 

Cool place to see a movie.

 

Cool pics !

 

A car that you don't see customized a lot is the 1966 Dart. And even thought this Larry Watson painted sample is only a mild custom I have to say it does look good. Larry sure helped the car with his two tone paint job with minimal scallops. Behind the Plymouth you can see the T-Bird with the Cob-wepped top that I showed a couple of days ago sitting inside the shop.







Larry Watson even painted a few Big Rigs... Jim Skonzakis his Golden Sahara hauler truck was one. ANd this old Mack Truck is another one. It was so big it would never fit inside Larry's paint booth. So this one done in gold and candy red was painted outdoors!

 

Here are two photos of a car listed as "Vigilanti" Larry Watson had painted it and according to the show sign Ed Newton and Louis Schorsch designed and built the project.
With the help of some other people I found out that this car is actually a replica of a Model car built by Chuck Jones who had entered his model in a Model Car contest in the mid 1960s'. The Contest was sponsored by model kit manufacture Revell. And Revell made a deal with Ed Roth about this contest. Ed would built a 1/1 scale fully functional version of the winning model. So Ed started building this kind of weir looking car. Rear Buick engine and a special frame etc. But A lot of things happened and Ed stepped out of the deal and he never finished the car.

My guess is that somewhere along the line Louis Schorsch and Ed Newton got hold of it, and had the cart finished. Then Larry Watson painted the car and they showed it, in this case at an 1960's Oakland Roadster Show.









Larry Watson painted this 1963 Pontiac in silver and black and then added black cob-webbing to the silver painted body sides. If you look hard you can see that the bottom portion of the body sides is painted black again. This gives the illusion of a much lower car. Clever paint restyling. I have no info on the owners name or anything else about the car.







Great looking mildly customized early 1960's Dodge van for Rand Jackson.
Larry Watson painted for a total amount of $500 in 1971. Green Gold Pearl, Yellow Gold pearl, and Candy green, plus a new vinyl top. The removal of all the enblems cost $75, and was included in the 500 USD...

 

History in it's purest form! Thanks for posting

 

Even when the cars are not unforgettable, i dig those history lessons

 

A great shot of Mike Tidd's 1965 Buick that Larry painted for him. No customizing what I can see has done to this car, just some lowering - to get the perfect stance- the right wheels and tires and of coarse Larry's fantastic Candy red paint job. This photo was taken in 1967 and later Larry would add a cob webbed panel to the side of this car with gave it even more optical length than these land yachts already have.







Sneak peak of what is inside issue #30 of Kustoms Illustrated.
My article on the Larry Watson Personal photo Collection for this issue has some really great photos in it and several are of 1957 Pontiac's This unidentified lime gold one is part of the opening page of the article. And this shot did not make it into the article. Another fantastic milds custom to come out of the Watson shop.

 

I'm going to bed dreamin of the colors that 55' Mercury was painted. Man that thing is awesome! Thanks Rikster.LB

 

Daaaaaaaaamn. That '65 Buick KILLS me! I love it!

 

anyone catch the sign on the shop window? "Metal flake tops, $75"
WOW!!!!

 

Fantastic Rik - thanks so much for sharing and all the work you do to provide by far the best resource on custom cars anywhere.

 

Thanks for posting this outstanding reference source, Rik!

I could see why Larry would've kept that taped-up shot of the Terry Holloway Plymouth; it really shows a great angle on the best version of that car!

The only mod I can see on the '65 Widcat, other than that beautiful candy paint and the Cragars, is that the script has been removed from the quarter panels.

That '57 Pontiac typifies why the mild treatment often is the best way to a great custom; beautiful color, a little judicious trim removal, Fiesta caps and lowering are all that's needed to improve on the original stocker.

 

Rik today while visiting a friend , when I got there someone else was visiting. When I was introduced he told me his name, and that he lived across the street from Larrys parents. He was friends with Larrys brother and had lived with the Stecks a while. Today we didn't get to BS much, but I have his phone number and plan to follow up. And I want to say what a GREAT JOB you are doing for Larry. Roger

 

Rik, et al...

I went to that Cinerama Theater many times when I lived on Highland Avenue in Hollywood...saw the Comedy Classic: "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World" there !

What a GREAT Theater...PLUS, in Hollywood you always saw Cool Cars & Kustoms driving through there EVERYDAY !

JK www.legends.thewwbc.net

 

Thanks Roger.... and that sounds like some really good information can come from him. Looking forward to hear more.


speaking about more... how about some more photos from the Larry Watson Personal Collection.


I got a couple of requests for some more Hot Rod photos from the Larry Watson Photo Collection. So in the next couple of days I will show a couple more Hot Rod photos from this amazing collection. Larry Was mostly known for painting Custom Cars, but he did paint a couple of Hot Rods.
I have shown a couple more photos of this Model A Roadster which Bill DeCarr built and Larry painted for David C. Martin.










Another Hot Rod from the Larry Watson Personal Photo Collection is the 28-29 Model A full fender orange-red Hot Rod from Jerry Fever. I don't know nothing about this car... But I assume Larry painted the car. There are several photos of it in this collection - one I have shown some time ago. Perfect Hot Rod with a perfect stance. And nice low angle photo taken in front of the Watson DeCarr shop at Artesia Boulevard in Bellflower.








This photo from Larry's Collection is very nice. And I have not seen to many photos of this famous Hot Rod in this version. Its the former and first AMBR Bill Niekamp's 1929 Model A at the time it was owned by Delmer Brink. Larry Watson actually painted this car twice. First in a candy purple (there is not a photo of this version in Larry's collection as far as I know) and second in a fading from front to rear candy red/maroon paint job. Apparently the car was painted candy first before Delmer decided to install the Buick V-8. And most likely it was Bill DeCarr, or somebody at his shop, who worked on the car to get it ready for the Buick engine. Hence the freshly cut hole in the firewall.

 

Rik...

As usual, GREAT work on each & every pic ! Thanks !!

Jonnie

 

Here is another photo of the Delmer Brink/Bill Niekamp Roadster. Now with the Buick engine installed... Look at those hay trucks in the background... I love these old photos.







Odd looking American Bantam Hot Rod from the 1930's These cars already looked a bit odd with their unusual proportions. And this one with large - out of scale - tires makes it even look stranger. Larry Watson painted this one with many wonderful coats of Banana/peach yellow pearl. WHich makes the car look a lot better I think. But it sure is an unusual sight... this photo was taken at the Watson Firestone Blvd shop.

 

A great black&white photo from the Watson Collection if this great looking Ford Pick-Up truck. No information came with this photos, and so far I have not been able to find any info on it. So I don't know who the owner is, nothing on the colors. But what I do know is that I like it. These are a really great set of scallops that Larry put on this mostly stock Pick-Up. Even the emblems where left on the car. But it looks to have the perfect stance. Some Real Appleton Spotlights. Right size white wall tires and moon disk. The tripped top might be a hint to what will be next in trends... chrome tape (although the Golden Sahara might have been the first to use that in 1954, but thats a whole different story!)








This great looking lavender pearl and Candy grape 1957 Chevy painted by Larry is yet another proof that these cars look so good as mild Custom Car. And it makes me wonder why we don't see them more done like this today. This unidentified car is really mild, even all the trim is left on the car. Custom Hubcaps, thin white wall tires, a slight stance adjustment and a fantastic Larry Watson paint job is all this car needed.







Fantastic overview photo from all these Larry Watson painted Customs in line at the Milk drive in next door to Larry's shop to get some Milk! Well not really. The photo is great, but I'm unsure if the building the cars are parked at is the Muffler shop or a diary shop. In other photos we can see the tall red sign to the left of the shop with big MILK letters. Anyway the cars are really great in this photo, and so is the shadow of the photographer - most likely Larry Himself. Standing on top of the... apparently was not enough so the camera was haled high above his had, as we can see in the shadow.

 

You can see the yellow muffler shop building under the canopy on the right side of the lavender '57 picture (better view here). Watson's shop would have been between the milk store and the muffler shop. In the pictures you have posted his cars are always spilling onto surrounding lots. The milk store across the street, the building beside it and the trailer park sign out front are still there, Google Street View here.

 

Those look like model cars sitting around Watson's shop. You always heard of the neat shit in California growing up, and heres evidence of it. That green 55 Chevy, damn. Love it Rik!

 

FYI, I'm told that the nearby city--or area--of Paramount, near to where these photos were taken, was the site of the largest hay market in the world, back in the day.

I know this was the '50s by then, but this area was still very cow-centric. Cerritos, in fact, was still known as Dairy Valley.

This may help explain the hay.

 

A better photo of the two tone green 1955 Chevy from the parking lot photo posted a few posting back. The car belonged to Max King, but I have not been able to find any other info on him or his car. This photo was most likely taken shortly after Larry painted the car in what appears to be candy apple green over a pearl base, with a yellow green pearl on the top. A fantastic color combination. The rear bumper has not been put back in this photo.
The stance the wheel/tire choice, the colors and the mild customizing on this car are as perfect as they can get.








I have shown this amazing 1958 Chevy convertible in my first article on Larry's photos in Kustoms Illustrated. ButI wanted to show it here as well. This is one of my all time favorite 1958 Chevy Customs. The car from an unknown owner in Kansas City to me is one of Larry's best ever outline paint jobs. The completely smoothed body was painted in fine pearl gold with deep candy apple red. The thin outlines accentuate the body lines so perfectly. It makes the car look longer and lower. The flipped back portion of the side trim on the front
fenders is a classic trick on these cars, but never worked so well as on this car. It has 1959 Dodge Lancer hubcaps on perfect size white wall tires with an all white tuck&roll interior with what looks like a tonneau cover over the back seat. The car came fresh out of Larry's Paint booth and the grille was not yet in place in this photo. Unfortunately this was the only photo of this amazing Custom in Larry's Collection.

 

I remember that hay yard, my dad hauled in there when I was 8-9 I kinna remember looking at the cars across the street.

 

Someone needs to clone that ride. It's such an amazing car. And would be killer at any show