History Larry Watson's Personal Photo Collection

I think the other square bird is the ''Pisano'' and I think it was just in the Grand National Roadster Show. The gentleman that provided all these pictures owns it. Rikster probably knows for sure.

 

Larry Watson painted his own 1958 T-Bird – which was pink when he bought it brand new – within days after he bought it. At first he wanted to paint it one single color, silver platinum pearl. But it made the car look to big, and bright. So he laid out some panels following the body counters and filled the panels with candy burgundy wine. The car looked amazing and Larry named it "Vino Paisano". The car turned heads where ever it was, a huge success, and customers started to ask Larry if he wanted to paint their cars in a similar design.
After about half a year the candy paint started to fade badly, and once again Larry taped up some panels and painted some silver with candy grape fogging to cover up the faded sections. This new paint job made people go crazy, and Larry painted at least three other 1958 T-Birds in a similar way. One which you can see here in this photo even uses similar colors. One other was done in greens, and Larry also painted one for Actress Jean Caussey in pearl white with red and orange panels.
The inset photo shows booths Larry's T-Bird "Vino Paisano" which is on the right in that photo, and this unidentified T-Bird which also shows in the main photo on the left of the inset photo.
There are a lot of similarities between these two T-Birds, but also a lot of differences. The colors are a bit different, but that is sometimes hard to tell from the small photos. Larry's T-Bird has the stock enema on the C-pillar, and the color panels go around this shape. On the T-Bird in the photo the emblem is removed. Larry's car has a darker shaded panel running above the front fender, that section has a lighter color on the car in this photo.
It would have been nice to be able to put a name with this T-Bird, but unfortunately the photo of it came with no info, and so far nobody has been able to identify it. Perhaps somebody on here knows more.









Photo of the Dick Jackson built 1957 Ford Sedan. A mild custom, but very tasty done. Dick replaced the stock grille with a 1954 Chevy unit, which is despite the older grille a perfect option for any 1957 Ford. Dick custom made a set of Satel-Lite taillights for this car using 1953 Buick taillights and chrome bullets set on clear red plastic.
The side trim on the car is really nicely done with the stock 1957 Ford trim on the front fenders and door, but the rear portions was replaced with a flipper 1953 Dodge trim piece. The upholstery was done in gold and white naugahyde with chrome details. Dick painted the car Tingia Rust with reddish gold scallops with Dean Jeffries pin striping. The perfectly lowered car had Dodge Lancer hubcaps and the lake pipes make it look even lower.
When the car was done Dick traded it with Buddy Alcorn for his Ayala/Barris 1950 Mercury.









Close up photo of Walt Drew's 1961 Dodge and Pinky Richard's 1957 Corvette. With both guys sitting on the front fender of their cars. Larry Watson painted both these cars. Walt's 1961 Dodge was painted brilliant silver with purple flames and the Pinky's Corvette with body work by Bill Hines was painted orange red with black and pepper flames with wild outline pin striping. And that is Larry Watson saying "Hi" sitting in the passenger seat of Bill Striker's 1959 Cadillac. Bill's Cadillac has some primer spots from repair work, and is getting ready for Larry for his ultra smooth black paint job.

 

This photo was taken in 1964 by H. Lee Hooper from Downey while the crew at Larry Watson's shop was color sanding Larry’s 1961 Econoline Pick up after Larry had painted it his first Salt + pepper Metalflake.
From left to right: Larry Watson, Carl Sampler (who was Larry’s first cobweb customer with his 1963 Pontiac), Don "Penguin" Loster (Larry did a 1959 Ford twice for him), Famous Car painter Bill Carter (which Larry called his #1 student) and Killer Jesse sanding the cab. Looks like beards was THE fashion for man in 1964.

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I remember Larry telling me that with his Hollywood connections and because they all had long hair and beards... he and his buddies all got a job on the movie, "Greatest Story Ever Told"...about the life of Jesus..

 

Last night I was reading a piece in the 1958 Custom Car Annual about that 57 Ford.

 

"I remember Larry telling me that with his Hollywood connections and because they all had long hair and beards... he and his buddies all got a job on the movie, "Greatest Story Ever Told"...about the life of Jesus.. "

Looked at this picture an thought of that as well...

 

<TABLE style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px" class=tborder border=0 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center><TBODY><TR title="Post 7387669" vAlign=top><TD class=alt2 width=125 align=middle>redroaddog</TD><TD class=alt1>Re: Larry Watson's Personal Photo Collection
<HR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5; COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1>hey guys check out the photo of larry backing out on the highway the gas station in the background has prices for gas at 29.9 and 27.9 i remember 36 cent gas as a kid </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Great work by Larry and awsome photos to remember it , and love those gas prices!

 

Hey,

Depending on what time of the year that picture was taken, that may not have been smog The area of larry's shop usually has a seasonal weather pattern known as a "marine in version layer'' ( a.k.a. June Gloom)! From the middle of May to the first part of July every year that's a pretty typical weather pattern for that area.

And yeah, the air is now cleaner out here, but at the cost of many jobs and lots of $$$, and if Larry were alive today, he couldn't shoot lacquer or use his old Binks #7 spray gun without a $ 10,000 fine!

Wow! a gallon of leaded preminum for 29 cents? A gallon of preminum lacquer thinner was probably $1.25 back then.

" Meanwhyle, back onboard The Tainted Pork "

 

Just got my Clock poster from Roger Odell and it is fantastic. This new priniting is top quality, thicker paper and the colors are wild. If you have been looking for a Clock poster, get the new one, it is wild.

 

In this photo from the Larry Watson Personal Collection we can see a 1957 Plymouth Savoy with a rather similar paint job as the famous Terry Holloway Plymouth - inset photo (the later one was an Belvedere with a different side trim).
This Savay Custom owned by Phil (no last name was given) has been in several magazines with a few photos, but so far none of the articles showed a name of the owner. It had a full page in the Hot Rod Custom Car Yearbook from 1963, although the car was then more than likely mixed up with the Terry Halloway Belvedere, because the writing indicates the car was painted in green with lime gold and highlighted with purple pin striping. Which is what Terry's car is painted with. However this color photo shows that Don's Savoy is actually painted candy maroon/grape over a metallic silver base with yellow fogging and purple pinstriping. Very hard to see in this photo is the chrome tape panel on the top, which looks really great with this car. I have always liked the black and white photos of this car, where the yellow fogging is not really that much visible. I think it would have looked better if the outlining was only in silver, perhaps with the pinstriping. The yellow fogging makes it look a bit cheap. Which is a pity because the rest of this mild Custom is done really classy.









Some time ago I shows another photo of this 1954 Buick showing the car a bit more from the back. This is the only other photo of this car In Larry's Collection. Taken a bit more from the side and showing the front a bit. Very nice mild Custom with all the right touches. The Lancer Hubcaps do so much for this car, it totally changes its appearance in a very good way. Unfortunately I still do not have a name to go with this one, only that the owner came from Santa Barbara.








Polaroid Insta-Matic photo of Larry's Vono Paisano in front of the Barris shop at Atlantic Blvd. The photo was taken by Bob Seiger, and given to Larry.In the background we can see Lyle Lake's 1952 Buick "Blue Danube" sitting in the shop window. This part of the Barris shop was rented by Larry as his shop space for some time. The T-Bird was painted at this shop.

 

I really never get enough of this thread. So glad to see it still growing.

It's an incredible resource, thank you!

 

I love this thread. And I really love that '54 Buick in the last shot.

 

Are these Sombrero's with Spinners in the center? Very cool cap but it's got a really deep dish which can't be a direct swap right? I know if they're true sombreros then the whole inner ring thingy needs to be removed and a baby moon cap welded etc. Just wondering what exactly is going on there.

 

I believe it's a stock 1956 Dodge spinner wheel cover, painted with a modified center...

 

Dennis Morgan took his 1958 Chevy Impala to Larry Watson Rosecrans Blvd shop for a Candy green and fine metallic gold outline paint job in 1959. The car was just a year old then. Dennis most likely liked all the factory chrome since despite the complete paint job all the factory trim pieces remained on the body. Larry laid down a base of fine metallic gold, then taped of the main body contours including the side trim, but left the door handles and other smaller trim pieces alone. No color accents where needed there, or perhaps better would have distracted the overall lines of the car if he had highlighted those as well. Then Larry added the really great looking candy green in several layers to create some depth. Larry finished the paint job with a nice medium width white pinstripe between the green and gold. The car was lowered all around sitting on medium size white wall tires and a set of perfect for this mild custom Lancer four bar hubcaps. A set of Spotlights was installed and the interior was upholstered in horizontal white tuck&roll with dark green accents. This photo shows the car with the stock grille, but later Dennis would add a tubular grille&#8230; and in 1960 Dennis had some of the trim pieces removed and Larry repaint the car in a different hue candy green. But this version is just so nice... so simple!




This is a Larry Watson photo of Fred LeFevre&#8217;s 1959 Chevy El Camino. Fred had his near new El Camino mildly customized Bill DeCarr Speed & Custom shop in Bellflower California. Bill remove the door handles, all the emblems, and clean up the nose eyebrow scoops. He would fill in the openings on the front of the hood and upper grille bar - the &#8220;eye brows&#8221; and extend the hood all the way down to the grille opening. And to make it even better Fred decided to use a 1960 Mercury grille. The Mercury grille was brand new in late 1959 when Bill installed it in the modified grille opening. Bill used round rod to extend the head and taillight openings. Then the lights were set into very fine perforated chrome plate. This unit was installed slightly frenched. At the rear the same perforated plate was used and two 1959 Cadillac taillights on both sides installed. At the rear Bill also molded in a nice license plate surround. Then Larry Watson painted it in an incredible pale pearl lemon yellow. Finishing touch where the 1959 Dodge Lancer hubcaps on nice size white wall tires, dummy spots and a set of Bellflrowe pipes. Not long after that in early 1960 Fred had Larry add some candy green outline accents to the car. They looked really amazing and visually lowered and extended the 1959 El Camino. The car appeared in a few magazines including the cover of the June 1960 ice of Custom Cars magazine. Then Fred sold the car to his brother Ron, and he had Larry add some more paint details. And this is the version we can see in this photo. in late 1961 Larry added some more panels to the paint in white and fogged in with a dark green.

 

Hey Rik,

Did Larry ever do any 60 Impalas or El Caminos? Thanks, Todd

 

This is a cropped section of a photo showing Larry Watson's 1958 T-Bird and Ron Dulin's 1956 Plymouth. Both with fantastic Larry Watson panel paint jobs parked at Larry's Rosecrans Blvd shop. Both cars in this photo have been paneled with similar hues of candy Burgundy and grape, but Larry's T-Bird uses a platinum pearl as a base, while Ron's Plymouth used a pearl white as a base. We can have a nice look at the 1954 Chevy center piece in Ron's grille which looks really well in this car. The Plymouth side pieces of the grille where shortened for better proportions. The stainless headlights rings where removed and some scoops where incorporated just above the headlights. Behind Larry's T-Bird is a 1958 chevy with some more panels, but this car is in none of the other photos I have, so I'm not able to tell which car that is.








1958 Chevy Delray from the Larry Watson Collection with a typical outline paint job by Larry. This time in a very subtile silver and outlined in medium teal blue. The darker outlines make the car look a lot longer and lower. Larry was an expert in using this technique for doing this. Some trim was removed an it looks like a set of 1959 Cadillac taillights was added. Lake pipes, Custom Hubcaps and a nice lowered stance make this one a real beauty. Its really great to see a Delray being used as a Custom Car with its original side trim.









From the Larry Watson Collection comes this great looking 1955 Chevy with some body trim removal and an ultra clean candy green and pearl gold paint job my Larry. I showed two photos of this car in Kustoms Illustrated issue #31 as an unidentified 1955 Chevy. Since then I learned Max King was the owner of this car in the early 1960's when Larry painted this car. What you cannot see in this photo is the really great California Rake on this car.

 

Fantastic thread by "The Rikster" Larry Watson was the best.

CRUISER

 

Side view of '55 in previous post.

 

Is mighty tempting.......

 

Rikster, earlier you asked about why Germany would have been mentioned as a possible venue for showing. I read some years ago in the Roth book that I have that Ed was the son of German immigrants and would therefore have a better than passing knowledge of the language. There was even an anecdote about him hiding the fact during WWII when he was a kid so he wouldn't get hassled for it.

I have been searching for a photo like this of a Del Ray or Biscayne for ages, thanks Rik.

 

Thanks for the info, I did not know that.

 

Those look like '53 Bel Air wheelcovers.

 

I wonder if that might be a Grumbacher striper Larry is using there. My very first striping brushes were some brand new Grumbachers that my dad gave me. They were the last set he bought some time in the late '70's- early '80's. I still have them.

 

Thanks for the update. The pics of Larry's new Chevy are cool.

 

The new issue of Kustoms Illustrated is out and I created part 6 of the Larry Watson Personal Photos article around some of the better Ford Customs Larry had done for it.
The opening spread shows three photos of a really nicely done 1955 Ford with Custom work by Ed Schelhaas. It shows also tow early crab style flamed Shoebox Fords, a 1958 T-Bird done with green hued panels similar in styling as Larry's own T-Bird among other great photos from the Larry Watson Collection.

This car I show here today is another one inside the 4 spread article. A nice mild 1955 Ford Victoria done in pearl pink and raspberry candy. The emblems on the hood where shaved, but other than that the body remained virtually as it came from the factory.
The stock grille was replaced with an aftermarket chrome tube version, Color detailed Dodge Lancer hubcaps where installed, a set of spotlights where scalloped in body color and a set of lake pipes makes the car look even a bit lower after the stock stance was already lowered a bit.

Check it out in issue #32 of Kustoms Illustrated.

 

That's close. The primer grade was $4 for a five gallon can! I rarely used the good stuff!!

 

can't hardly wait to have my issue

 

The ~Lynwood CA 1959 Car Show (First Time Shown)~ (Hot Rods) Thread

by Deuce Daddy Don

Has a lot of Watson cars pictured in the video.



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This thread is one of the reasons I can put up with the increasing goofiness of the HAMB. A vein of gold, among the "what color do I paint my wheels", "How much is this worth", and "How do I lower my 66 Valiant" crap-ola.
Big thanks to Rikster!

 

Amen!