Art & Inspiration What's your favorite gasser paintjob of all time? - inspiration thread

Hello,

As the term “g***er” comes into play, we all ought to see that like all things interesting, a nickname or two has been developed to describe, in this case: “… street legal, modified road worthy cars with all lights, license plates, mufflers and running/starting under their own power…” to the term “g***ers.” There is not a specific date or year, but around 1964-65, the term began it pop up in tech articles of various magazines.

So, for us in late 1959, we began our 40 Willys Coupe build for the listed: Gas Coupe and Sedan cl*** at our local Lion’s Dragstrip. As we knew our tear down and rebuild was going to take awhile for a couple of teenagers, we were not in a hurry to complete the build. But, we did have ideas of finished paint colors when we were ready to race.

As it was, the beginning cleaning the original paint was done with sanding and prepping it for a primer coat to keep things in nice condition. My brother had his choice of colors and so did I. We did not get to the stage of insisting on a specific color at the time as it was more important for the build to go the right way and to make sure everything was running fine for the street usage and full on race scene at Lion’s Dragstrip. So a red primer color was sprayed on several times in our canvas tarp covered temporary area, so as not to get paint on our mom’s pristine garden.

The 64 years old film, digitally converted in 2015 and run countless times always shows a black primer painted coupe. But, in going frame by frame, the captured clip shows a red primer color peaking out of the fast running film.


Jnaki


So, as it stands, the favorite “gas coupe” photo color is this one that looks almost like a carbon copy of our 1940 Willys Coupe build.

When I was invited to be a part of the original Lion’s Dragstrip museum development group, I was awed. My films were to be shown on a large tv monitor for all to see who walked by the displays. So, I made a continuous loop 39 minute film that played all day and into the night on the monitor.

It was amazing to see the large wall monitor playing my old Lion’s Dragstrip films. The loop was long enough for folks to watch various racers, some in attendance, like Don Hampton, Tommy Ivo and Hill Acala that was amazed his original red roadster was featured on the film.

Now, I can watch the old film and see it running in the B/Gas cl*** at our first edition of the coupe. (Or find my missing films I took of several runs, plus the pits action, hidden somewhere in the many storage boxes of my original steel reel films…) But, when I visit the Lion’s Dragstrip Museum for some reason, I can go to the Willys row section and see this red primer version just sitting there waiting to be remembered by me. No, it is not our 40 Willys Coupe, but a 41 as noted in the different grille opening. YRMV

Note:
possible variations
We spent the months of June-July tuning, racing and getting everything just right for our build. The months were spent on setting up our finances and ordering parts for the final goal. (sponsored or otherwise) The finished product had to be ready for the U.S. Nationals at Detroit. Our final necessary speed parts were already on order and some were waiting in Los Angeles for pickup. Locally, we were agonizing about what is to be, the final paint color. My brother wanted yellow and I wanted silver.


It never got to the paint phase, as the red primer was the last phase for us. So, it was the only gas coupe paint job we applied to our build.

NOTE 2:

But for you hard core hot rod/drag race folks, RED is the color of drag racing for us. Including hand painted/applied gold leaf printing…

Thanks, @elgringo71
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/members/elgringo71.126056/

Our close friend, Atts Ono was instrumental in helping us with our earlier 40 Willys build. He was our “Pit Boss” and was with us every time we were racing our own Willys Coupe build in phase one and with the 671 SBC in phase two.

But, when his Willys Coupe was finished, it was one of the best, if not the best on the drag racing scene.
YRMV

"IN LIVING COLOR"