I have collected Bob McCoy's art for a long time... Here are the 2 best pieces I have,,, They are Original Painting ___________________________________ Contact me at [email protected] ___________________________________ Break Out Bob McCoy Self Portrait #36 Midget at Balboa Stadium Titled BOARD BUSTER 3 Vintage Midgets, CUT OUT Drivers ~ Allen Heath Don Cameron & Clay Robbins
Jimmy Six ,, I knew Bob casually , Saw him at shows & events ,, Been collecting his art since the 80's Sad to see him go,, Last McCoy item I got was a magnetic dash plaque from Bob's Memorial Run & car show they held at the old Buck Knife Building in El Cajon,,, Some one walked up & handed me several of them.... I have one on the dash of my truck & have given a few to my car club buddies,,, But still have a few on my desk.....
He did some stuff for the What a burger in Lindale Texas. Hubcaps and stuff above the Coke machine painted by him.
I helped rebuilt / restore a old belly tank for for Fred Lobello, 2011 Bonneville Speedweek , ,, When they started talking about painting it I put my foot down & told them that none of the original letter was going to be changed because I know Bob McCoy had done it,,, Some didn't understand,,, Some times the best restoration is to clean it up a little & leave it the way it was,,
LOOK REALLY HARD at top picture, notice there are 8 tires, 3 cars, most cars have 4 tires each, which would mean 12 tires, !!!! Ol' Bob was a great guy and whatta imagination!!!!!
Bob McCoy was the 'Real McCoy'. Only met him a couple of times, Bob was a real role model for car guys... Painter extraordinare, model race car craftsman, circle track pilot...I remember his '40 sedan, which has been cloned more than once. Didn't hear of his passing. The "Break Out Bob" picture is astounding! (Eight tire Midget trio is another...Wow!)
I met Bob through the Forties Limited of Orange County, great guy, great smile, and you know his style of art from across the room. We just have a few of his pieces, he gave my wife one of his 356 in a barn prints knowing she loved them.
I knew Bob and tried to have him stripe my roadster to no avail. Only Bob could have done it. Seeing Fred's car reminded me of that because I wanted a special stripe job with a thin white line running on the reveal with red cones spaced out along the way and on the doors I wanted a McCoy cartoon of Bill Taylor in his roadster and on the passenger door, a cartoon of Fred Lobello in his lakester. Bobby kept saying he didn't stripe any more because he was an artist. My answer always was only he could do the work since he lettered both cars and was friends with Bill and Fred too. I begged, pleaded ,cajoled,and anything else I could do to change his mind. I thought I had him just about won over at the GNRS in 2014, sadly he left us before making his choice. Only Bobby had the style to do it. Luckily , I have several of his art works in my garage. Just couldn't get the tribute striping on the roadster.
Deucemac, I understand your dilemma. I once had Tommy the Greek put some teardrops and a fuselage beltline on my silver P51 Mustang (control line model) Crashed the Mustang at Great America 2 months later...then the news the Greek had passed. Forever lost...
We talked many years ago about doing a painting my roadster but it never happened now I wish it had happened. He was in the San Diego Roadster Club as am I and I always enjoyed watching him at El Mirage and Bonneville driving the Red Hawk modified roadster.
Not trying to hijack the thread but the mention of his red roadster reminded me of the time I was talking to him in the staging lanes at El Mirage while he readied the car. For those of you not familiar with the car, it was a '23 T with a beautiful candy red paint job and Trans am-ish flaming chicken on the hood. The car was short on wheelbase and long on horsepower, Very healthy BBC. Bob launched and weaved from cone to cone on the course. Not long after that, the wind came up and the meet was called. I went to Bobby ' s pit and asked him how the car went. "Straight arrow, Straight arrow" he said. I told him that if he hadn't weaved so much, he could have set a 250 plus top time instead of the 225 he did! Quite a guy!
Man, Could Bob McCoy illustrate or NOT? He was truly underrated, should be just "tons" of his work everywhere. His wife sells a book about his work, but I am too Old to be buying Anymore $50.00 books to be read once and put in place on a shelf. ( I SHOULD be Selling all the $50.00 books I have accumulated, not buying more) And the McCoy book is NOT available except thru his widow. I have so many books and magazines that are 50 years old, and me with 4 daughters and no sons!!! what will become of them, when I crap out?
Here's mine - It is a Trophy! Bob awarded this to me for my 32 Coupe -"The Read McCoy Award for a Real Hot Rod" It is the Only trophy in the house, and it hangs proudly in our game room. It is about 36" X 32" and I really treasure it, more so since he passed.
Great post. Bob was a "oner" in life for sure and one of the most interesting rodders I've met. We linked up in 1996 when I wrote a feature story about him for the original American Rodder magazine. I'd logged a couple of thousand miles on my new roadster, so headed south from NorCal Santa Rosa to SoCal El Cajon for a visit. We spent the better part of a day just hanging out and talking hot rods and racing. Bob's warm and inviting personality made me feel like I was hanging with an old pal. Other than brief chats at the annual L. A. Roadsters fathers' day show, where Bob was swarmed with friends and fans, our friendship was telephonic and always memorable. And good things would occasionally show up in the mail. Like a packet of 4 x 6 inch photographic color prints of his then-recently restored '23 T roadster, including one of his lovely wife holding a frowning grandson, plus a couple of the car in its kickass days at Bonneville where it ran 217 mph with SBC power on an only-slightly longer than stock wheelbase. A large flat package arrived one day containing better than a dozen of Bob's best prints of some of his more desirable subjects, all signed and dated, plus a high-quality B&W print of the iconic shot with Bob's head sticking out of the side window of his flamed '40 Tudor . Then, best of all, a few months later, came an irregular, kind of puffy package swathed in brown paper and clear-plastic packaging tape, with bold, hand-written labeling I'd grown to recognize as McCoy's. I took care carving away the wrapping and was rewarded with a treasured gift -- an 18 x 26 inch Bob McCoy cutout caricature of me and my '29 AV8 roadster. I just sat there and wept for a bit. It took a few minutes before I could read Bob's note, the gist of which was an apology for the 'dirt-tracker rear hides,' but he liked the look, he said and thought that I might as well, and if I didn't he'd be happy to redo the illustration. What a a guy!
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