History Larry Watson's Personal Photo Collection

Are there any more pictures of shoeboxs he painted?

 

Are there any similar pictures of 49-51 Fords painted like this? I've decided to do something like this one to mine. I have already copy the hub caps that's on GrapeVine. Thanks

 

There are a few, but none with a panel paint-job. Different kind of flames and some other effects, but this panel paint job was really unique.

 

Thanks for the continued updates on this thread Rik. It is great. Loved your blog about Larry's signs as well a really cool different look at his great career.

 

I'd also like to thank you.
It's good to know people appreciate your efforts.

AND
I have a really cool screen saver now!

 

Thanks... I appreciate everybody is enjoying these fantastic photos.
We are not done yet... far from that!

A couple more



Another photo of Al Lazarus's Chevy... this was after the Olive green and silver versions... and with the added lake pipes. Soon after this photo was taken Larry would add his famous sea weed flames to it.








I have showed another photos of David C. Martin Model A Roadster before as part of the Larry Watson Personal Photo Collection. It was in black primer then, and Bill DeCarr was working on it. This time the car is all finished with a wonderful Larry Watson paint-job, and white interior. The location is the former Ed Schelhaas now Bill DeCarr shop at Artesia Blvd in Bellflower. The SHop where Larry rented some space, and where Bill and Larry created some fantastic cars together.







Unidentified Corvair mild custom with a paint job by Larry Watson. The top is done in Metalfalake silver and the bottom pearl color is a bit hard to describe. A dark brownish pearl color... but no matter what its called, it looks very good on this perfectly styled Corvair.

 

I am crunchin' on that Corvair.

 

Thanks Rik!

 

GOOD!! I'm looking foward to more!!!

 

More pixs Rik!!

 

subscribed

 

Great looking mild 1958 Chevy Custom from the Larry Watson Personal Photo Archive. Its to bad the indoor car show snapshot is blurry... but I think we can still see enough to figure this is a really well done custom. 1960 Mercury grille, de-chromed body, will all white tuck&roll interior. Lowered with 1959 Dodge hubcaps. really deep dark purple paint by Larry watson, with pearl lavender top and accents. The factory stock side trim front fender piece - which is very heavy - was replaced with a flipped over rear fender unit. A classic Custom Car trick for the 1958 Chevy.
And lots of tin foil for display material...








Another Bike photo from the Watson files... Fantastically styles bike with a wonderful simple Watson paint job inn a dark candy red over silver with some silver accents. In the background of this Artesia Blvd shop photo was can see the top of Johnny Zupan 1949 Mercury at the top right, and a customized 1941 Ford on the left. Always interesting to see what's going on in the background of these photos.

 

Thats Larry Howard's sweepstakes winning triumph -now commonly refered to as the "Glitter Cycle" after the feature title that it was given in an early 60's Hot Rod magazine article.
That bike pretty well sums up show bike styling for me. Larry Howard ran a bike shop called Award Cycle and he was also the creator/manufacturer of the nifty finned timing cover on this bike,they are very rare item and much desired.
cheers RM

 

Wow--so that means that at this point, it ran, right?

And then Larry sold it? To either Bob Acquistapace or Ed Roth.

And it ended up, minus engine internals, on Roth's bike truck.

Correct me if I'm wrong ... .

 

The shop next to Bill DeCars (hobby shop) was Al Lazerus's motorcycle shop. Roger

 

The bike definitely was a runner as it clocked the 1/4 mile at 103 mph.
The whole relationship of the Howard bike and the Aquistapace bike thing is a question many have asked .
I read many years ago (in the 80's I think) that Roth said the bike he swapped off Aquistapace was the ex Larry Howard bike [lots of styling ques are the same ].But in the info for the selling of the Megacycle just a while back ,Aquistapace said that he liked a model kit that Revell released (1/25 scale) and that was his inspiration (that kit was based on Larry Howards bike)-but he never mentioned who actually built the bike.
The Show and Go cycle shop blog has discussions on this ,as well as the Jockey Journal .The nostalgia on wheels blog has lots of pics of both bikes.
FRITZ on here did the resto on the Megacycle bike ,If the tank was made up of a 37 LaSaile headlight bucket then it probably is the Larry Howard bike.
Hope that kinda helps
Cheers R

 

purples seemed to be very popular.. as where lavender or silver flake roofs its a nice color combo..

 

In this photo from the Watson files we can see a 1955 Buick that looks a lot like the 1955 Buick of Del Mar McCutcheon. A lot of the lines and fades on this car are similar to those on Del Mar's Buick. But upon close inspection they are not quite the same. So I have no idea if this is a completely different car or an early version of Del Mar's Kandy Kane Buick. If they are the same car than I like the later version better, if not than one of these inspired Larry to do the other with similar out-lines and fades. Unique lines on this 1955 Buick, but not one off Larry's best days I think...







Larry Watson is mainly known for the Custom Cars he painted. But he also did a handful of Custom Pick-Up trucks. here is one of those. The 1940 Ford Pickup owned by Clyde Castleberry. CLyde was from Norwalk, California, and had Larry paint some really unique and good looking scallops in very dark purple over a pale yellow base. The scallops where outlined in white striping. I think the scallops work really well with the car. I have no idea why the pick up is sitting so high, but I think if it where lowered a couple of inches it would have looked a lot better. The dark purple around the wheel openings make the car look to sit even higher of the ground, than it already does. The shapes around the wheel openings remind me of the first version of the R&C Dream Truck which Larry also did.








Candy lime gold and Silver 1958 Chevy mild custom from the Larry Watson Collection. The body appears to be all a stock with all the trim pieces left alone except for the front fender side trim which was replaced by a flipped rear fender section. However the car is lowered, runs a set of custom hubcaps lake pipes and dummy spotlights.. and of course the Watson paint job... and what you cant see in this photo a tubular grille and a dark green and white Tuck&Roll interior.

 

A couple of days ago I showed another 1955 Buick which could have been an early version of this car. The 1955 Buick of Del Mar McCutcheon. This photo shows the Kandy Kane Buick as it was painted by Larry at his Rosecrans Blvd. shop. Great lines, and fades with very nice Color combinations. Very few body modifications, some trim removal, lowered stance Hubcaps, Lake pipes and Larry's Paint job was enough. Later Larry would add more fades - blue - to this... but like it is here is my favorite version.
To bad Larry cut out the photo, I would have loved to see more of the background. He possibly cut it out for one of his collages.






Larry's own 1959 Cadillac soon after he finished it, photographed at Larry's "Peanut House" Rosecrans Blvd. shop. WOnderful snapshot and by the looks of it it must have been taped or pinned on one of Larry's shop walls for some time.

 

Just curious--what WAS the Peanut House? Anyone know? With a name like the Peanut House, it's gotta be good.

And also, as if it needs saying: that Cadillac is boss.

 

That does help. Thanks for the info. Interesting to know about the model. Talk about life imitating art imitating life!

 

Here is a photo of the Bill DeCarr (Ortega) body shop on 10116 Artesia Blvd in Bellflower. Bill had bought the shop from Ed Schelhaas in 1959 and he rented out some space (including the paint booth) to his best friend Larry.
Together they created some magic in this shop. The Ford Pick up in front of the shop is Johnny Zupan's 1956 Ford F-100. The shades of gray lines in the background came back in this shop as well...
despite this being Bill's shop.







Great color photo of some really nicely done Larry Watson scallops on Jerry Miller's 1949 Chevy Coupe. Very nice car, with only minimal custom work. But a very nice scallops make up for that.







We don't see to many 1957 Chevy Customs anymore... I guess most of them where found by restorers. Here is a nice black and white photo from The Larry Watson Personal Collection that shows these cars can look great with only some minimal customizing done to them. Completely stock body, lowered suspension and some nice flipper hubcaps, and then some really tasty Watson scallops... thats all you need.

 

rik, was this Larry's only shop at the time, or was it in addition to his own shop?


Sent from my iPhone using TJJ


Sent from my iPhone using TJJ

 

Also, what did Schelhaas do after this? did he move on to a new shop, or did he find another mission in life?


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Thanks again Rik for your continued updates,optically one of the best threads on the HAMB.
Cheers Mark

 

Rikster. Have you ran across any 55 or56 Ford pictures

 

As far as I know the Artesia blvd. shop which he shared with Bill was Larry's only shop in 1960. He came there after his famous 9012 Rosecrans Blvd shop.

Here is the business card he used in 1960.




I have not been able to find to much info on Ed Schelhaas. Perhaps Roger O'Dell can fill us in on him.

 

I have photos of two 55-56 Fords... but I plan on using them for an upcoming Kustoms Illustrated issue. So I can't show them here right now.

 

I think the picture of the 57 chevy was taken behind the Barris shop on Atlantic (the one that burned) Larry rented shop space from George. That also where the T-Bird was done. Roger

 

Yes I think it is... there are a couple more photos with other Customs taken at that location.

Roger do you know what happened to Ed Schelhaas after he sold his shop to Bill DeCarr?