History Larry Watson's Personal Photo Collection

I always thought it was Larry that was driving... looks like Larry to me in these photos.. I guess it is. But now I noticed the Checkered shirt on the driver in the other photo I posted... that must have been Gary... Thanks for clearing that up Roger.






This must be Gary the driver that was first helping Larry to back out the car from the drive way.

 

Two different heads...two different shirts.....I know it wasn't me... Centurion9

 

The Eldorado Brougham was $13,000 new, the equivalent of $100,000 in today's money.

 

My favortie thread.............EVER!

 

Larry Watson's 1959 Cadillac parked in front of his Rosecrans Blvd Bellflower shop with the Peanut House bar in the background. Also in the background is Larry's 1953 Chevy four door work car. This car shows up in several of the photos taken at this shop. Larry's outline paint-job in candy burgundy over a brilliant white pear makes his Cadillac looks so much longer and lower than all the others '59 Caddy's. The addition of the Bellflower tip's the lowering and the paint detailed Dodge Lancer hubcaps and the shaving of some trim make this car look like it came from outer space. And all this was done in 1959 when the car was still brand new.
Can you imagine what it did when Larry drove this car on the streets or showed it at in and outdoor event.

 

That 59 is such a beautiful car. I can not believe no one has ever cloned it. If I had a 59 caddy, I sure would. Oh wait, I already did....sorta. LOL Too bad you can't drive a desk though. LOL


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Here is an snapshot of the early version of Larry Watson's personal 1962 Cadillac. At this point Larry had the car lowered with a nice slightly lower in the front California rake. Installed the Buick wire wheels which he had used on a few of his other Caddilac projects on a set of triple narrow white wall tires. And a set of Dummy spotlights. This photo shows that Larry already had blacked out the center thin white wall line for a custom look. Larry Had Keith Christensen from the muffler shop across the street install a set of 22-inch glass packs and had him create some custom exhaust tips.

This photo was taken when the car was still solid black, had its door handles and taillights in the rear fender fins. Next stop would be Bill DeCarr's shop…

 

One of my favorite cars and I have never seen this picture. Thank you for continuing to post these photos. This car along with the 59 has inspired my cadillac project.

 

Bringing this over from Rikster's Archives, for those who haven't seen the finished version.

This was once reported as the first "Black Pearl" paint job.

 

that´s a really fantastic car, indeed !!

 

Another snapshot of Larry's personal 1962 Cadillac. This photo shows the car after Bill DeCarr had worked his magic on the car by removing the door handles and emblems, filled in the antenna hole and reshaped the fins at the back where the fin taillights were removed. He body worked the rest of the body for an ultimate smooth base. This smooth body was covered by watt is reported the first ever Black Platinum Pearl paint job. Larry's did not mention this version of the Caddy in his book "Custom Car Confessions", the photo shows the car painted in the Platinum Pearl and with single thin line white wall tires mounted on Caddy wire wheels.
We know that later after Larry decided to sell the car he put chrome reverse wheels on the car and had painted the bottom of the car solid black.

 

A rather faded and deteriorated photo of Al Lazarus his 1955 Chevy. This possibly is a print that James Potter gave to Larry Watson and perhaps hung on Larry's shop wall for many years. I think the photo is part of a photo shoot James had with some of Larry's painted customs. It could also be a snapshot somebody took while they were watching James at work. We know Al took quite a few photos himself as well.
This photos shows the really fantastic Seaweed flames Larry applied to his friend Al's 1955 Chevy.

Theres are some nice photos of Larry working on Al's Chevy showing him first draw the flames on one side, then copying them to the other side and continuing taping them with the wide masking tape they had in the late 1950's. Larry painted the car in Olive mist green metallic tipped in silver and pinstriped in imitation gold. Al's Chevy was nosed and decked and had the door handles removed. The frame was modified at the back for axle clearance and the suspension was not only lowered but heavily chrome plated as well. The grill on Al's Chevy looks custom but is actually a stock 1955 Chevy grille with most of the vertical bars removed. Al used color detailed 1956 Dodge lancer hubcaps mounted on medium size white wall tires.

 

I would like the see those photos if you feel it's all right to post them here.

 

Larry told me that him and "Jeff" (Dean Jeffries, rip) both had bought '59 Cadillacs around the same time. Both were slammed and custom painted. He said it pissed off alot of people to see these very young guys cruising around in very expensive brand-new cars, haha.

Rik, do you have any pics of Jeffries '59?

 

That caddy is perfect!

 

Bump.....

 

Anyone know what happened to this Bird? I really like the body mods on it.

Great job Rik! Every time I'm at work at the ocean, I wander into the Watson world and look at the picks and read everything you write about the cars! It sure interesting! Thanks alot!

 

Thank you Rikster for keeping this thread going. Every time I see it "at the top" I get so excited to see what treasure you've posted!

 

I hope these pictures are OK to post here.

Today at the flea market I saw this Motor Trend magazine sitting on top of a box of magazines, and it was screaming my name.



According to the caption, that is Larry with the spray gun in the upper left picture:



I like the "color" pictures, take a B/W picture and add color to certain areas.



One of the best $1.00 I ever spent.

Marty
Marysville, OH

 

Wow, thanks for the education, I had heard of Larry Watson before, but never knew how prolific him and his work was, I have always liked mild customs, and his work just makes them even cooler, I really appreciate the hard work you have put into this thread, and even if you are the only person keeping customs alive, then they are not dead, and your work is not for naught, I am looking forward to the next installment, keep up the great work, Murch!

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Thank you Rik i just spent three hours having an eyegasm Great stuff.

 

Hope we'll see some more Watson stuff, sooner rather than later..

*wink wink, nudge nudge*

 

Fantastic thread. It's a pity that so many pics are gone...

 

I hope Rikster will come back to this thread and give us some more pics to drool over

 

The red X photos in this thread should come back up in a week or two.
The Custom Car Photo Archive is hosted on Fotki. And their servers are being transported from the US to Estonia. So the photos are actually on the boat right now, and should come back up as soon as the servers are connected in their new office... Not happy about it, but nothing I can do.

I have started a new online magazine and have begun to share the Larry Watson Collection in a series of articles. Some are up already, many more will follow.

You can check them out on the Custom Car Chronicle.

 

awesome Rik, always appreciate your contributions.

 

Thanks! Great news!

 

I'm hoping for a new Book from Rik, something along the lines of this thread..... Centurion9

 

Wow...just spent three evenings going though all these pictures... this is an amazing thread, so much knowledge, so much talent, this is great , thanks for posting! what an amazing collection, and so much inspiration...

 

love em all