History The Death Of Harry Westergard

He created a blueprint for customs that still echos through to today. Prior to him its was more of a "Coach built" thing if you wanted something other then a production car. Harry Westergard put Custom cars into the reach of the everyday person.
I think the article (What I can read of it) treats this accident as just more sensationalism against "Hot Rodders" then anything else.
Of course the temptation to wonder what his later builds would have looked like is always going to be there. I'm just glad that he is still remembered.
Torchie

 

For all the details in the article, I'm surprised they didn't identify the sports car.
Westergard was absolutely an artist. Such a tragic end for such a great guy. I think he is the reason I became so fond of 1936 Fords.

 

Freeport blvd runs next to an airport which dates back to the 1930’s, most likely a good place to crank it up at 2:30 am. If I remember correctly he was in a Thunderbird.
Have to agree his customs were very clean in style.

 

Simple and elegant, he embodies the art deco age. I put him in the same category of Buckminster Fuller only Harrys vision was more refined and focused.

 

Now I'm curious as to what "sports car" he was driving? A raw talent gone way too soon.

 

55 Tbird, according to other accounts.

 

He did build some of the nicest customs during his day, but my all time favorite build he did is a hot rod, the 1923 roadster he built for Rico Squglia (not sure of the spelling of his last name), but I have the images saved on my computer.

Funny think is he wasn't known as a hot rod builder but he sure knew how to build a beauty, it was on the cover of hot rod magazine in the earl 50's. which is evident when it won Americas Most Beautiful Roadster in 1951. HRP

 

From Kustomrama encyclo:

The Crash
In 1955 Harry bought himself a brand new 1955 Ford Thunderbird. After loosing a street race against two cops in a brand new Buick, he decided to hop the car up, so he ordered an Iskendarian cam from Bertolucci's Body and Paint Shop. Harry loved to race, and one late Sunday night April 29, 1956 he raced along the River Road, heading back home to Sacramento from Walnut Grove. A guy pulled out in front of Harry, Harry was going at least 100 miles an hour when he tried to swerve to miss the car. He hit a three at full speed, and died in the crash. The car came off in two parts, split on the middle.

At the time he died, Harry had been divorced from his wife, and he was really broken up. He quit doing metalwork and started to work for a muffler shop instead. When Dick Bertolucci heard this he went straight over to Harry and told him that he was wasting his talent. Dick offered Harry twice as much as he was earning in the muffler shop if he would begin working for Dick instead. Harry accepted, and when he died he had been working for Dick Bertolucci at Bertolucci's Body and Paint Shop for 6 months.

Harry was buried at the City Cemetery in Sacramento. Thousands of cars attended Harry's funeral. In an interview with Garage Magazine, Dick Bertolucci told that the day after Harry died, he called Iskendarian to cancel that cam order for Harry's Thunderbird.


Still a sad, sad, ending.

 

Dang…

 

Dang and only 40 years old. I have to agree with Torchie and Ryan in that Harry Westergard's work was a coach built style of improvements rather than chasing points at car shows as we saw way too much horrid work done in later years in the name of getting show points for modifications.
A lot of guys today could do well to study his work and see that having every mod blend into the total package is far nicer than adding something that overpowers the rest of the car or just flat doesn't blend in with the build.

 

bet that his exhaust work was a thing of beauty

 

The few photos I have seen of Westergard, and I can't recall if they were from the Bertolucci article in Rod and Custom or one of Tex Smiths' Roaring Roadster books, he was always smiling and well dressed, favored Jack Benny somewhat. I wonder if that fatal T- bird had any leadwork, any subtle mods like Doane's car? I agree, he emphasized the fluidity of a car, rather than modifying for the sake of it. And, as someone else said, just 40 when he died, to think how many more customs he still had in him....

 

thanks Ryan....you are a gem sir....

 

To be sure Harry was the step from "Coach Built" to what we now know as Custom cars.
The guys that worked with him, Bertolucci and a young George Barris, weren't points chaser when they started out. Their early cars were as clean and flowing as could be. By the mid 50's that would change.
The life span of any art form( In its purest state) is relatively short before it becomes corrupted. Mainly by people trying to out do each other by putting a Mustache on the Moan Lisa..
And I agree with you Ryan. When he passed, I don't believe his name was that well known outside of custom circles and mostly in California I suspect.
How many of his builds actually got national coverage in the Car mags of the time?
Torchie

 

Westergard was a trendsetter. His creations were truly well thought out. His and Bertolucci customs pulled me into the custom arena..

 

Westergard is also one of my, if not the, favorite customizer as well. I think it is the "less is more" aspect that works so well. Especially as noted compared to the modify everything philosophy.

 

Clean, seemingly simple (compared to later show customs) well proportioned cars.
Still influencing decades later

 

That era set the bar for customs, and Westergard was the leader. Others followed his style, some with more success than others. When customs became circus wagons with changes just for making points, real customs like Westergard envisioned died off. Sad he died so young, I think his influence might have kept a lots of cars from turning into the messes we saw come out of the late 50's and 60's.

 

There is a Reason why the "Westergard" style will Never go away. Those that Get It will understand, Subtle and Smooth

 

Yes - it was the T-Bird and it was said it had a 2x4 set up - could that be possible ?

 

I never met Harry But I have always admired his work. The work Harry had to do to create some of his kustoms is breathless. Harry you will be missed.

 

Should be an Interesting article (if I could read it). Anyone who computers well know how to "blow up" these newspaper articles? I will admit he only influenced me a tiny bit....

 

He's the cornerstone for me.

 

A custom icon, gone too soon!

 

A true artist who knew proportions and subtle changes to enhance what was already there.

 

The Westergard look in my 37 Ford . The body shop copied Westergard Packard grille when they chopped the top in 1948 .