History Larry Watson's Personal Photo Collection

ok.... Some more... and I will keep this thread alive for the Custom Car and especially Larry Watson fans.


I used this photo of Jerry Cohn's 1950 Chevy Hard Top in Kustoms Illustrated #30, but had to use it pretty small. Figured its time to show it a little bigger here for everybody to enjoy. I really like this car with its great outline and scallop paint job by Larry Watson, great set of wire wheels and what look like Hydraulics on the front to get it low for the perfect California rake.
Larry painted the car in metalflake and pearl teal shades with the outlines and scallops pinstriped in white. The single long teardrop on the truck around the truck lock is just so perfect for this car. Milk anybody?





Here is a photo showing the front 3/4 of Jerry Cohn's 1950 Chevy. It shows the great outlining around the headlights, side trim, hood edges and grille. The Dummy Spotlight where also detailed with teal and white pinstriped paint.






Another photo from the Larry Watson Personal Collection showing Bill Haddad’s 1951 Chevy. This front 3/4 photo shows a bit more of the 1952 Chevy engine with all the chrome accessories, as well as the use of the 1954 Chevy grille bar in the 1951 Chevy grille surround. The white and ivory pearl with paneling fogged with candy blue look really amazing on this car. We now also can have a bit better look at the white tuck&roll interior with blue piping. There are also photos of this car with Raders wheels on the back and chrome reverse rims on the front with black centers. But I like this version the best with Chrome wheels and dog dishes hubcaps added, simple but very effective.







Here is a great birds eye view photo from the Larry Watson Personal Collection showing the Jack James 1957 Buick. Flames was what James ordered when he delivered the car to Larry Watson, and did he get Flames? Larry was still experimenting with the perfect shape for the flames when he took on this job, but I say he got them all right then. The car was freshly painted black, the hood and trunk had been shaved and a set of Buick Skylark wire wheels had been added when Larry got the car to do the flames in 1957 when the car was still brand new. Larry added the wonderfully styled flames in yellow, orange and red enamel, and covered the whole car with it, as requested by Jack.

 

Thanks Rik. Another great set of photos and commentary. I really appreciate your work here. Don't get my wrong, I will be checking out your facebook and website as well as reading it here.

 

Rik, I admire your dedication to the history of custom cars and the men who created them. Customs are what really grabbed me when I first discovered the world of old cars. Great stuff.

 

Well Rik all you have to do is look at my builds to know I am a custom car guy, I have spent countless hours on your site, it is one of my favorites, you are my hero, I wish I had a small portion of your knowledge and your photos that you have. Thank you so much for sharing them with us, I am so glad you are not a horder that just stuck it all away and never let anyone know it know it existed.

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

Holy shit. Jerry Cohn's '50 is insanely beautiful...

THANKS again for sharing these, both to you Roger, and Rik. These photos are absolutely invaluable pieces of documentation to those of us who appreciate these cars as much as any form of fine art throughout history.

 

Roger I totally agree with your post. This helps keep younger guys aware of the immense impact that Larry had on the hobby and this is what these photos will do. If just a portion of the people on this site enjoy and learn, then you have done Larry proud. Rikster, thanks for your time and effort and do it for the memory of one of the legends on the hobby that you, and us older dudes, remember.
Thanks again to Roger for providing this priceless collection.

 

I'm a performance / hot rod oriented guy, but I really dig looking at and reading the history on proper customs here. I have been subscribed to this thread and I veiw it every time I see it has been updated. I've even seen pictures on this thread of a car that I now own. I appreciate you taking time and making the effort to post and caption these pictures. I hope you continue to do so.

P.S. This thread has over 187,000 views, somebody's watchin'.

 

Rik, thanks for the new post. I don't have a custom car myself but I really enjoy ready the history you add about each car. THANKS AGAIN!

 

The cool thing about this post is that it gives you some real ideas about color. Larry Watson certainly wasn't afraid to try out some wild combinations.

 

Rik, your posts have been greatly inspiring to me. You've also personally helped me find a magazine for my collection (thanks again!) and you've rekindled my passion for Larry Watson's work.

Pictures in this very thread have motivated me to modify my own car that hasn't really changed in appearance in 10 years. Hopefully I can learn more kustom tricks and teach myself to pinstripe, and this thread will constantly pop up to show me new things that really are tried and true. Thank you for this thread, Rik. Thank you so much!


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I still love the square birds because their body lines were perfect for a Larry Watson candy scallop job.

 

This is my favourite subscribed thread, please keep it coming!

 

Rik,
PLEASE keep the pictures coming. Judging by the number of hits and the response it is worth it to us! Maybe, just maybe, it might be insperation to the rat rod builders to really finish their cars.
Thank you for sharing all your pics.
Marty
Marysville, OH

 

Rik,as for me your Larry Watson pics posted is a trip back in time with those wild combinations and vivid colors...Larry was a genius!!
It gave me great emotions to see all these great cars and the history of the man..and i go back often to check it out ...and im sure there are TONS of guys here on the Hamb that are doing the same but for one reason or another i dont have anything to post on this head..exept a WOW or a smiley expression...but its a great joy to check all this impressive thread out,like jumpin back to those years and live it in person (or almost)...

so,dont be discouraged and yes,i had to post this time to fully support you for the IMMMENSE work you're doing ..there is not enuff words to THANK YOU for all you do for the Kustom world... so,keep it up my friend..

 

[Another photo of the Jerry Preston 1959 El Camino from the Larry Watson Personal Collection. The car is now painted in a solid pearl lime green with a silver and cob webbing in several different colors. The dash is still painted the pale gold in which Larry painted the car earlier. Bill DeCarr removed the door handles, and did a number more nice and subtile body trick, including a 1960 Mercury grille.





I ran into an old friend today, Jerry Preston. I asked if he had an El Camino painted by Watson and he did, this was his. To Cool, we sat and talked for an hour about his ElCo and Watson.

 

This is another good reason to keep this thread alive. I brings older guys that have more information about the cars and may even have owned one of the cars shown. good stuff brings good rewards.

 

hey I resemble that comment Actually I know him through his son, So he would be an "older" guy, I would just be "middle aged".

 

Middle aged is like puberty, you will eventually get through it, but not without scars.

 

Thats really great!

Jerry had his Pick Up customized at Bill DeCarr.. and Larry painted the car several times... amazing story.

 

Ray Moore's 1952 Ford Victoria started out as a very micl Custom Car which included 1952 Oldsmobile taillights, shave body, reshaped 1951 Mercury fender skirts, 1953 Chevy grille surround, general clean up and lowering of the suspension and c-notching the frame was performed at Ed Schelhaas his shop. The car was painted a wonderful purple with a white top at this time.

After a while Ray Moore sold the car to Pete Angress. But for Larry the car has always stayed the Ray Moore 1952 Ford so that how I will call it hare as well. The car was further customized with extended front fenders incorporating 1955 Chevy headlights. And the once Chrome plated 1953 Chevy grille surround was now molded into the front of the car. The grille was created from an aftermarket grille bar with 1949 Ford bullets at both ends floating inside the Chevy grille opening. The rear fenders were also extended and the Oldsmobile taillights where removed and replaced with 1955 Lincoln unit. The car was repainted in a very nice purple orchid color and the top remained in white. New was also the white on the rear quarter panels. All the body work was again performed by Ed Schelhaas his shop. The interior work on the car in purple and white with some wonderful rolls and pleats was done by Pacific Custom upholstery shop in Bellflower, and was already done on after the first round of customizing in 1953-54. Larry Watson did the striping on the car and he painted the purple orchid on the C-Pillars of the Victoria, as well as on each interior knob.








Detail photo of the purple orchids and pin-stiping Larry painted on the C-Pillars of Ray Moore's 1952 Ford.






Another detail photo of Ray's Ford shows the detail painting on the dash knobs that Larry Watson did.





In 1957-58 Larry added some more paint details to Ray Moore/Pete Angress his 1952 Ford. This time the body received some scallops in silver and lavender, outlined in white. The scallops on the hood and trunk where free style, with nice round curves, similar to what Larry had done to his own Chevy. This photo was taken by James Potter and the copy that he gave to Larry has faded over the years. The photo also gives us a better look at the off white and maroon interior done by Pacific Custom.







Some time later in 1958 Larry completely redid the Ray Moore/Pete Angress 1952 once more. And this is my all time favorite version of the car. To me everything worked so fine. All the body work, the stance and above all Larrys wonderful outline paint job in bright gold and candy burgundy. The outlines on this car are a lot wider than we are used to see larry do but it really works very well on this car. It highlights the great lines of the Custom work on the front and rear fenders. This is the last photo of this car in Larry's Personal Photo Collection. I know the car was redone again after this, but there are no photos from that version in the collection. Perhaps Larry also thought this version was the best and just could not be topped by anything else.

 

Thanks Rik......Good to see you back at it.................. Centurion9

 

Thank you very much for this thread Rikster.
I literally get excited when I see you've added a Post and can't wait to see what amazing nugget of Larry's history you've decided to share with us.

 

That just looks so unbelievably fine. Thanks for posting that shot.

Rik, as long as we have you, Customs will never die on the HAMB.

 

Yes, what a terrific photo.

 

It is amazing the difference that a Larry Watson paint job could make on a car with very little body modifications. Not everyone back then could afford a chop job, or section, but a wild paint job could totally change the appearance of a car, and draw as much attention as the wild stuff.

 

HUGE lesson to be learned from his example before all the good ones get chopped....

 

Larry did his 1961 Ford Econoline in 1964-65. Here is a nice snapshot showing the front of the car.
Larry had his friend Bill DeCarr do the body work for him, which included the modified grille opening with the square tubular chrome plated grille, dual headlights based around the stock headlight opening but now with dual headlights on a black plexiglass base. And a general clean up of the body, Bill also installed the dummy spotlights. Larry painted the car with an experimental metal flake paint. He combined black and silver flakes in one and created his first "salt & pepper" flake paint job. The inserts around the windows were taped off and Larry painted those in a nice silver with large flakes, but not as large as what he used in the main body (This is hard to see in this photo). This photo also shows a bit of the Joe Perez created rainbow metalflake vinyl upholstered interior panels and seats. The main upholstery was done in black frieze, and the colored panels where outlined with silver metalflake vinyl piping.









Here is a rear view of Larry Watson's 1961 Ford Econoline which he named "Wine-O". Bill DeCarr created a smooth back end for the truck. He removed the original bumper and replaced it with Ford Thames rear bumpers. Those split bumpers looked really great especially with the license plate in the cleaned up surround in the center. The pick up tail-gate was filled-in and completely smoothed to match the rest of the body. the taillights were replaced with units taken from a 1963 Corvair. In this photo we can see the silver band around the windows.








This high point of view front 3/4 snapshot gives us a nice view of the rainbow Joe Perez interior in Larry's 1961 Econoline pick-up. The colorful seats reflect nicely in the interior door panels, which are either polished aluminum or chrome plated. This high point of view also shows the custom made tonneau cover which Joe covered in black and silver metalflake vinyl. The silver had small pleats running from front to rear, but that is a bit hard to see in this photo. The small diameter (13 inch) wire wheels were Corvair accessory units with custom knock-offs dressed up with small chrome bullets. They were mounted on thin line white wall tires.









ions on the B=pillars the main body color. This photo also gives us a better look at the long pleats Joe Perez added to the pick-up bed tonneau cover. This optically extents the car, but above all looks really great. The factory stock British Ford Thames split bumpers ad a really great touch to this little pick up truck. This photo also shows another nice details like the matching bullets that were used on the Corvair accessory wire wheels as well as on the steering wheel center.







Interior photo of Larry's 1961 Econoline "Wine-O". The model in this photo is Donna Allen. Donna worked a lot for Larry in the mid 1960's. Helping out at the shows, promoting and doing photo shoots like we can see here. Larry told the story that not everybody was to happy with Donna at the car shows. Many girlfriends and wives had a hard time getting their boyfriends and husbands away from the Watson booth with Donna helping out with her special Watson outfits. But I bet that Donna also helped get in new business for Larry at these shows!
Anyhow… this photo also shows the nice work Joe Perez did on the interior. The thin rainbow pleats were horizontal on the seats which was according the interior design sketches Larry had made. The silver metalflake piping and black frieze can also be seen in this photo. The chrome and polished details on the interior work nice with the metalflake painted panels. I sure do hope this car still excites today… In Larry's book he mentioned that the car was still in perfect condition in 1970. But what happened with it after that?







Larry's wife Amedee Watson-Chabot poses on the pick up bed of Larry's 1961 Ford Econoline at the 1965 Tridents Car Show in Long Beach California. On the floor we can see the "Wine-O" sign Larry made for the car and of course Angle Hair… very popular at the time. Larry Watson was the main attraction at this Car Show and had over 40 cars on display on the main floor. 40 cars that Larry had painted, and all were spectacular. This much have been such a great sight with all those wonderful colors and special paint effects all parked together. And it must have been like heaven for Larry a milestone in his career.

 

thanks rik, great pictures. did larry have an in with the paint companies for new products, or was everything just larry's own trial and error? almost seems hard to believe that one person could continually come up with that many new style, material and design ideas. shows what a paint genius he really was. please keep the pictures coming. thanks.

 

Thanks for posting Rik, I have only ever seen a dark indoor show picture of the Wine-O, the whole combination just slays when in the sun!