Art & Inspiration Remembering Earl Scheib

Dang….You stole my thunder @earl schieb. Now I got think of another funny…..this may take a while

 

When I was in Galileo High School, San Francisco, 1957-1958 a classmate, John Brunner had his 4 door shoebox Ford painted by Earl Schieb. It was a hideous green color, but it was shiny.

 

I do recall the commercials with “I’ll paint any car…”. But I don’t know if there was one near me. What I do recall was he and Cal Worthington sure could have been brothers, Cal had car dealerships in Sacramento as I recall, would wear a cowboy hat and ride a bull, etc during his sales pitch.

 

Cal Worthington had his dog Spot or some similar name but it was every animal but a dog back in the 70s Southern California time.

 

my uncle had a corvette painted at Scheibs in Astoria , Queens...NY on Steinway st ...yes the deal was prep it yourself and tip the guys before the start so they would mask it up better...

 

Cal Worthington and his dog Spot were in Tacoma, WA in '83-'84. Never a dog...

 

Dang, had forgot about Spot

 

i had my henry j gasser painted there in 2001. it was stripped of everything and primed. it has held up quite well and it has never been garaged. the paint was acrylic enamel. i am sure earl was different everywhere. after all it wasn't the same painter at all his shops.

 

Mmmmmmm....Centari!

 

There was one in Freeport on Sunrise and another in Patchogue. One guy I worked with had his cars painted there. He did good body work, so the paint was a cinch. He had his '49 Ford there done in a light green, and an OT Nova in a custom factory color for $25 more. His trick was to find the painter when he dropped off the car and slip him a $10 bill.

 

"we're puttin' the brushes to it now!"

 

My dad had a '59 Chevy Parkwood wagon that was done by the Earl of Schieb possibly as far as 1967. It was their standard dark blue and had a little brush can of touch up paint in the glove box. I think they had 5 or 6 standard base colors besides black and white. I had a customer with a '64 Rambler that was the dark green, it came out pretty good and held up well.

 

This has been a great thread, please keep the stories coming!

 

i had a 55 nomad painted gloss black buy earl Schieb in 1968 price was 49.99 i did the prep, went to pickup car they charged me $5 extra because it was a wagon i bitched a little but was pleased with the job

 

Whew!
Thought that I had missed the funeral. Been in Montana and haven’t checked in on here.
Carry on, Mike.

 

There was an Earl Scheib near Hamilton, OH that was known to turn out some nice paint jobs, especially if you tipped the painter. There was a local OT 69 Camaro with a 427 painted there, maroon metallic and it was one of the best paint jobs I’ve ever seen. Owner prepped the car for them, saw the car over several years and always looked great.

 

Earl S. Reference on a live version of Grown’ Up

“.I got the word, I gotta go see God tonight´, he says ´Well, you can´t go in that car…..´So what do you mean I can't go in this, it's the only car I got´, he says ´That thing is, thing´s ugly as hell, it's like, you think He's gonna see you in that car?….there's gonna be guys up there with Monte Carlos, Lincolns, Continentals, you think He's gonna notice you?´….I said ´Ok, ok´ so I went down to Earl Scheib….at the time it was 39.95, I went by the other day, I seen that Earl since upped it ten bucks (chuckles) but anyway, he does the car, midnight blue, I leave the windows down, he does the interior for free….if I had my brother in the back seat, he had done him free of charge too”

 

Winter of 1968- I was working nights and weekends at a Car Wash just off the Pa. Turnpike in Somerset Pa. Guy pulled in with a bright red 1959 Chevy vert. We used hi pressure nozzles to pre-wash the cars before they entered the booth. Well, my partner "Smokie" proceeded to blow the salt and paint off the right side fender with the hose. The Owner was screaming, the Wash Owner, Mike, was in shock, and Smokie was just waiting to be fired! Yep, Earl paint job done in Pittsburgh. Later found out that Comet and Ajax cleansers were used to prep before the paint was shot.

 

After hearing no less than 1,000 commercials on the radio “I’ll paint any car any color for $19.95”, I decided to get my Chevy van painted. I used it to haul my dirt bike around and the light green color that most Chevy trucks were painted in the 60’s was very faded.
I went to the Earl Scheib a few blocks away from where I worked. A guy comes out to look at my van with a clip board, he walks around it and says, “what color red or blue?”. I said “neither, I want it green!” He says” oh you want a deluxe color, the closest I have is Jolley Green, that will add $9.95” I said “Okay”. So now we are at almost $30. He then says, “do you want the roof painted?” I said, “of course I want the roof painted!”. He said, “that will add $ 9.95 because it’s a van”. So now we are at almost $40. He says, “needs $20 for body work.” I said “Okay, I’ll have to come back next week after payday now that it is over $60”. He laughed and said “don’t believe those stupid commercials about $19.95 unless you have a normal car and can live with no body work and blue or red”
The guy then gave me a tour, It looked like the building was a converted automatic car wash building. They just rolled cars through one after the other. At the end, was a room with a bazillion 60-watt light bulbs. He said “this is where we dry the paint, each car gets 10 minutes in here.”
I have had more enjoyment telling this story over the years then I ever did from the paint job…..

 

Cool story. Imagine getting a paint now for $60!

ironandsteele.com​

 

I took a silver third gen Camaro in and it came back battleship grey. They where way ahead of their time.