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Larry WatsonLarry Watson Personal Collection

Larry Watson at Work part two

 

LARRY WATSON AT WORK

 

In this second part of photos of Larry Watson at Work we will share some more unique photos from Larry’s Personal Collection. These give a great insight how things where done back then. Lets take a closer look at Larry Watson at Work part two

 
[box_light]This article shows a selection of photos of Larry Watson painting and striping cars. All these photos come from the Larry Watson Personal Photo Collection. More on Larry’s personal collection can be found in the Larry Watson section on the CCC-Site. Or on the Custom Car Photo Archive.
Special thanks to Roger O’Dell for scanning this amazing material and sharing them with us on the Custom Car Chronicle.[/box_light]
 
We have selected a few more photos from Larry Watson at work, to get a better idea what went on in his Shops from the late 1950’s to the 1980’s. There are not to many photos of Larry at work saved, but those which are part of Larry’s Personal Collection are really great to look at. It is amazing to see how little protection Larry and the guys around him used. Fortunately todays products are a lot saver to use, and protection is much more available than back in the day.

Some of the photos in Larry’s Collection show how it was possible for him to create so many amazing paint jobs. He always had a team of people around him to help prep the cars. In many cases the cars were not completely stripped before they were painted, saving a lot of time. And in some of the photos we can see several project in different stages lined up in, and around the shop. Lets tell the photos, sown in no particular order tell the story.
 
CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-17Larry Watson at his paint table in the Artesia Blvd, Bellflower shop which he rented from his friend Bill Ortega.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-16This photo shows a little bit of how busy the shop was on a daily base. The Rolls was just painted in two tone blue, and was being put back together. Same goes for the wonderful candy red Porsche which was painted perhaps a day before. (shown with masking paper in a similar set up on another photos in the collection) And two cars behind it getting ready to be painted. Not visible in this photo, but shown in another picture is a van getting ready to be painted. It looks like Larry inside the shop working on the Porsche.. but we could not tell for sure.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-11Larry Watson was known for his ultimate smooth paint jobs, especially his Candy paint jobs were extremely even. One way of making sure these came out so good was a technique Larry had developed. He would make one swooping movements from the front to the back and repeated this for the whole car. He learned himself to make huge steps while keeping his body and arms level. This photo gives us a good look at this technique.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-09Larry busy striping a heavy yellow outline around the Black Pepper Flames on Pinky Richards 1957 Corvette. This photo is not staged like some of the Watson at work photos we have seen. This is Larry at work doing what he does best.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-10Another one of Larry striping Pinky Richards Corvette sows Larry balancing low to the ground making sure those lines are as perfect as they can be.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-15Larry has just finished painting the top of a T-Bird with a candy root beer base and multi colored cob-webbing. It looks like Larry is removing some tape to get a better look at the end result. That is Al Lazarus standing next to Larry.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-14Walt Drews 1961 Dodge is being prepped in Larry’s shop for a Silver with purple flames paint job. Some of the trim has been removed of Walt’s Dodge, while other parts still remain on the car and are taped off.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-13Larry still standing next to Walt’s Dodge and that is “Pork Chop” Larry best ever prep guy on the right. 
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-12Not sure what the story is behind this photo… but I guess Larry was able to o magic stuff painting straight from the spray-can as well.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-07Beautiful Polaroid photo of Larry Watson taping a set of very stylish flames on the hood of a 1963 Ford Galaxy. The sides show that Larry had just finished the pencil drawings of the flames, and now he is ready to tape them. After the flames are taped by Larry, some of the other guys jump in and mask off the rest.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-08Close up of the same photo as above showing Larry taping the hood. Notice the special pencil he used to draw the flames behind his ear.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-06Larry always loved to have photos of his work around him. Here is a photo of Larry in his office with photos of some of his painted cars and some famous people photos on the wall behind him. 
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-05Larry removing the tape from a set of scallops he painted on a race car.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-04This photo was taken in 1964 by H. Lee Hooper from Downey while the crew at Larry Watson’s shop was color sanding Larry’s “Salt and  Pepper” Metalflake painted 1961 Econoline Pick-up.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-03Larry working on a Mercedes, possibly this is one of Larry’s personal projects he worked on in his spare time at home.
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-02Larry painted Doug Carney’s 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix with this first ever lace paint job. Larry is doing some fine tune work on the paint. Can you imagine the sensation this car must have caused with his unusual but stunning paint job back then. 
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CCC-larry-watson-at-work-02-01This photo was taken of a frame on one of Larry’s Museum walls. It shows a series of photos taken by the Binks company to help promote their new two quart pressure pot outfit. Some of the photos show Amedee, Larry’s then wife modeling in the paint booth.
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If you have missed the first part of this two part article, check out part one of Larry Watson at Work Here.
And remember, don’t do it like these guys back in the day. Use a good mask and other protection every time you spray some paint.

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Rik Hoving

Rik is the CCC editor in chief. As a custom car historian he is researching custom car history for many years. In 2004 he started the Custom Car Photo Archive that has become a place of joy for many custom car enthousiasts. Here at CCC Rik will bring you inspiring articles on the history of custom cars and builders. Like a true photo detective he will show us what's going on in all those amazing photos. He will write stories about everything you want to know in the realm of customizing. In daily life Rik is a Graphic Designer. He is married to the CCC webmaster and the father of a 10 year old son (they are both very happy with his excellent cooking skills)

4 thoughts on “Larry Watson at Work part two

  • Rik, these photos truly capture that master Larry Watson performing his craft. So much to glean from these images. Your captions also open our eyes: so much going on.
    And Memo’s cautions are dead-on. More car painters of that time would come to wish they had taken better care of their lungs and more, with good masks.
    Larry Pointer

  • Larry Watson was one of the coolest guys I have ever met. It wasn’t uncommon for me to see him at shows around Orange County, such as Back to the Beach in Huntington Beach. I used to stop into Hot Rods of Norco to see what new magazines were out and one time Larry was in there stocking his Tshirts. I mentioned the poster that Steve Stanford did with all of the Watson painted cars at the Clock Drive-In and he took me out to his van and gave me one that he then signed. He asked me what I was working on and I told him about my ’50 Ford and he made sure that I was going to finish it with a shiny paint job.

    We would always see Larry at Paso and other big shows…even local events near Riverside that Penny Pichette hosted for her husband Rich. My friend Octavio and I made an appointment to visit Larry at his museum behind his house in Victorville one time and we got to spend a ton of time looking at old pictures and talking kustoms with him. He was so sharp, you could point at a picture and he could rattle off the car’s owner, which shop he painted it at, the year, and even the paint mix. He said root beer brown was the hardest color to shoot. He said the Golden Sahara was the ultimate kustom.

    Octavio and I were planning another trip up to see him when he passed away…but I’ll never forget the cool times I got to talk with him and hear just a slice of the cool stories he had. We got to meet Pork Chop at his funeral in Westminster, too…interesting guy who had a great story about Larry releasing a movie-trained tiger into Pork Chop’s paint booth one day while he was taping off a car for Larry.

    Thanks for the great picture, Rik and Roger.

  • Rik, love the picture of watson mixing paint on the early version of today’s high tech mixing tables. classic!

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