Watsons Saint Vasquez 50 Chevy

 

SAINT VASQUEZ 50 CHEVY

 

Larry Watson designed and painted Saint Vasquez his 1950 Chevy with one of the most outstanding and trend setting scallop paint job.



[box_light]This article shows a selection of photos of Saint (Santo) Vasques’s 1950 Chevy convertible. Most of 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]


The 1950 Chevrolet convertible of Saint Vasquez was restyled over a period of time. The first round, with most of the customizing was done around 1956 by Ed Schelhaas at his shop on Artesia Blvd in Bellflower, the shop which was later taken over by Bill DeCarr and where Larry Watson would have his shop for some time as well.

The windshield of the convertible was chopped, according the period magazines 4.5 inch, and the glass was replaced with a one piece Oldsmobile unit. The grille shell of an 1953 Chevy was molded in at the front, the hood was extended down and the grille lip molded to the hood. The front fenders where reshaped to make a set of 1955 Cadillac headlight fit. The work involved hooding the headlights and adding a peak on the side of the fender flowing from the hooded section. The front splash-pan was molded to the front to create a smooth solid front unit. A 1955 DeSoto grille was narrowed to fit the ’53 Chevy grille opening. The front bumper was smoothed and flipped upside down.



Photo from the Car Craft magazine photo-shoot shows how wonderful and clean Saint’s Chevy is in it early version. The George Newton Titian Red looks stunning.
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At the rear Ed Schelhaas considerably reshaped the Chevy fenders to accept 1956 Packard taillights, and a 1956 Chevy bumper was used to tie it all together. The bumper ends on the 1956 Chevy unit were modified to have the exhaust tips exit thru them. At the front of the rear fenders a scoop was created in which four small chrome plated teeth were fitted. All trim and handles were shaved and the body prepped for paint. The car was lowered to the max with modified A-arms and a c-ed frame in the rear. The car was lowered so much that the drive shaft tunnel had to be raised to clear the drive shaft. Once all the work was done George Newton, Ed Schelhaas his painted added the Titian Red Nitro Lacquer.




Another photo from the Car Craft photo shoot shows the car with the padded top in place. Photographed in late 1956, early 1957 the Customs in that time still had real Appleton Spotlights.
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Close up from the front shows the Ed Schelhaas created hooded front fenders to adapt the 1955 Cadillac headlgiths, the molded-in 1953 Chevy grille shell, and the detailed with paint and “gold” plated four bar spinner Dodge hubcaps. Also notice the white or light color painted inner fenders.
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The interior of the car was done in red and cream pleats and rolls using DuPont leatherette according the 1957 Car Craft magazine. The trunk was done in a similar way using the same red material and cream for the piping. The padded top was really unique since it used a 1953 Chevy Bel Air wrap around rear window. Saint then took the freshly finished Chevy to Larry Watson who was still striping out of the drive way of his parents house. Larry Watson finished this first version of the car by added striping in imitation gold.




A bit fuzzy photo shows the interior of the Chevy with detailed floor mats.
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Winning a trophy at one of the high school outdoor car shows.
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This photo taken at one of the many outdoor shows shows how the padded top was lifted to show off the nice interior and headliner, but also shows that the 1953 Chevy rear window stayed on the body when the top was lifted.
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Sadly the photo taken at the outdoor show above was taken from a great distance, and we are not able to get all the writing on the show car as clear as we would like it to be. This enlarged section of the photo is the best we could do.
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It looks like Saint Vasquez is doing some fine tuning on his Chevy before the crowds are allowed at this outdoor show. The photo shows the completely gold plated engine bay. This photo also shows how the grille surround top section was added to the bottom of the hood.
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Another look at the fully detailed engine bay in the Chevy. Gold paint chrome and red wires/tubes everywhere.
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More Scallops added

Somewhere in 1957/58 the Chevy was taken to Larry Watson again. And this time to have some nice scallop added to the body. We only have been able to find one black and white photo showing the front of the car, so we have no idea what was done to the sides and rear of the car. From the later color photos when these new scallop were covered again with others we can tell that this set of scallops was also done in gold.

This is the only photo we found of this version of the Chevy. It appears that the only changed were done using paint, with a set of well designed scallops done by Larry Watson. Gold scallops outlined in  white. I guess that is Diane Guidry on the back seat. 
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This black and white photo of the interior of the Chevy shows that the Chevy was name “Adonis” as can be seen on the etched plaque on the glove box. This photo also shows how well detailed the interior was up to the flower? painted shifter and Appleton spot handles.
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And even more Scallops

When Larry was in his 1016 E Artesia shop in North Long Beach Saint took the Chevy in for another update. This time it would be a very special update. It was late 1957, perhaps early 1958 by now. Larry wanted to try something new, a body covered nearly completely in scallops. The Titian red on the main body would remain the same, but Larry had to work around the scallops on the front he had added to the car earlier. I can imagine that it must have taken Larry quite some time to figure out how to get these old and new scallops to work together the best possible way. Fortunately Larry Watson had a few photos taken while he and his buddies were taping the Chevy for this amazing Scallop paint job so we can enjoy all the hard work Larry and his team did back in 1957-58.



Photo taken at Larry’s E Artesia Shop in North Long Beach we can see Larry on the far left doing the actual outlining and designing, and his two “helpers” taping up the sections in between. The airbrushed shirt of Gary Mc Nutt is classic, especially for 1957.
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Close up shows the wide tape Larry is using to tape off the gold painted grille shell from the previous version. Notice the glitter detailed hubcap centers. If you look close, you can see the hood scallops from the earlier version sitting inside the masked scallop on the hood side.
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Another photo taken high above the head of the photographer as we can see in the long shadows shows how the car was parked in the parking lot. Unsure is if the whole taping was done here, or if the car was pushed out for the photos.
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This enlarged section shows the old and new scallops on the hood even better.
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At the rear we can see more of the amazing wild scallops. This must have been so much work to outline and tape.
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Another view from the front 3/4 shows how the scallops flow with the body. The DeSoto grille was unbolted and placed in front of the bumper. Most likely they did not want to remove the wiring for the parking lights.
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Old scallops and new additions. Quite interacted to combine the two and still come up with such a nice flowing design. Can you imagin what kind of impact this paint job must have had when it was finished.
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After the scallops where painted in gold Larry outlined them in a bold whiteoutline. Another good look at the glitter detailed hubcaps. This was before Metalflake paint was invented, or at least on the market, but glitters were already available. They were added to the hubcaps using spray glue. Notice the hand striped sweatshirt Larry is wearing.
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Another photo taken at the 1016 E Artesia Shop North Long Beach shows the finished scallop paint job on the Chevy with the top removed. Duane Steck’s Moonglow is parked behind it.
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The finished car at the Renegades Motorama at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium. Shown with the doors, hood, trunk and top opened to show how well detailed this car was, and of course to gain as many show points to win more awards.
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A closer look at the same location, and now in color. The wild scallops look stunning and even though the surrounding cars at the show also had scallops, flames or panels, nothing was anything like what Larry had done on Saint Vasquez his 1950 Chevy. Notice how the engine compartment was detailed with red lights.
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This photo of the Chevy shows the car at the Oakland Roadster show. Sitting next to it is fellow renegades member Duane Steck’s 2953 Chevy the Moonglow. This photo shows the well detailed trunk. 
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This photo show the car with around 1960. The car was now repainted and they added side trim on the rear quarters leading up and down towards the rear fender scoop. The photo shows that the rear fenders had some scallops added, possibly in silver, or very light gold, with white striping. The same color was used inside the side trim. It also looks like they, oddly, went back to the stock no lip fender skirts.
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Saint Vasques’s Chevy in the last version at the 1960 Long Beach Renegades 3rd Annual Rod & Custom Motorama. (Thanks to Ross Ruiz for the info.)
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Saint Vasquez his 1950 Chevy Convertible won a lot of awards in the late 1950’s, and was featured in many magazines because of his outstanding, unique and trend setting scallop paint job. Sadly we have no idea what ever happened to the Chevy, if it is still around today, or long perhaps long gone like so many of the Custom Cars created in those days. Fortunately for Larry Watson’s urge to hang on to these photos we can now still enjoy these cars.

In January 2018 Ross Ruiz talked to the Vasques family and they mentioned this about what happened to the Chevy….. to be continued…

“Saint Vasques got married in 1958 had 2 children and after his second kid was born he needed money to raise his kids so he auctioned his custom off. His Chevy was auctioned off at the 1960 or 61 Renegades Motorama for 1 dollar raffle tickets, his son said in total they raised close to 10,000 dollars and the Chevy was won by a sailor and never was seen again.”




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