Harold Olsen 1948 Chevy
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January 5, 2019 at 19:27 #62398Rik HovingKeymaster
Bob Dron recently acquired the late Harold Olsen chopped and hard-topped 1948 Chevy that made a huge impact in the 1980’s and 90’s… and still does.
Allen Finley has access to the original Builder Henry’s Auto Body (Butch Hurley) old photo albums and has shared some of the pictures from that album. Really great stuff, since this car made a big impact on me, and it is so great to see some more never before seen photos of it.
(I will be adding more photos and info later)
An early sketch of the Chevy done by Rod Powell.
More final lines done by Rod Powell.
From Allen Finley…
“This is the Olsen Chevy when it showed up at Henry’s Auto Body ( Butch used his real name) unfortunately Butch didn’t take a lot of pictures of his work. Guess too busy working. Here’s what I have.”
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
January 5, 2019 at 19:28 #62399Rik HovingKeymasterEnjoy the beauty of Customizing
January 5, 2019 at 19:29 #62400Rik HovingKeymasterThis is how she looks today.
Bob Dron photos..
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
January 6, 2019 at 01:15 #62401TorchieParticipantCool!
I can’t say that I’ve ever seen this one before.
Keep the pics coming please.
Torchie
January 6, 2019 at 16:28 #62402Larry PointerParticipantJust woderning: Is Harold Olsen’s glass eyeball still in the steering wheel center? From all I gathered, Harold was larger than life, and he lived it to the fullest. A real personality among the Monterey area car guys. He’d be pleased that his car still is admired.
January 6, 2019 at 18:28 #62403Dave TartagliaParticipantI saw the car and met Harold at a KKOA Sled Scene East meet one year. Yes, Harold was a character and a nice guy.
Several years later, the car went to Northeast Pennsylvania and was repainted that rich dark green. I saw it at an outdoor car show and immediately recognized the car. The new owner’s wife was sitting in a lawn chair by the car; her husband had wandered off. When I casually remarked that the original builder’s glass eyeball was in the steering wheel, she looked genuinely horrified!
January 6, 2019 at 19:49 #62404Mild MitchParticipantI met Harold at a KKOA meet in Madera, California, In the swimming pool right after we had arrived to the hotel.
He was FLOATING. It was hotter than hell that weekend. Typical California valley heat. My flip flops actually melted to the bare floor in my unfinished La Salle. Anyway, there was this HUGE guy floating in the pool when we went out to cool off. No one else around. Harold was big in every way. My first impression was a loud, obnoxious, Gold Chained Whale. He had more gold on than some flamboyant rock star. Multiple big rings, multiple gold pendants. This was shortly after the Chevy was finished. He told us all about his car. I was disappointed it wasn’t there but back somewhere in the Midwest being painted black over the “Tequila Sunrise” original color that had gone bad in spots. After a while my initial impression faded into really liking this guy. We latter met up in the parking lot and he was looking at my ’39 La Salle and was quite complimentary. He managed to (unintentionally) scratch the paint even when he opened the trunk lid!
Unfortunately he passed away several years later. I’m happy we were able to meet though. On a side note, Butch Hurley “retired” up to Northern California where I live, but I haven’t seen him in a number of years. I don’t know if he is still around…
Mild Mitch
January 7, 2019 at 14:38 #62410Rik HovingKeymasterGreat story Mitch… thanks for sharing it.
Here is a picture of the eye in the steering wheel of the original version with the orange laminated knobs.
And two more after the car was painted green and green laminated knobs were added. This is how the car was advertised on ebay in May 2017.
I came across one more old pre-chop photo. Photo from the Bill Usedom Collection.
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
January 7, 2019 at 14:40 #62411Rik HovingKeymasterEnjoy the beauty of Customizing
January 7, 2019 at 14:59 #62412Rik HovingKeymasterA few more of the later black (with pearl?) painted version.
With flames and new color added (photos by Chip Chipman)
And as the last green version (Tom VanNortwick photos)
Enjoy the beauty of Customizing
January 31, 2019 at 01:13 #62664Renaud Zed LegardezParticipanti loooove that chevy ! was the car all repainted when Harold was still alive ?
January 31, 2019 at 19:05 #62669Mild MitchParticipantYes, it was. Harold told me that shortly after the Chevy was finished, the paint went bad on the Deck lid (if I remember correctly). It was originally the orange kind of fade paint job. He called it “California Sunset”, “Tequila Sunrise” or something like that. Then went black over that paint. Kind of a translucent finish. This is why the orange and white interior is in the early photos. Someone painted the car green later.
Well, these are the facts as I remember anyway! LOL
Mitch
January 31, 2019 at 19:39 #62670Renaud Zed LegardezParticipantthanks Mitch 😉
April 9, 2019 at 14:47 #63593Ted MunsellParticipantHello all
My name is Ted Munsell and I own a hot rod shop called Trick Works LLC. We have been the caretaker of Harolds 48 Chevy for the last 18-20 years. We have performed all the mechanical update and repairs to keep it on the road and we also did the last paint job, candy green with the flames. Another of the past owners Rhys Hallet who purchased the car and brought it out to the east coast recently told me about this site so I thought I would introduce myself. I have a bunch of pictures of the car during the paint process which I will post.
I have had a love affair with this car from the first time I saw it. I have a customer Rick that I had built a 1936 Chevy for, he sold it and was looking for another car, something different he said. I was at the NSRA show in York PA when I stumbled across the 48 and it was for sale. I tracked Rick down at the show and told him I found a car that I thought he should look at, we wondered over to where it was and I was talking the car up the whole way, once we approached the 48 he said this was the car I was just looking at. Rick was able to purchase the car from Rhys and that’s when we became the caretakers. I was sad to see the car, so many good times with it that I will never forget.
When Rick came to me saying that he had someone interested in the car I was hesitant, again thought I didn’t own the car I wasn’t about to let it go to just anybody. Then Rick told me how Bob had tracked him down, knew all about the cars history, I though maybe he was good to be the new owner. I did a quick goggle search on Bob just to make sure, sure enough, he was okay by me (as if I had a say).
Thanks
Ted
April 9, 2019 at 15:50 #63594Ted MunsellParticipantHopefully I wont overload you all with these pictures I tried to go through and just highlight the process.
The eggplant and root beer paint was starting to show its age and Rick and his wife Rene wanted to freshen the car up. The color choice was a tough one, I didn’t want the color of car to fall into the whatever was current, the car is so timeless that it needed a color that was going to be the same.
So after a lot of spray out panels we stumble onto a crazy combination of colors that I think turned out awesome. The base color is Prowler Purple, the flames are a 50/50 mix of metallic black and charcoal, the tips are highlighted in the black, then the whole car is covered in 5 coats of Indy green candy. The car has some many hues depending on the light, in bright sun the green jumps alive with the flames just dancing out, in the dusk it get dark green, under the lights in a parking lot you can see a hint of the purple on all the highlight lines. My goal was to continue the legacy of the car and not ruin the looks.
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