New York Hot Rod Show 1970
(first posted 3/20/2014) Fashion goes in and out of style. Style is always in fashion.
Or so it is said. When these photos were taken in 1969-70, a custom paint job could be a monumental undertaking, such as on this ‘61-’62 Corvette. It’s got a lot of idioms going on. You got your basic fades; your honeycomb around the Corvette emblem; your panel paint; your air brush spiders; and your thinline tracery.
New York Hot Rod Show 1970
We also have a lot of orange peel which would indicate that the paint system used was enamel or acrylic enamel. You can color-sand lacquer, but not enamel. Why shoot something like this in enamel? Don’t know.
But back to custom painting. One of the patristic fathers of custom painting was Larry Watson (21 Jul 1938 – 20 Jul 2010) in LA who began his work when only 16. He is credited with creating fades; panel paint; scallops; seaweed flames; lace; veils (aka fogs); and cob webbing. We will see some of the concepts that he inspired in the coming photos. For more, just Google Image it.
Chicago Hot Rod Show 1969
We’ve got three Watson elements in this Model T custom – lace; shadow; and panels. We’ll get a better look at the lace later on.
Chicago Hot Rod Show 1969
This 1940 Ford has a lot of shit going on. It’s channeled and sectioned, both very laborious effects, plus a very complex flame job.
Not only is the pearl underlay flamed and shadowed, but the flames are also asymmetrical, something flamers weren’t always willing to do back in the day, or even now.
Chicago Hot Rod Show 1969
And we must also mention the artful pin striping.
New York Hot Rod Show 1970
This is your basic stencil using lace, or your lace job. Very hot around this time. More complex lace jobs to follow.
New York Hot Rod Show 1970
Man, we’ve got a lot going on here: lace; panel paint; torch smoke; fine line tape; and stone work.
New York Hot Rod Show 1970
Here we got your basic flames, shadows, spatter, and panel paint. And a bunch of other crap.
New York Hot Rod Show 1970
Let’s see: fine line tape, check; panel paint, check; your basic fade, check; pearl underlay, check; and wait! Something new–spatter or cobwebbing. Man, can’t get enough of this good stuff!
Chicago Hot Rod Show 1969
What do we have here? A GTO with pearl and shadow effects? Clean compared to some of the other stuff we’ve seen.
Chicago Hot Rod Show 1969
Zut alors! A Mid-Year Corvette with high style. Metallic pearl fade and mother of pearl (ie, mother of plastic) surround. Exotic.
Chicago Hot Rod Show 1969
Woowie zowie, we have hit the motherlode! This paint scheme has it all. Let’s tick off the effects: Scroll work; fish scales; thin line tape; air brush bursts; and who knows what else? I have no idea what Freak Drops are but they very well could be part of this paint scheme as well.
Chicago Hot Rod Show 1969
After the last image, this hand lettering on a drag car looks downright conservative.
New York Hot Rod Show 1970
Gold leaf lettering in 1970 wasn’t going to make news. After all, it had been used on Indy cars for over 20 years. This example would be considered engine-turned gold leaf, and not all that expertly applied.
Chicago Hot Rod Show 1969
Lovely gold leaf on a Coca-Cola drag car. The pattern? I don’t know. Random striation? A lot easier to apply than engine-turned.
Chicago Hot Rod Show 1969
What’s the next step up from a Trifecta? Whatever it is, this 1939 Chevy has it. Lace; metalflake; fades/veils; and gold leaf lettering. Maybe more. I actually like it.
For a recap, lets see where we have come from in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. In those decades everything was hand done. Extremely labor intensive and requiring high skill levels from lettering to paint application. In the ‘70s we begin to see the transition to Gerber machines and die-cut, pre-spaced, self-adhesive lettering. By the mid ‘90s we find entire cars being wrapped in vinyl, including all graphic effects, lettering, and color. Unless you are an unsponsored Sprint cup team, all NASCAR racers are now wrapped. Skill? The kid at the computer creating the graphics and the application team with their heat guns and razor blades.
Where can you still find real craft? Go to a lowrider show. Go to Bonneville or the dry lakes. Paint lives on. I’m going to order some One-Shot and pin striping brushes from Dick Blick right now!
I would like to thank Dell, the painter at Customs & Classics in Murray, UT, for helping me name the various techniques shown in this post. Dell proves that the craft lives on.
Having actually done some car painting, I am in awe of the skills of the guys who did these. It is hard enough to get a decent solid-color finish on a car, and these guys turn up the skill level to something unimaginable.
It seems that the world has gone to base/clear coating. Jeez, even DupliColor seems to have gone this way (making much of my skill with their product obsolete). I wonder if the custom painters are adapting to base/clear systems as well, or if they still use old-school lacquer?
I went to an auto body paint supply shop recently and asked about lacquer. The counterman looked at me as if I had an appendage growing out of my forehead. It was banned long ago due to its high VOCs. In fact, the only thing legal in California any more (and possibly other states) are water-based systems.
Luckily NZ is behind the times environmentally for paint and I could get nitrocellulose to touch up my car its easy to use probably why its being banned, Custom paint jobs are really only for cars that dont get driven so of little use to me though I do like em just dont want one I’d rather just have bogan blak primer.
It’s not just cars, by the mid-80’s this kind of stuff was factory paint jobs on high-end racing bicycles. Google “Rossin bicycles” to see some fascinating paint jobs. On the picture attached, I’ve got the blue and white frame from the main picture on the road (7400-series Dura Ace), and just picked up a frame identical to the one in the insert. Hell of good riding bikes, I’ve got three now (the third is a monocolor dark purple) and hope to find a few more in the future.
Yikes! That’s loud.
My main two-wheel ride also has a paint job that would be at home in a hot rod show, though it’s rather more subtle than yours. It is a mid-90s HH Racing Group (Harry Havnoonian) Professional, custom made for me with Vitus steel tubing (yes, Vitus made steel) and custom “flying buttress” lugs. The paint job is what Harry called “blue and purple pista”, a fade from a metallic medium blue on the sides of the tubes to purple on the tops. It’s an amazingly even transition; you really can’t see the fade – it looks more like the play of the light.
The craftsmanship on a good lugged-steel frame rivals any hot rod (especially when it’s all Campy). And they ride beautifully too.
These guys made works of art. Any bike shop would do anything to have one of these hanging on their wall.
Somewhere, a Bloomington Gold or NCRS Top Flight judge is in the back of an ambulance en route to the ER with chest pains as a result of that first photo!
It really is a dying art. Around here we don’t have many lowriders, but there are plenty of donks. A few of them are real works of art in the old tradition. Most of them are, well, still donks.
Badly painted donks with 24″ wheels and vibrating subwoofer filled trunks advertising something like Skittles or BC Powder on the door abound here.
I never would have thought the phrase “Taste the Rainbow” would be so damn popular.
Some great paint jobs there.My brother sprayed his BSA A10 lace effect,unfortunately he used Mum’s best doylies.Despite being a 19 year old 6’3″ rugby playing biker he wasn’t too big or old for a thick ear from Mum.
That’s a milk-snorter, Gem.
OK, this is a tri-cultural conundrum. I get Gem’s “thick ear”. Basically mum is giving boyo a cauliflower ear. But “milk-snorter”? What are you blokes doing down under?
Gem continually cracks me up so I need to read her comments without having just drunk a glass of milk, or else that milk will exit through the nostrils.
Great stuff! As much as I tend toward the more conservative for my own vehicles, I still love to see all that wild vintage stuff.
It’s been said before – but as someone who’s still trying to master the art of getting a single color perfect on the first try, I can only imagine the amount of skill required to produce such effects.
That poor Corvette in the first picture! 🙁 and that Model T rod reminds me of a very terrible Hanna Barbera 1970’s cartoon.
Back then it was just an 11 yr old Vette. I know I wouldn’t cringe at mutilating a C4 or C5 beater ‘Vette with the shabby disintegrating Beretta sourced interior. Anything to stand out from the red painted horde. First thing would be to spend a few thou at the upholstery shop.
Cool post! What, no scallops? I guess those were more of a 50s-60s thing, and too “simple” for the wild 70s paintjobs. I always thought lace stencils were lame, but I like a lot of the other effects.
Really like the asymmetrical flame hood on the ’40 Ford. If I build a hotrod, asymmetical flames for me! My son says they have to be yellow flames over purple, because those are his favourite colours. 🙂
Scallops were the rage in the late ’50s and early ’60s but seem to have given way to more complex treatments by the time I took these shots.
One of Watson’s creations that I didn’t see at the shows was seaweed flames. See attached-
I didn’t realise that had a name, I always thought they look a bit silly because they are too far from the shape/behavior of an actual flame.
Not that I’m advocating the more recent ‘real flame’ style either! That 40 Ford with the asymmetric flames looks better to me even if I wouldn’t choose the color scheme.
Freak dots and lace painting are featured in the current issue of CarCraft if you would like to check it out.
Ironic. I just subscribed to CarCraft but my first issue has yet to come. So I drove on down to my local Barnes & Noble library for a quick read. After checking out the Freak Drops in the lace painting article, I can confirm that the paint job I shot at the 1969 Chicago Hot Rod Show does indeed feature Freak Drops, among other techniques.
There is a reasonably-priced book containing a lot of paint effects-Kustomland: The Custom Car Photography of James Potter, 1955-1959 by Thom Taylor that I just ordered for about $18, much better than Pat Ganahls Custom Painting that used is going for $80 on Amazon.
Thanks for the tip.
I see the real talent being utilized, no question about that. However, I’d rather have a plain white paint job (and I usually hate white). Blech.
I like tattoo style tribal pinstriping though I don’t know when this first appeared
I’d say about 10-12 years ago, at least in large-scale graphics that I wouldn’t quite call pinstriping.
This is why I love this site. Excellent write up. I’m fond of all custom finishes, even those graphics packages that were popular during the 80’s. Maybe this article deserves a follow up Part II?
+1 let’s see some Vreeble & flip flop.Anyone else remember acrylustration?
Sounds like you should do the next installment.
LOVE 60s and 70s custom paint jobs! I caught the very end of the 70s ISCA car show scene in the late 70s. Lace, metalflake, flames, scallops. That’s craftsmanship.
I did the flamejob on my pickup a few years ago and learned to appreciate the talents of those artists. Theres a reason why most painters at bodyshops wont do custom work like that, it is so labor intensive
Nice job!
That’s a nice looking rig, Dan. Im starting to see a pattern of similar tastes. Are those Boyd wheels? They have a hazy resemblance to the old Kelsey-Hayes or Magnum style wheels from back in the day. Not a bad choice at all.
My Rumble Bee may not have the show truck look of the ’70s but its an homage just the same. I found out firsthand just what a total nightmare it is to find a true old school mag wheel that will fit our bolt pattern. At least you can get 15’s on yours, I have to run a minimum of 17’s. Considering that ARE managed to get a 17″ Torq thrust to keep the exact proportions, offset, deep lip and overall look of the ’60s era versions, when I figured out that these are the ONLY mags that will fit my rig I didn’t need any other option whatsoever! Ive been rolling on these since Oct and I couldn’t possibly be happier with the look and stance of my rig.
Those wheels are spot on, especially with the cast finish on the straight spokes to stand out from all the over-blinged, curved Boyd types
Both your trucks look great. The flames look really good Dan.
thanks gents, I appreciate the compliments and thanks especially for the pictures Kevin. Brings back many memories.
Anyway Rocker, those are 18X8 Billet Specialties wheels and I actually put them on a couple of years ago to replace a set a 17″ Torque Thrust knock-offs from Eagle that looked identical to yours. I had them on the truck for about 8 or 9 years and just wanted a change and I got a great deal on the billets at a swap meet special so there they are. The TTs look great on your Ram btw.
I also like a deep dish, 5 spoke wheel and there are very few choices beyond the classic Cragar/Torque Thrust/Keystone.
‘I went to a shopping mall and all I got was this stupid Von Dutch cap’
Nice historic pics of an art with rapidly changing aesthetics. Thanks again, Kevin.
I was going to guess that Freak Drops were an, ummmm, pharmacological product used to inspire some of these designs. 😉
Great article and photography, Kevin!
Oh man oh man! Seeing these old airbrushed paintjobs with the ’60s/’70s flavor is like car porn for me! Im just old enough to remember having a few Hotwheels that mimicked this look. My dad had stacks of Hot Rod magazines out in the storage room and once I stumbled onto them when I was a pre-teen I immediately got sucked in! At the time, 5.0 Mustangs on 5-stars or lowered minitrucks with neon pink spatter paint were the in thing. OR, it was a few sport compacts with maybe a bodykit and smoked headlite covers, $8K in the stereos and no performance mods. I couldn’t care less about any of that. Airbrushed panel work, funky ‘bubble’ or ‘stone’ style patterns, big obnoxious side pipes, earth tones mixed with brighter oranges/yellows/greens, polished slot mags with raised letter tires and blacked out trim is what I was slobbering all over! That ’62 Vette’s paint job on a V-8 powered CJ-5 rocking fenderwell headers, ludicrous loud full sidepipes, and ansen sprints would have been my total wet dream!
I never noticed the asymmetrical flames though. The color choice and overall look of that ’40 Ford is nothing short of tits on a ritz!
These paint jobs are total works of art. I wish even a fraction of this kind of passion for cars still existed. But a 4-door elantra just doesn’t evoke that kind of love. The most that is good for is a fart can, slushbox, and a crapload of infotainment garbaged packed into a numb transportation pod.
When I worked in San Francisco in 1980, I bought a bunch of bumper stickers with the message “Tits on a Ritz, Mmm, Good Cracker!” I sent some to my employer in Milwaukee. No one there understood. Cracked me up.
Did any of these painters use Vreeble? Years ago I came across a promo book form the Metal Flake company (yeah the guys who originated metal flake paint) and one of their other products was called Vreeble which apparently wrinkled after applicaitonfor special effects.
I sometimes use a similar nail polish which reacts with the base coat.Remember Eeriedess?There were some great paints around then.I drew a few Frank Frazetta style warriors which were painted onto cars,vans and bikes or tattooed.
I can’t find a website but google Dave Shuten at Galpin Speed Shop in Van Nuys CA.
He’s still hand painting stunning hot rods. Did a lace job on one of his cars about 2 years back. He makes some seriously mouth-watering cars.
This was one of Kevin’s best pieces. Rest well. Great digital legacy documenting a handicraft and artform that is on the edge of extinction.