Ford Thunderbird 1958 - 1960 custom & mild custom

1958 Thunderbird

1958 Ford Thunderbird owned and painted by Larry Watson of Watson's House of Style. The car is also known as "Vino Pasiano". It's rumored that the car was named "Vino Pasiano" after a bottle of wine on a shelf in his shop. Another opinion holds that it was due to the color.


Larry bought the car brand new in 1958 after selling his 1950 Chevrolet known as the Grapevine. He wanted to start a new trend in painting and wanted to use a brand new car as his canvas. What he really wanted was a 1958 Cadillac Brougham, but that was far to expensive, so he decided to go for the newly redesigned Thunderbird instead. The new T-Bird was exotic carrying the hottest trends in customized cars such as dual headlights, small fins and an optional tuck n' roll interior. After looking at a brand new Thunderbird at Downey Ford, he told the seller to give him a call as soon as the first car with a tuck n' roll interior arrived. [2] Larry started to personalize the car right after he bought it. He was in a hurry to get it out on the street and went straight from the dealership to Lindy's Muffler shop for a set of dual pipes. After that he brought the Thunderbird directly to Barris Kustoms for a mild kustom job.[3] At Barris Kustoms, Bill Hines and Bill DeCarr nosed and decked the car. The handles were shaved, filled and replaced by pushbuttons. Nearly all outside ornamentation was removed before the edges and corners were softened, giving the car a sleek streamlined look. The taillights were modified with chrome-reflective center bullets. The grille mesh was brass-plated by Custom Chrome of Paramount, California.[4] Twin spotlights were installed before the car returned to Watson's House of Style were Larry applied a silver base coat on the car. The base job was followed by six coats of pearl lacquer. Larry thought the car was too bright, and he decided to mask the edges with one and one quarter inch masking tape and shot a special mix of candy apple burgundy in the open areas. The purple paint was mixed up by Joe Sheline.[2] As a result of this paint scheme many think that Larry invented the Panel Paint Job. The Thunderbird was the first car featuring a silver pearl and candy burgundy paint job, but before he painted panels on his own car he had already paneled Zeno Stephens' 1955 Mercury. Zeno wanted something different, no scallops or flames, so Larry body paneled it by painting applying Titian Red and striping it in gold. After painting the car Larry never saw it again, not in a magazine, or at a car show, nowhere. Three weeks after the Thunderbird was delivered to Barris Kustoms it was on a turntable at the first Renegades Rod & Custom Motorama in 1958.[3] In the souvenir program for the show, the car is presented as "The Burgundy Bird".


As Watson's Thunderbird toured major car shows, it was constantly awarded the highest honors for its outstanding paint and body work. In addition to being viewed by thousands of show goers, his breakthrough beauty appeared in over 20 different publications of the day and was in constant demand for appearances not only around the Southern California area, but all over the country.[5]


The candy pigments used in the late 1950s were temperamental at best. The color was prone to fading in the sunlight, and often required touch-ups or re sprays. As Watson's paint began to fade, Larry decided to fix it by masking off more panels within the panels, and by adding more colors. The second version of the car looked even wilder then the first one. After a while Larry sold the Thunderbird to a kid named Bob Finley so he could buy a brand new 1959 Cadillac.[2]


The Thunderbird swapped hands several times before it disappeared from the scene. Rumor has it that the car spent fifteen years disassembled in a body shop before being meticulously restored to Larry's first version in 2000. Larry helped the owner match the paint and outline the panels. The restored version of the car attended a few car shows and spent some time at the Peterson Museum.[2]


September 26th, 2009 Larry Watson's Thunderbird was offered for sale as part of the Ralph Whitworth collection at the Icons of Speed & Style Auction in Los Angeles, California. The car changed hands for $55,000.[5] Rogerl and Marie O'Dell, who had dreamed about owning the car for a long time, were the buyers. After buying the car, Roger and Marie let Larry Watson display his old car in his personal museum

Magazine Features
Custom Cars November 1958
Trend Book 175 Custom Cars 1959 Annual
Traditional Rod & Kulture Illustrated 20
Trend Book 208 Custom Cars 2012 Annual


article de référence:
http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Larry_Watson's_1958_Ford

It seems most hot rodders like to collect. Fenders, steering wheels, valve covers, taillights-they can all be collected to varying degrees and, chances are, if you aren't already a collector you probably know someone who qualifies.

For those who have a severe case of collecting (or hoarding), the medical field has a name for it: obsessive-compulsion disorder. But where do you draw the line? When is having 10 '34 Fords in your garage (or the parts thereof) too many?

Though most folks know Billy F. Gibbons as the frontman for the Texas rock 'n' roll trio identified collectively as ZZ Top, true fans already know of one of his obsessions: fine automobiles. You've seen them in the music videos that helped launch MTV in the '80s (the Eliminator coupe) and you've read about them in the appropriate magazines (CadZZilla in Hot Rod, July 1989; and his '36 coupe in the May '95 issue of STREET RODDER).




Billy also collects guitars and, as you might imagine, it's extensive (one number puts it around 600). The assortment is world class and was outlined in the '05 book: Rock + Roll Gearhead (ISBN-13:9780760322697), but the work also highlights 10 of his cars, as they're as much about his personality as the guitars he plays and the songs he writes.

Always writing new material for the next album, Billy never lets up with his interest in cars. His most recent addition, a vintage '58 Thunderbird nicknamed "The Mexican Blackbird" (after a '75 ZZ Top song of the same name), was customized and subsequently reborn at the hands of SO-CAL Speed Shop in Pomona, California, under the direction of Billy's longtime compadre and accomplice: Pete Chapouris.

For Chapouris, whose long and illustrious history of car building is as long as Billy's four-decade musical career, the project took him back to his early days growing up in El Monte, California, which is just down the boulevard from Bell Gardens, Whittier, Downey, and a host of other small cities that have had a big impact on car builders over the years, so the look of the cars coming out of Gene Winfield's or Larry Watson's was a big influence on him.

So it wasn't a big surprise when Billy contacted Chapouris to have SO-CAL Speed Shop begin work on something Billy had always wanted: a mid-'50s mild custom. And since the pair had worked together on a number of projects before (including the twin HogZZilla motorcycles and the '50 Ford three-window coupe called Kopperhed), they knew they could bounce ideas off each other and come up with something special.

A mild custom is just that-not a lot of body mods, but enough to make a statement. Rounded door and hood corners, shaved trim, scalloped paintjobs, and a custom upholstered interior are all hallmarks of the genre, and all were going to be employed on Billy's ride.




So Billy reached into his warehouse of cars and produced a mint '58 for the SO-CAL team to start on. With a textbook low profile (aided by Jamco Suspension's 3-inch lower coils in the back and 2-inchers up front), the 'Bird's main body mod would be the removal of the hood scoop and flattening of the hood, capably handled by SO-CAL's Richie Nogueria. The results make the car look even lower, as your eye isn't drawn to a big hump on top of the hood. The wheels, gold-colored 15x7 Wheel Smith steelies, were shod with BFGoodrich Silvertown/Coker 6.70-15 2.5-inch whitewalls and then topped with a set of 15-inch '57 Dodge Lancer hubcaps. One of the few items to be replaced on the T-Bird was the gas tank, which Larry's T-Bird in Corona, California, reproduces.

The car's nameplate, fender gunsights, and door trim pieces were removed by SO-CAL's Tony Sandoval, but the factory Thunderbird emblems found on the nose and decklid were left intact. After SO-CAL's body shop massaged it to perfection, they rolled the car into Mick Jenkins' on-site spray booth and covered the car with PPG two-stage black paint.




Much talk between Billy and Chapouris ensued as the pair figured out exactly how the scallop paintjob would be finished. After deciding on gold highlights that would follow most of the car's major bodylines, DR Design's Dennis Ricklefs laid out the tape and filled everything in with House of Kolors Zenith Gold.

It was determined the interior of the 'Bird would have just as much impact as the exterior, so Gabe's Street Rod and Custom Interiors got the call to begin working on the highly modified factory seats and adding black and gold Ultra Leather to the buckets. SO-CAL's Evin Veazie modified the stock wiring loom and Dynamat insulation was used throughout, as was square-weave carpet.



The rest of the interior is mostly stock, except for the stereo system created by Alan HicThe dash is stock, except for a simple but effective stereo system, created by Alan Hickman at Audio Shoppe in Riverside, California. When looking at the dash, you see the factory radio in its stock spot, but it's just a facade. Upon opening the ashtray, there is a plug-in device for Billy's iPod nano, which is a fifth-generation unit from Apple that includes an internal FM tuner to go along with the hours of music he's downloaded to his iPod.

A pre-amp is located in the glovebox that also has the tone and fade controls. The system then runs to two Arc Audio amps-one to drive the four Arc Audio high speakers (two 5-1/4-inchers up front and two 4-inchers in the rear) and the other for the twin 8-inch Arc Audio subwoofers found in a special-made (16 hours!) fiberglass enclosure. Hickman explains: "It isn't a thumper type of stereo system, but it delivers more performance-per-dollar than other systems."

It allows Billy to plug his iPod into a receptacle in his ashtray, with the signal running through a pre-amp and onto two Arc Audio amplifiers and a total of six Arc Audio speakers.

It allows Billy to plug his iPod into a receptacle in his ashtray, with the signal runningThe engine, an all-stock 352, was detailed and dressed up with a set of chrome valve covers and air cleaner, but is otherwise your basic Ford V-8 connected to a factory Ford-O-Matic transmission.

Once the low-slung Thunderbird was finished, it was time for a debut, and the car was shipped to the Moon Eyes show in Japan, and then formally unveiled in the United States at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. As Chapouris explains: "The Mexican Blackbird demonstrates what customizers have known for years. With the right platform it doesn't take much more than paint, upholstery, a good wheel combination, and slamming it to the ground to have the baddest ride in the valley."

We couldn't agree more.



Read more: http://www.streetrodderweb.com/features/1008sr_1958_ford_thunderbird/viewall.html

Starlite Rod & Kustom get air bags w/ Accuair. 1960 t-Bird

The Ford Thunderbird is an Iconic car...no collection is complete without at least one. Three men are generally credited with creating the original Thunderbird: Lewis D. Crusoe, a retired GM executive lured out of retirement by Henry Ford II; George Walker, chief stylist and a Ford vice-president; and Frank Hershey, a Ford designer. Crusoe and Walker met in France in October 1951. Walking in the Grand Palais in Paris, Crusoe pointed at a sports car and asked Walker, 'Why can’t we have something like that?'

Walker promptly telephoned Ford's HQ and told designer Frank Hershey about the idea. Hershey took the idea and began working on the vehicle. The concept was for a two-passenger open car, with a target weight of 2525 lb, an Interceptor V8 and a top speed of over 100 mph. Crusoe saw a painted clay model on, which corresponded closely to the final car; he gave the car the go-ahead in September 1953 after comparing it with current European trends. Unlike the Corvette, the Thunderbird was never a full-blown sporting vehicle; Ford's description was personal luxury car, and the company essentially created this market segment. There was some difficulty in naming the car, with suggestions ranging from the exotic to the ridiculous (Hep Cat, Beaver, Detroiter, Runabout, Arcturus, Savile, El Tigre, and Coronado). Crusoe offered a $250 suit to anyone who could come up with a better name. Stylist Alden "Gib" Giberson submitted Thunderbird as part of a list. Giberson got the idea during a lightning storm when he saw an illusion of a bird getting hit by lightning, but this happened because of his view. Giberson never claimed his prize, settling for a $95 suit and an extra pair of trousers from Saks Fifth Avenue. According to Palm Springs Life magazine, the car's final name came not from the Native American symbol as one might expect, but from an ultra-exclusive housing tract in what would later be incorporated as Rancho Mirage, California: Thunderbird Heights.

The car was shown at the Detroit Auto Show in 1954. The first production car came off the line in September, 1954, and went on sale in October as a 1955 model, and sold briskly; 3,500 orders were placed in the first ten days of sale. Ford had only projected building 10,000; eventual 1955 sales were 16,155. Although the original Thunderbird was successful, the corporation's executives -- particularly Robert McNamara -- felt its sales volume was small. Market research suggested that sales were limited by its two-seat configuration, making it unsuitable as an only car for families. The second generation, introduced for the 1958 model year, was designed as a four-seat car. Sales soared up to record-breaking 1960, at 73,051 including 10,516 convertibles.

This amazing Custom has been chopped, shaved, widened and lots more- the body modifications on this car would take a page just to delineate. Everything was done correctly with metal MIG and TIG welded. Stripped to bare metal of course and painted with Orion Silver base, Pagan Gold Mid, and Hok. Clear. Phenominal paint job Featured in House of Colors annual calendar as one of the 6 best paint jobs using their product that year. Featuring a stock engine- rebuilt of course with Ford C6 Automatic, Aluminum Radiator, New Wiring Harness, New U joints, All new brake system with Dual Brake Booster, new NOS front end powder coated, , new shocks, and of course hoses, belts, rebuilt carb, Custom Dual Exhaust-Everything new and rebuilt. Vintage Air, Power Windows, Power Seats, Power Doors and Trunk, killer stereo, Custom White Leather and Gold Interior with custom dash and phone, Quad Guages, Everything is new on this car, and it has traveled only 2900 miles since completion in 2011. It has won many awards as well as being featured in Street Scene, Rod and Kulture 4 page spread. Gene Winfield Award Winner Personally picked by and signed Gene at Syracuse Nationals.