Larry Watson, a legendary car painter and pin striper whose career started in the driveway of his parent’s house at the age of 16, has died. Brain cancer claimed Watson just one day prior to his 70th birthday. A man whose painting career gave way to a successful acting career, Watson is known and revered in the traditional rod and kustom community. 

It took one visit to George Barris’s shop to see Dean Jeffries stripe a car to ignite a passion and creative flame in Watson that would propel him to great heights in the kustom car world and eventually saw him working side by side with Jeffries painting, striping, and otherwise beautifying cars.

Watson is credited with inventing the panel panel paint job after applying that style of paint to a brand new 1958 Ford Thunderbird that he bought and had slightly modified at Barris Kustoms. He sold his paint business in 1966 to pursue an acting career. He used his paint skills as a way to get into the good graces of folks influential in the acting world. Watson reportedly appeared in 141 different shows between 1967 and the end of his acting career in 1985.

The passing of Watson is a sad piece of info for us, but the hot rods in heaven just got cooler looking.

Source — Kustomrama.com — Larry Watson biography