A framed color photo of Larry Watson's lavender and grape '50 Chevy hangs on my office wall just above my computer keyboard. It is one of my all time favorite mild customs, and it was surely and influence on Jimmie Vaughan's '51 Fleetline when we first featured it in purple and lavender primer in our December '88 issue. Jimmie drove the car from Austin, Texas, to Holland, Michigan, for the KKOA Nats that year, and we photographed it for our "suede" feature section. He's been working on the Chevy for years, and it keeps getting better.

Last summer he drove it from Austin to Holland once again, but this time the car had undergone a significant transformation. thanks in large part to the talents of Gary Howard, after a decade of work the Chevy was finally completed. You know what? I think it's even better than Watson's. So did the judges at the 10th annual Kemps bash, who awarded it, "Koolest Paint" of the event. Howard, whose shop is in Georgetown, Texas, redid every inch of the body before spraying it with a special mix of Acme Urethane he calls "Violet Vision." If you compare the '88 photos, you'll see the front and rear wheels were reworked, using '56 Chevy lips front and rear. Gary removed the louvers from the hood, pulled the sidepipes, rounded the rear hood corners, and installed new custom taillights formed by Rod Powell. He blended the front fenders to the body, added '54 Chevy rocker moldings, reshaped the oval grille that surrounds 31 Corvette teeth, and fit a 1-piece '50 Olds windshield. Shortly after these photos were taken, they even pulled the real Appletons off to further clean up the lines.

Other mods include frenched '54 Ford headlights, shaved handles, and '55 Buick side spears. It rides low and smooth on a Nova subframe with C'd rails, blocks, and air shocks in back. Inside we find the same white and purple tuck and roll done by Bruce of San Marcos a while back, a '63 Riv wheel and column, a Gennie shifter, Airtique heat and cold, and a Sony "Disc Jockey" CD player.

The fact that Jimmie is one of the most respected blues/rock guitarists in the country-recently of the Fabulous Thunderbirds and currently, thankfully, recorded with his late brother Stevie Ray on the quintessential "Vaughan Brothers" album- has absolutely nothing to do with this car appearing in Rod & Custom. This Chevy is a classic mild custom in its own right. We welcome it to the select club of R&C cover cars.