Henry Contreras' 1933 Willys

Henry's Willys at an indoor car show. Photo courtesy of Henry Contreras.

Photo courtesy of Henry Contreras.

Photo courtesy of Henry Contreras.

Photo courtesy of Henry Contreras.

Henry's Willys as it sat in 2012. Photo courtesy of Henry Contreras.

1933 Willys owned and raced by Henry Contreras of Norwalk, California. Henry's Willys was painted by Joe Navarro in 1968 or 1969. Henry remembers that his whole crew, and Joe, sanded and primed the car at Henry's shop before Joe came over one Saturday noon to spray it. After Joe had done his job, and applied several coats of Dodge Royal Blue, Henry freaked out as the metallic was all spotty and blotching looking. It was not even at all according to Henry. Henry asked Joe what had happened, and Joe asked what he meant? Henry told him that the metallic was all spotty. Joe then looked at him and told him to stick to transmissions, and leave the painting to him. What Joe did, was that he waited a bit before he put mostly thinner and a little enamel color in the spray gun that he fogged a couple of coats of over the car. He then told Henry to go home and get some rest and wait a day. By the next day all of the metallic would have flown out and it wouldn't be spotty anymore. Henry knew this wasn't going to happen, as it looked really bad. He was sure they had to redo the car. As Joe was his buddy, he did as he was instructed. He didn't sleep well that night, and went back on Sunday to check out the mess. When Henry opened up the shop he was amazed about how good the Willys looked. He couldn't believe his own eyes, and called Joe up to tell him how awesome it looked.

Henry still owned the car in 2012, and it still had the same paint job as Joe applied in the 1960s. According to Henry, it still shined, except for som scratches and dings. Henry took the car apart as he was going to redo it, but as he hasn't had the time to do it, he considered selling it instead.