Clarence Catallo's 1932 Ford 3-Window Coupe - The Silver Sapphire / The Little Deuce Coupe
1932 Ford 3-Window Coupe owned by Clarence Catallo of Dearborn, Michigan. Known as the "Silver Sapphire" and later the "Little Deuce Coupe", Catallo's coupe is one of the most recognized hot rods in history, famously pictured on the cover of the Beach Boys' Little Deuce Coupe album in 1963.
Contents
- 1 Early History
- 2 The Alexander Brothers
- 3 Rolled Over and Rebuilt by Barris Kustoms
- 4 The Beach Boys Album Cover
- 5 Sold and Passed Through Several Owners
- 6 Bob Larivee Jr. and the Return to the Catallo Family
- 7 First Restoration
- 8 Gilmore Car Museum
- 9 The Second Restoration by Cory Taulbert
- 10 Magazine Features
- 11 References
- 12 Sources
Early History
Before Catallo acquired the car, the coupe had a drag racing career. The body had been sectioned and channeled, lowering it a total of 7 inches. Catallo bought the car from a gas station across the street from his parents' grocery store in Allen Park, Michigan in 1956. He paid 75 dollars for the old racer. He was 15 years old at the time and did not have a driver's license, so he had a friend drive it home for him.[2]
The Alexander Brothers
In 1959, Catallo brought the car to the Alexander Brothers. Mike and Larry fabricated a new rear pan and a hinged front end. An early version of the Silver Sapphire was shown at the 1959 Toledo Autorama with a modest scallop paint job, Moon discs, and the stock grille shell.
The Alexander Brothers later reworked the car more extensively. The bottoms of the doors were rotten, so Mike and Larry cut them off and made aluminum fins to replace the rockers. The side and rear fins were formed from aluminum stock. A unique grille was fabricated from aluminum sheet stock with Chevrolet headlights set inside plastic. Mike and Larry tried to talk Catallo into chopping the car, but he refused. The car was fitted with sunken twin antennas that doubled as door openers, activating the electric doors when pushed. It was painted Oldsmobile Cobalt Blue with scallops, and the interior featured a white upholstered top with seats formed from handmade frames, covered in foam rubber and blue trim. The upholstery was done by Ray Kulakowski. The steering wheel came from a 1959 Lincoln, and the column was from a 1934 Ford. The Alexander Brothers later fitted the car with custom 1957 Plymouth hubcaps restyled with white plastic fins.
Catallo was an Oldsmobile enthusiast, and the coupe was powered by a 1956 Oldsmobile 344 CID V-8. In 1959, the car ran 12.90 seconds at 112 mph on the drag strip.
The Alexander Brothers version of the car was featured in the November 1962 issue of Popular Hot Rodding Magazine, though the car had already been significantly reworked by Barris Kustoms by the time of publication.
Rolled Over and Rebuilt by Barris Kustoms
In 1960, Catallo moved to Long Beach, California for college. His parents were concerned about him spending time with the wrong crowd and offered to send him to a college anywhere in the country. He chose Long Beach Community College, in the heart of the West Coast hot rod scene. He headed west towing his coupe behind an Oldsmobile.[2]
According to Teddy Zgrzemski, Catallo rolled the trailer onto its side on the way to California, denting the roof. The Alexander Brothers recommended taking the car to Barris Kustoms.[3]
While living in Long Beach, Catallo began working at the Barris Kustoms shop sweeping floors. Junior Conway and Tubbs talked him into chopping the coupe, and it received a 3-inch top chop. After the chop, Junior Conway painted the car candy blue over white pearl.[3]
Teddy Zgrzemski was another Michigan teenager working for Barris Kustoms when the coupe was redone. Teddy was 16 in 1960, and in 2020 he told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama that he was Junior's helper. "I never did any painting or stuff. I was just the prep guy. I blocked, sanded the cars, taped them off, and got them all ready. Once in a while, George would lay down one side of scallops on a car, and then he would tell me to duplicate it on the other side. Like on Shirley Barris' 58 Thunderbird. I had to duplicate that one. And Chili Catallo, the Little Deuce Coupe, he laid out one side of the scallops, and I had to duplicate them and do the other side before Junior painted em."[3]
Teddy also did the aluminum underside work on the car. Catallo paid him one dollar an hour to finish the underneath of the frame rails, floor, and gas tank with aluminum diamond plating. Teddy stayed after work at night at Barris Kustoms and completed the whole job for about 40 dollars. "It looked good enough where you weren't embarrassed when you took it to a show," Teddy recalled. "But I was only 16 years old when I did it."[3]
Catallo did not do any work on the car himself. He did grunt work at Barris Kustoms in exchange for work on his coupe. The Barris version of the car appeared on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine July 1961.
The Beach Boys Album Cover
The Silver Sapphire is most famous for being pictured on the cover of the Beach Boys album Little Deuce Coupe. George Barris had built a run of about 20 candy-striped dune buggies for Capitol Records. Capitol was preparing to release a new Beach Boys album that included the "Little Deuce Coupe" single. People at Capitol knew about Catallo's car, and when they needed a deuce for the album cover they called Barris.[2] The car was photographed wearing Barris Kustoms crests. The album, released in October 1963, used a photograph shot from ground level that had originally been taken for the Hot Rod Magazine layout. Catallo's head was cropped out of the frame.[2]
Sold and Passed Through Several Owners
Catallo returned to Detroit, finished college, and settled into a career in the financial industry. In 1962, he sold the coupe to a car club in Pennsylvania.[4] According to another account, he sold the car in 1965 to buy a Porsche.[2]
The car club later sold the coupe to a new owner who swapped out the Oldsmobile V-8 for a 440 cubic inch Chrysler engine. He owned the car for three decades. The previous owner had held onto many of the parts that were removed or replaced over the years.[2]
Bob Larivee Jr. and the Return to the Catallo Family
Throughout those years, Curt Catallo, Clarence's son, pressed his father to buy the car back. Show car promoter Bob Larivee Jr. of Championship Auto Shows located the coupe in New York, but the owner was reluctant to sell. Larivee convinced him to lease the car as a headliner for his shows. When the lease expired in 1997, the owner agreed to sell the car to Larivee for 40,000 dollars. Catallo gave Larivee the check, and the coupe returned to the family.[2][4]
First Restoration
The family launched a restoration targeting the August 2000 Meadow Brook Concours d'Élégance. Catallo passed away suddenly in 1998 before the work was finished. His son and daughter carried the project forward. Curt Catallo enlisted the help of Mike Alexander and other craftsmen who had originally worked on the car, with the goal of making it appear exactly as it did on the album cover. The team finished just in time, and the coupe took the People's Choice award at Meadow Brook in 2000.[2]
Gilmore Car Museum
In May of 2013, the car went to the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corner, Michigan for a year-long display. A total of 21 cars were part of the exhibit, which focused on the 1950s and 1960s nostalgia period.[5]
The Second Restoration by Cory Taulbert
Curt Catallo later initiated a five-year re-restoration to make the car more period-accurate. Michigan-based hot rod builder Cory Taulbert guided the project, using a stack of unpublished Eric Rickman photographs from the original Hot Rod Magazine photo shoot as reference.[4]
The restoration involved a complete chassis rebuild, including un-boxing the frame to return it to its 1961 configuration. The body was sent to Metalcrafters in California, where Mike Alexander Jr., son of the A-Brothers' Mike Alexander, made repairs with assistance from Chip Foose. Darryl Hollenbeck at Vintage Color Studio sprayed the blue finish, matched to original paint on the dash that had been sprayed by Junior Conway at Barris Kustoms in 1960 and buried under subsequent finishes. Chrome work was done by Advanced Plating, and Sid Chavers recreated the white vinyl button-tufted upholstery.[4]
The re-restored coupe made its debut at the Gathering at the Roc in Oklahoma in the fall of 2025, and was shown at the Grand National Roadster Show in 2026.[6]
Magazine Features
Rodding & Re-styling May 1961
Hot Rod Magazine July 1961
Popular Hot Rodding November 1962
Hop-Up November 1963
Street Rod Builder May 2001
Rodders Journal Number 36
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The HAMB - Vintage Hot Rod Shows....picture thread.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 The New York Times - Surfers Met Rodders, and a Genre Was Born
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Interview with Teddy Zgrzemski, January 19, 2021.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Fuel Curve - Legends of Hot Rodding: Little Deuce Coupe
- ↑ Tom Mayenschein
- ↑ Photos shared by Ken Davis, 2026.
Sources
Hot Rod Magazine July 1961
Popular Hot Rodding November 1962
Ultimate Garages
customrodder.automotive.com
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