This picture is of George Barris, Ray and his wife at "Lead East" in 1994. George gave Ray a Barris crest to replace one that had been stolen and was pleased to see the current status of... The Infamous "Lil' Deuce Coupe"!

Lil Deuce Coupe

By Bob Nugent

Constructed by: Mr. Clarence "Chili" Catallo / Alexander Bros / George Barris
Circa: 1958 / 1960 / 1962
Current Owner: Ray Woloszak

UPDATE: Clarence " Chili" Catallo repurchased the "Lil Deuce coupe" from Ray Woloszak in July of 1997.

This is THE car, featured on the cover of the Beach Boy's album, of the same name. The car originally was the creation of Clarence "Chili" Catallo of Detroit, Mich. It went through basically three renovations before becoming the famous "Lil Deuce Coupe".

This coupe sat for many years beside the house of a local customizer in Dearborn, Mich. His name was "Ziggy" and he did most of the local guys work in a little shed out behind his mom's house. Clarence and I drug that coupe out of the weeds and began the work of kids everywhere, turning a piece of junk into a "Hot Rod". We put an Olds engine into the coupe, hooked to the stock Ford transmission. I learned how to rebuild Ford transmissions that way, because we immediately blew five of them. It seemed whenever you gave the thing some gas, it scattered the tranny everywhere. Before any serious work started on the car, I left Michigan and lost contact with "Chili".

The next phase had the Alexander Bros. restoring the coupe and placing that famous nose piece on it. The years had taken their toll on the lower body, so the famous fins were fitted and this was long before Ferrari came up with the styling trick. During this period the car was called the "Silver Sapphire" and was painted dark blue with silcer scallops.

The scallops and striping was done by Paul Hatton of Detroit and the best striper I have ever seen, and the guy that got me into striping in my young days.

The famous phase was when the car was chopped and remodeled by George Barris in California, and sprayed a beautiful transluscent blue with white pearl scallops. This then became the famous Lil Deuce coupe that was on the cover of the Beach Boys Album and also on the cover of the July 1961 Hot Rod Magazine.

Shortly after the car was sold to a car club and then to its current owner, Ray Woloszak who has owned it for the past 30 years and has recently restored it to its former glory. Ray has become a good friend and has participated in the Old Farts Car Club activities at the Turkey Run in Daytona for the last couple years.