esema

Do any of you guys have any pics you can post of fender flared cars done by Bruno's Corvette "back in the day" ?

TCracingCA

He would glass on any unit bought/sold by any other outfit that existed known to man. If you weren't using a known flare, then you could bring a drawing into his shop and he would replica your custom request. He did lip flares, arced flares, box flares, Thumper style beltlines, and he would radius them, etc. etc. etc.

esema

I remember seeing every type of flare imagineable at Bruno's. Some beautiful and some ugly as hell.

Growing up I worked for Standard Oil at a Chevron Station pumping high octane Chevron "Custom" gas. We used to get lots of Vettes with Bruno's flares coming in to fill up their C2s. This was long before "self pumping" your own gas but I can tell you that as a station attendant you NEVER touched oneof those Vettes. They always pumped their own gas. First full race C2 with Webers I ever saw was a Bruno flared car from a race car shop on Canby in Reseda.

The first Cheetah I ever saw was at Bruno's. Just trying to see some pics of Bruno's cars from that era.

sub006

I found the C3 to C2 flares I wanted at J & D, the Grand Sport hood was shipped from the midwest. Roger Brunelle aka Bruno cheerfully and expertly installed them, along with his own custom one-piece nose (no C2 headlight cutouts or turn signal pods) and rear (no bumper mount provisions but SIX tail light receptacles) clips.

TCracingCA

I only have a few shots of the front of Bruno's and some of their C1 parts catalogs from prior to the C2 cars. Rod & Custom used to like doing features on cars worked over by Bruno's. I don't have many of those, because they belonged to my Father and he threw them away before he knew I wanted them. Some of his cars have come up in articles in other Magazines. The ones that really stood out, were the truly wild paint jobs. I am on a 70's kick presently and buying up magazines with Corvettes with wild paint jobs (pearls, mica's, pinstripes, scallops, laced, murals, etc.. JD was the leading Socal custom Fiberglass panel maker in the entire area. Another body shop that doesn't get press was an outfit in the same building row as Guldstrand and Traco when Guldstrand first moved in. They did a lot of custom glass. Al Martinez was another guy and others. My suggestion would be just to buy some of the mid 70's Corvette feature Hot Rods. I have each and everyone of them, and there are some cool old friends (cars) in those pages. I also collect the Annuals (I have all of those), and other mags of the period. I recently found an East Coast published mag called Street Racer that was featuring cars from the East Coast that has been kind of fun. Just about all of the big Magazines orientated from out here in California mostly. So it is neat to see the trends in the Corvette Styles from across the country.

esema

The paint work back then was amazing. My buddy recently showed me pics of his '60 the day he bought it. Scalloped and pinstriped by Kenny Howard (Von Dutch). I'll try and post that pic.

Slightly off topic... My brother in laws wife told me a story about going with her girlfriend their friends Rick Griffin's apartment and seeing a wall that he had drawn with surf cartoons of a character he had created called "Murphy". He was drawing Murphy for Surfer magazine at the time. I wrote that story off to Urban Legend. Recently someone "unearthed" that wall and it has been restored and is displayed at the Surfing Heritage Museum. Barn find priceless art.

Boyan

You want me to call Matt with the 64 Bruno car and have him bring it to Erwin?

esema

Found this LA Times article about Bruno's...

http://articles.latimes.com/1993-02-...orvette-repair

Railroadman

"The work is not cheap, with the price of a typical restoration job on a '60s or early '70s Corvette running from $9,000 to $12,000."

I guess prices have gone up since 1998!

TCracingCA

The Skate Lab down to the Surf Museum in HB finishing down in Oceasnside at that surf museum by way of breakfast in Malibu coming down thru Topanga canyon, Hermosa Beach for Ice Cream and walked the pier, Hiked out to ole Trestles, then back up to Dana Point for Dinner I liked all of the 1960's/70's/80's surf history and artwork. It was a cool way to spend a day! I liked that wall, and other artist things they have acquired!

TCracingCA

I'll be darn! How did that happen?

sub006

Bruno once told me his wife Lynn can also be seen playing a small part in the first "Billy Jack" film.

Motoxer007

Hi Boyan,
How's the Warner Center car show going? I've moved from Woodland Hills to Simi Valley. Haven't had the car out in a while. I've removed the '68 seats and have original '64's back in with the original dark blue. Looks really nice. I ran into someone who remembers this car back in the 70's, that was pretty interesting to hear about.
Hope all is well with your projects.
Here is a picture I've included with Dick Gulstrand posing next to the car.
See you around.
Matt

Motoxer007

Here's a shot from the back.

Motoxer007

one more shot.

colo63sw

Those are the widest flairs I have ever seen on any corvette. Pretty wild.

rtruman

Get out the saws all

3JsVette

I love flares on just about any Corvette...........just about.

ptjsk

That's just incredibly cool!

MrTrim

I was at the auction when Bruno sold out everything when he closed in the early 90's. I bought a couple of lots for the shop I had at the time. If I remember correctly, one of the owners of J&D corvette bought all of the molds and most of the fiberglass parts that day. So if your looking for old Bruno flairs, that would be where I would check first. The auction was a lot of fun and myself as well as others got some great deals. Some of the cars he had didn't sell at that time though. Just as a fun thing, I have a few of the round Bruno's Corvette stickers that he would put in his customers windows. Parts were sure cheap then.
Chris