Little Deuce Coup

The car’s story began in 1956, when Clarence Catallo, just 15 years old and without a driver’s license, purchased a neglected ’32 at a gas station across the street from his parent’s grocery store in Allen Park, Mich. The transformation of the $75 car began immediately.

Clarence’s son, Curt Catallo, said that his father channeled the coupe, lowering the body on the car’s frame, to drop its height by six inches. The old Ford engine was replaced with a more modern and powerful Oldsmobile V-8.

Clarence Catallo headed west, towing the ’32 Ford behind a ragged Oldsmobile. In the fall of 1960, he took a job sweeping floors at George Barris’s Kustom City in North Hollywood, Calif., the shop where many well-known vehicles, including the original Batmobile and the Munster Koach, were created for films and television shows.

The efforts paid off: the Catallo Deuce Coupe was featured on the cover of the July 1961 issue of Hot Rod, a magazine covering the custom car culture.

“As a kid I can remember sitting at Beach Boys concerts and hearing ‘Little Deuce Coupe,’” Curt Catallo said. “I’d think, ‘That’s my dad’s car they’re singing about. We should get it back.’”

The son finally convinced his father that he wasn’t getting enough credit for having built the car. The car was traced to Long Island, and Bob Larivee Jr. of Championship Auto Shows contacted the owner, who didn’t want to part with the Little Deuce Coupe.

“We leased the car for a year to be used as an attraction in our custom car shows,” Mr. Larivee said. “At the end of that lease, in 1998, he agreed to sell it to me for $40,000, way more than it was worth. But Clarence wanted the car and gave me the check, so I bought it.”

The goal was to get the car ready for the Meadow Brook Concours d’Élégance in August 2000.

The team finished just in time. Fittingly, the coupe took the People’s Choice award at Meadow Brook in 2000. The Little Deuce Coupe was back in the limelight.

“My dad built the coupe to make people talk,” Curt Catallo said. “It’s a 77-year-old car modified over 50 years ago, and it still has the same effect. I think that says something pretty amazing.”