Antique Car Print - The Lightning Bug - Homebuilt Streamline Bubble Car - Ultralite

Antique Car Print - The Lightning Bug - Homebuilt Streamline Bubble Car - UltraliteTreasures from THE AUTOMOTIVE COLLECTION at Lost Highways Archive & Research Library. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review. Print size 18 x 24, and consciously formatted to work with a standard size store bought frame, or custom framed as you see fit. When I first saw this I assumed it was Brit, The cut of his suit and hair, the sensibly fashionable oxfords, the signs in the background which I didn't look at closely and thought were British

Treasures from THE AUTOMOTIVE COLLECTION at Lost Highways Archive & Research Library. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.

Print size 18 x 24, and consciously formatted to work with a standard size store bought frame, or custom framed as you see fit.

When I first saw this I assumed it was Brit, The cut of his suit and hair, the sensibly fashionable oxfords, the signs in the background which I didn't look at closely and thought were British beer ads. Well, it ain't! American, from Pasadena, mid 1930s. This is a university prof who figured he'd build his own damned car, and he crafted a pretty boss rig.

Several different people have told me this car still exists and is now in the collection of Jay Leno. Not so far out, but I haven't seen proof of the tale yet. Leno or not, I'd love to climb into this car and crank it up to 50, 55, hell even 60 miles per hour! Having ridden in and on some pretty wild vehicles in my time, I just have a feeling this utterly boss looking but clearly homebuilt thing would start shimmyin' and shiverin' once you really opened it up. I remember riding in a totally beat up vintage Vette that SHOULD NOT have been on the road when I was a teen, the driver announcing we were at 107 mph and me practically crying as the whole car felt like it was shaking apart. The good old days are only good if you lived long enough to tell about them!

• Handmade item
• Materials: Art stock enhanced matte paper, archival ink
• Made to order
• Only ships within United States.

SHIPPING

All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT? Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!

International shipping is available and reasonable. Please contact us for details.

A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps. The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands. That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here. See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road. I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle! So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.