GERRY CARLSON
Like many of us who view cars as more than mere transportation, Gerry looked for the potential hot rod and it started by beefing up his 1949 Mercury convertible while still in high school. After high school he served 2 years in the US Army. Along with his regular duties he was appointed a bugler and got a kick out of playing reveille. Gerry was the kind to never pass up a chance to prove he could do something no one else could. While in Korea, one night he drove a head officer from base to base in a drenching rain and deep mud using a Jeep that didn’t have a working clutch. It was the only vehicle available and he bet a weeks wages he could drive the Jeep without a functioning clutch. Easy money for the likes of Gerry.
After the service he attended Paul Smith College in up state New York and received his degree in Forestry and Design Engineering. He later moved west and sold large logging equipment. The kind of work that only enhanced his mechanical knowledge base.
His interest in cars never left him. Mustangs and Lincolns were always catching his attention. His first shot at restoration was a 65 Mustang Mark One Fastback with a beefed up 429. He sold this car, believe it or not, to man standing on a street corner in Livingston Montana. This was officially the beginning of Gerry's career in the automotive restoration business. A career that would eventually lead to the conceptualization and development of a sanding board that could be adjusted and curved.
Beginning in the early 1980’s and for the next twenty years Gerry and his partner operated Carlson’s Classics and produced high-end show car restorations as well as custom hot rods for customers throughout the United States, Australia and England.
Being the consummate perfectionist Gerry complete one car after another, including being sent to England just to prep and sand two very special cars. A hill climbing Allard and a 500hp 289 road racing TVR Griffith. He completed the bodywork on these cars using his prototype concept board. Among Gerry's list of accomplishments was a Jaguar XKE, judged 99.99 at a Jaguar Concourse Show in Florida. One of his favorites was a customer’s request, a 1940 Ford Pickup converted to a 4X4 that was featured in 1995 Street Rod Pickups and in Rod Action.
Without compromise Gerry strived to produce finished paint perfection without ripples or waves. He believed finishes that reflected the true mirror images of its surroundings could only be achieved by perfecting the surface prior to putting down the paint. He further believed the ultimate perfection could be made even more realistic with the tool he conceptualized and the put together with his own hands, his first adjustable cambered sanding board prototype.
When Gerry visualized the idea for an adjustable cambered sanding board he based his concept on the fact that all panels are not perfectly flat, on the contrary, he believed most panels are actually engineered with a slight curvature. The only sanding tools he found on the market for leveling these types of panels were the standard long boards. As every bodyman knows these hard sanding boards are not easy to use on curved or rounded panels, especially if one is looking for a perfect mirror finish. The only other tools on the market were either made of rubber or foam and were not controllable or lockable.
So Gerry took the matter into his own hands. He started building prototypes and engineered several improvements over a period of nine years until he perfected the final design. From there a mold was made and the board was ready for the next step. But tragically, before his concept could be taken into production Gerry suffered a catastrophic medical event and died a few months later. He didn’t get the chance to see his peers get the chance to use what he knew the car restoration world needed – a sanding board that could be flexed and locked into a variety of curvatures to match the surface being leveled and sanded.
It’s out of respect and with a deep desire to not let Gerry’s efforts be for not that his partner in life and in business has picked up the pieces. Therese Maloney Carlson is determined to make sure every body shop out there get’s the chance to use the sanding board that just plain works. Gerry’s Curvecaster.
