Harry Westergard

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Harry Westergard and his wife Ruth

Norm Milne's 1931 Ford Roadster

Gene Garret's 1936 Ford

Norm Milne's 1938 Ford

Mel Falconer's 1939 Ford

Harold Ohanesian's 1940 Mercury

Butler Rugard's 1940 Mercury

Butler Rugard's 1947 Chevrolet

Jerry Fassett's 1947 Chevrolet

Harry Westergard of Sacramento, California is a pioneer in the world of Kustom cars. Harry was born in 1916. In the late twenties or early thirties he moved from Michigan to Sacramento.

Harry started building cars in the late 1930's. He did not have a shop, so he did all of his work in his garage at home on Fulton Avenue. Harry used to hang out at Jack Stax's Flying A gas station at the corner of 18th and L streets, near the State Capitol Building. In the late 1930s Harry had a modified Model A roadster he thought was pretty fast, but so did some other young guys, like Norm Milne and Dick Bertolucci. Street racing was all these young bucks could do, as there were no facilities for organized competitions. They raced after dark, usually just a block or two ahead of the local police. The war interrupted the nights at Jack's Flying A station, and all was quiet until the summer of 1945. In 1945 Norm decided to form a club in order to legitimize their activities and to try to get rid of the outlaw stigma. The first meeting of the newly formed club, the Capitol Auto Club, was held in Westergard's chicken coup shop on Fulton Avenue in September 1945. The club went on to be the Thunderbolts Car Club.

Harry was known as a man that cared about other people, especially young people. According to Teen Angel, and his "Cruise Into the Past" story that he wrote for Lowrider Magazine March 1980, high school kids used to come around his backyard shop to learn about customizing cars. He always took time out to show them how to do things that would help the appearance of their cars. Two of these kids were George and Sam Barris.

In 1955 Harry bought himself a brand new 1955 Ford Thunderbird. After loosing a street race against two cops in a brand new Buick, he decided to hop the car up, so he ordered an Iskendarian cam from Bertolucci's Body and Paint Shop. Harry loved to race, and one late Sunday night April 29, 1956 he raced along the River Road, heading back home to Sacramento from Walnut Grove. A guy pulled out in front of Harry, Harry was going at least 100 miles an hour when he tried to swerve to miss the car. He hit a three at full speed, and died in the crash. The car came off in two parts, split on the middle.

At the time he died, Harry had been divorced from his wife, and he was really broken up. He quit doing metalwork and started to work for a muffler shop instead. When Dick Bertolucci heard this he went straight over to Harry and told him that he was wasting his talent. Dick offered Harry twice as much as he was earning in the muffler shop if he would begin working for Dick instead. Harry accepted, and when he died he had been working for Dick Bertolucci at Bertolucci's Body and Paint Shop for 6 months.

Thousands of cars attended Harry's funeral. In an interview with Garage Magazine, Dick Bertolucci told that the day after Harry died, he called Iskendarian to cancel that cam order for Harry's Thunderbird.