APPG-painted 1933 Ford Roadster, “Renaissance Roadster,” took home the coveted Don Ridler Memorial Award at the 65th Detroit Autorama recently held at
Cobo Center in the heart of the Motor City. Owned by Buddy
Jordan of San Antonio, Texas, and built by Steve Frisbie and
his team at Steve’s Auto Restoration in Portland, Oregon,
Renaissance Roadster garnered the first Ridler award for the
Frisbie team.
Established in 1963, the Ridler Award – the most prestigious
and respected honor in the custom car world – is the highlight
of the Detroit Autorama, presented to the most outstanding custom car or truck making its debut appearance at the show.
The talented crew at Steve’s Auto Restoration used aluminum
and steel shaped from flat metal stock to give the roadster its
winning look. Power was provided courtesy of a modified aluminum big-block V- 8 engine from Chevrolet Performance. The
original design for the Renaissance Roadster came from a sketch
by team member and designer Chris Ito, with additional inspiration from Frisbie and another team member, designer David
Brost. Painter Jay Spencer gave the Ford its dazzling candy-ap-ple red and black appearance, spraying an array of PPG refinish
products. These included DELTRON 2000 DBC9700 Basecoat
Black, DCU 2021 CONCEP T Urethane Clear, DMD1696 Coarse
Silver Dollar Aluminum along with VIBRANCE COLLECTION
RADIANCE II DMX214 Red Violet and DMX213 Red (Blue
Shade) Dye and CRYSTALLANCE VM4501 silver glass flake.
The Ridler winner is selected from a field of eight finalists
collectively known as the Great Eight. Just qualifying for this
elite group is a significant achievement, and PPG-painted vehicles were well represented. “After Thought,” a 1930 Ford Model
A Coupe owned by Ted and Colleen Hubbard and built by Andy
Leach and his team at CAL Automotive Creations in Omaha,
Nebraska, was among the finalists. It has an old-school look
created by Charley Hutton at Charley Hutton Color Studio in
Nampa, Idaho. He gave the car body its “Paleozoic Sea Blue”
finish using ENVIROBASE High Performance waterborne
basecoat. Accent colors include Pepper Grey on the engine and
chassis, “After Thought Gold” on the wheels and Titanium on
the blower. GLOBAL REFINISH SYSTEM D8152 Performance
+ Glamour Clearcoat was used on the body and D8115 Matte
Clearcoat on the satin colors.
“Split Ray,” a 1966 Corvette owned by Dennis Johnson and
built by Scott Roth and Brian Hartwell at The Auto Shoppe in
South Burlington, Vermont, also made the cut. The car, painted
by several of the shop’s crew members, owes its custom Shark
Skin Grey Metallic finish to a combination of PPG products including AQUABASE Plus waterborne basecoat, NEXA
AUTOCOLOR P565-3125 Wet on Wet Sealer Grey, and Deltron
DC4000 Velocity Premium Clearcoat.
Ed Sears’ “Gold Standard,” a gleaming 1941 Ford pickup
built by Gary Corkell and the team at One Off Rod & Custom
in Middletown, Delaware, caught the Great Eight judges’ eyes.
Corkell, along with Kevin Bluzzard, used Envirobase High
Performance basecoat, ECP15 A-Chromatic Surfacer – Gray, and
a custom-color mix “Brown Sugar” with Vibrance Collection
Crystallance VM4505 topaz glass flake for the glowing finish.
Also in the Great Eight and sporting a stunning PPG finish
was George Poteet’s 1932 Ford, “The GPT,” from Johnson’s Hot
Road Shop in Gadsden, Alabama, a PPG shop since 1995.
An additional Autorama honor, the Lokar/STREET
RODDER Driven Award, went to a 1949 Cadillac convertible owned by Tracy Chapman and built by her husband,
Harold, and his crew at Customs & Hot Rods of Andice in
Georgetown, Texas. Shop foreman Michael Kaiser had expert
painter Lance Nelson give the Caddy its lustrous white-and-blue satin finish with Deltron 2000 DBC Basecoat, a special
blend of tints and toners and Global Refinish System D8152
Performance + Glamour Clearcoat. All that Cadillac sheet
metal was finished in PPG custom white paint, contrasted by a
dark blue cloth top. Customs & Hot Rods of Andice also won
the PPG Outstanding Paint award with a 1932 Ford finished
in Envirobase High Performance basecoat and Global Refinish
System D8152 Performance + Glamour Clearcoat and D8117
Semi-Gloss Clearcoat. The car features Vibrance Collection
Crystallance colors “Smoking Gun” on the body and “Brown
Sugar” on the wheels.
The Don Ridler Memorial Award, commonly called the
Ridler Award, is named for the man who made the Detroit
Autorama the nation’s premier custom car show. The owner
of the winning car receives a cash award and a special embroidered jacket along with the greater prize of the coveted
Ridler Award trophy, which represents the ultimate in custom
design brilliance. CW
PPG-painted Ford Roadster Wins Ridler Award
