PPG honored two outstanding customized vehicles with its PPG Dream Car award at the 14th annual Goodguys PPG Nationals held at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus, Ohio, July 8-10. The vehicles were a 1962 Plymouth panel truck owned by Barry and Vicky Cawley of Hardy, Va., and a 1957 Ford Thunderbird owned by Ken and Darlene Wallace of Parish, Fla.
The PPG Dream Car awards are given to the two vehicles at the Goodguys PPG Nationals judged to best demonstrate outstanding color, design, gloss and execution in a paint job. Both vehicles easily met, and surpassed, the winning criteria.
The Cawleys’ panel truck, an original factory conversion of a 1962 Plymouth Valiant, quickly caught the judges’ eyes with its red flake finish, achieved with PPG’s Liquid Crystal Candy Apple Red from the Vibrance Collection with Deltron DBC Basecoat, followed by DCU2002 Concept High Solids Polyurethane Clearcoat. The truck was given to Barry Cawley in 1972 as a Christmas present. He fabricated most of the components in customizing it. Vicky Cawley selected the color, specialist Tim Degraff painted the truck, and PPG distributor Blue Ridge Color Company of Roanoke, Va., provided the paint.
Beyond the finish, the truck features a 5.7 Hemi engine, baseball-glove leather interior and a custom dash. Cawley was quite excited to receive the award.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I was in shock. Winning took me completely by surprise.”
Ken Wallace had a similar response to winning.
“It was overwhelming,” he said. “This was the experience of a lifetime.”
The Wallaces initially restored their Thunderbird to mint showroom condition and then decided they really wanted a street rod. Wallace did most of the work himself with help from son Jason and friends Doug Baran and Kevin Klispie. The car features a supercharged, 1,000-horsepower Ford 427 SOHC engine, custom headers, Ford C6 transmission and an ostrich leather interior. But it was the paint job that took the prize: a custom-blended, blue finish with flames dancing on the hood and sides. The Wallaces came up with the original design. It was executed by Wes Adkins of Wild Wes Paintworks, Dover, Ohio. Adkins used PPG’s Deltron DBC500 Basecoat and DCU2002 Clearcoat along with Vibrance Collection Midnight Sapphire topcoat and O-So-Orange, Yella, and Candy Apple Red Liquid Crystal toners and tints.
The Goodguys Rod & Custom Association is one of the world’s largest rod and custom associations with nearly 70,000 members around the world. The association promotes and produces some of the world’s most dynamic automotive events including the annual nationals show in Columbus, Ohio. PPG exhibits at every national and many regional Goodguys events and is the official paint supplier to the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association.
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