Darryl Hollenbeck Claims 2016 AMBR Award with PPG-painted Roadster

Acclaimed custom car builder and painter Darryl Hollenbeck won the 2016 America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) award at the Grand National Roadster Show (GNRS) at the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona, California. It is the third time Hollenbeck has painted an AMBR winner, and the first time he captured the prize with his own car—a PPG-painted 1932 Ford highboy roadster. The GNRS started in 1950 and is the longest-running indoor car show in the world, and the AMBR, a towering eight-foot-tall trophy, is considered the ultimate recognition for a roadster-style hot rod.

This year a field of 13 outstanding cars built by the elite of the custom car world competed for the prestigious award. In the end, the judges named Darryl and Terri Hollenbeck’s classically styled roadster the winner, adding another honor to Darryl’s long list of accomplishments that include AMBR wins in 2013 and 2005.

Hollenbeck and his colleagues Dan Webb and Cory Taulbert built the car at Vintage Color Studio, the custom shop Hollenbeck owns and operates in Concord, California, and where he has used PPG products exclusively for more than 25 years. He then painted the car himself, designing the roadster’s unique color, dubbed “Rotten Avocado Green,” by applying a custom mix created with the PPG ENVIROBASE High Performance waterborne paint system along with Single-Stage DCC9300 from the DELTRON refinish system.

“Winning an AMBR is a dream; to win it with my own car, wow, I’m over the moon about that,” Hollenbeck said. “As for the color, it is different. My wife wanted brown; I wanted green. Depending on the light, you see one color or the other—or both. The great thing was that the PPG paint was easy to work with. It gave us the chance to experiment, to really stretch our imaginations and come up with something cool.” Hollenbeck is prominent among Northern California’s custom car set. His well-respected eye for color has led to his paint jobs being highlighted on vehicles that have graced the covers and photo spreads of notable publications such as Street Rodder and Rodder’s Journal. Several Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance show winners also displayed Hollenbeck’s painting skills.