Art Himsl

Art Himsl’s older brother Joe had this 1941 Ford Coupe in high school in the early 1950s, and rumor has it that it was an old Barris Kustom. "It was a lot of fun. Every once in a while he let me drive it. He was in the Navy. And he was running between here and Long Beach all the time." Art striped the dashboard on Joe’s coupe. It was in primer, and he remembers that it changed color almost once a week. "Primer was cheap. He never got paint on it. It was always just primer. I don’t know what happened to that car, but it was pretty neat." Art remembers that it had blue glass in the speedometer and all, and that was pretty cool back in those days. Photo from The Art Himsl Photo Collection.

There was never a lack of cool cars in front of the Himsl house in Concord, California back in the 1950s and the 1960s. This photo shows three of Art Himsl's high school hot rods parked on the street. Photo from The Art Himsl Photo Collection.

"I don’t know. It was OK," that’s how Art described The Alien in 2019 "It did what it was supposed to do. All I wanted to do was to win that show (America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Award). And it worked. I named it The Alien, just because it was kind of strange-looking. It ran good and everything, but I didn’t like it, so I sold it.” When Sondre Kvipt asked Art why he didn’t like it he replied; "Number 1. You couldn’t see anything with the top on. So I didn’t like it, and I sold it at the show." Art sold it the car to Bill Roach who owned a Budget car rental agency. Photo from The Art Himsl Photo Collection.

By the early 1970s, demand for custom-painted vans had reached a level few could have imagined just a decade earlier. At Himsl & Haas Custom Paint Studio in Northern California, Art and his small crew suddenly found themselves doing volume work at an industrial pace, turning out as many as forty custom vans a week during the height of the van craze. What began as custom painting quickly became more like a factory operation. Photo from The Art Himsl Photo Collection.

Kustomrama Mini Documentary: Himsl & Haas - Custom Van Paint Factory In the early 1970s, custom vans took over America! Wild colors, psychedelic graphics, and nonstop demand. At the center of it all was legendary custom painter Art Himsl, running a shop that turned out 40 vans every single week. Using rare photos from The Art Himsl Photo Collection and newly digitized interviews, this Kustomrama mini-documentary tells the story of Himsl & Haas, the custom van paint factory Art never wanted to remember.

A photo from The Art Himsl Collection showing Ray Goulart's 1950 Oldsmobile parked outside Himsl & Haas Custom Paint Studio in Concord, California. Gene Winfield originally painted the Olds, taking it through Candy Copper, a gold-to-red Flake fade, and finally Candy Red. The Candy Red was resprayed a couple of times over the years, and this may well be one of those occasions. Photo from The Art Himsl Collection.

Andy Brizio's 1915 Ford Model T C-Cab Panel Truck featured a ribbon paint job by Art Himsl. Named "Instant T," the car was built mainly to drive to the Street Rod Nationals in Memphis, Tennessee, in August of 1971. At the show, it won the "Best Appearing Car" award in competition with 1,500 other cars. Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham bought the truck and shipped it to England, where it later appeared in the film The Song Remain the Same. Photo from The Art Himsl Collection.

Richard Zocchi's Second 1962 Pontiac Grand Prix was restyled by Lucky 7 Custom for Richard Zocchi of Walnut Creek, California. The car was built as a chopped clone of a 1962 Pontiac Grand Prix that Gene Winfield restyled for Zocchi in 1962. The build was completed in 2002. Art and Marcos applied the fadeaway paint job.

Frank Livingston's 1949 Chevrolet Fleetline, the Caribbean II, of San Leandro, California. Frank's fourth 1949 Chevrolet was built as a recreation of his first 1949 Chevrolet, the Caribbean. The recreation was restyled by OZ Welch, and the build was completed in 2002. In 2007 Art gave the car a scallop paint job.

Matt Taylor's 1927 Dodge roadster of Concord, California. Named the Fool's Goldster, Matt's roadster was one of the contenders for the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award at the 2017 Grand National Roadster Show. The build was completed in January of 2017, featuring a yellow and Pearl Murano paint job by Art.

Art Himsl (born March 21, 1940 in St Cloud, Minnesota) is a custom painter and pinstriper from Concord, California, known as one of the most accomplished custom car painters of his generation. Art started practicing pinstriping in 1956 at the age of 16, and around 1964-65 he opened up Himsl Custom Paint Studio together with his partner Ned Stilinovich in Concord, California. Painting jobs by Art have appeared on a long list of award-winning hot rods and customs, including the 1969 Oakland Roadster Show America's Most Beautiful Roadster winner Alien and Andy Brizio's Instant T, which won the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award in 1970. Art was inducted into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame in 1992, and was named Builder of the Year at the 1995 Grand National Roadster Show.

Early Life

Art was born in St Cloud, Minnesota on March 21, 1940. He grew up with three brothers, and his older brother was named Joe, while his younger brother Mickey would go on to become a known hot rodder in his own right. According to Art, he had been interested in cars since the day he was born; "I have been messing around with cars since I was a little kid," Art told Sondre Kvipt when he was interviewing him for the Kustomrama story in 2019. "My dad was in the FBI, but he got tired of the politics and everything and said to the hell with it. We moved to San Diego around 1946. We then moved from there up here to Concord cause my aunt and uncle were living here." Art and his family stayed with their aunt and uncle in the same house that Art ran his shop out of decades later. His aunt and uncle originally sold the house, but Art ended up buying it back in 1973. Back then, Art's wife, who he met in college, was into horses, so they needed a place with enough room for horses. When the last horse went away, all the stalls ended up as garages. "So it worked out great," Art told Kustomrama. By age 10, Art was building model cars, customizing and painting their bodies. He went on to motor scooters, motorcycles, and then cars. Art had a lot of motorcycles, mostly BSA's and Triumphs. "I don't like Harleys that much. They are like a tractor compared to sports cars. You know, Triumphs and BSA's, they feel good." One day Art hit a Packard while riding. He went over the top of it and woke up a couple of days later. "Well, that was the end of my motorcycle career. It was fun while I was doing it, but I got into cars, and from then on, it was all cars."

Pinstriping and Early Paint Jobs

Art liked painting, so he started practicing pinstriping in 1956 when he was 16 years old. "That got into spraypainting after that, and that's all I've done. My whole life." There were only three or four stripers in Northern California when Art started striping. "There was Tommy the Greek, me, and one or two other guys." Art was self-taught. "In magazines, I would see stuff that Larry Watson was doing down in LA. Him, Dean Jeffries, and Ed Roth, and just go from there." Art started striping with a watercolor brush. At the time, he did not know that you could buy striping brushes. The first car Art painted was a 1936 Ford. In an interview Tim Phelps did with Art for his book Up in Flames, Art told Tim that he learned some valuable lessons from his early mistakes; "I used a pump garden bug sprayer, which didn't work so well. My second attempt was with spray cans. It took 13 cans of paint to do one fender, so I decided it was time to get a real spray gun and compressor." Art painted his Model A Truck around 1956-57. "I painted it in my mom's garage. Yeah, I was still living at home then." A few years earlier, in 1954, he had landed a part-time job at Concord Auto Body, a local body shop in town. While he was working at the shop, he was restyling his 1949 Chevrolet, everyday driver. "I picked up pieces and parts, like the grille and so on, at the shop. I did everything on it, both the bodywork and the paint." The car featured Art's first scallop paint job. After that, Art painted a few similar paint jobs. "The problem back in them days was that nobody had any money. Back in the fifties, you didn't get noticed if you didn't live in LA. Roth, Jeffries, and Barris didn't need to go out to get stories in the magazines. They were all covered down there in LA. If you weren't in LA, you didn't get noticed."

Education

Art never cared about academic stuff in school. "When it comes to spelling and typing, I figured I'm never going to need this. I'd rather be out making some money. If I need somebody to type a letter, I'll hire somebody. Now I look at it saying, 'Well, the only person I screwed was myself with that deal,' but I was having too much fun playing around with cars. I didn't care about school. I went to college for a couple of years. You see, I couldn't figure out why I did one paint job, and everything went smoothly, and it came out beautiful. Then I do another one, and I'd fight it. It just wasn't working. So I went to arts and crafts and took a design and color theory class. That's all I wanted to learn. And shit, while I was there, they offered me a job teaching in airbrush and striping. But it was weird because I was thinking, 'You're offering me a job? I'm no teacher. That's the last thing I want to do!'"

Aerojet and the Home Shop

Art had a lot of jobs, and around 1963 he opened a part-time shop in his home garage. Back then, he used to work for Aerojet in San Ramon, an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer. "I painted for them for about three years out of high school. One day I was sitting there, looking at the clock, and figuring out, 'You're buying my life for 2 dollars and 78 cents an hour.' So I took a leave of absence and opened up my own shop."

Himsl Custom Paint Studio

Art took on a partner, Ned Stilinovich, and opened up Himsl Custom Paint Studio in Concord, California, around 1964-65. In the early days, it was just a little one-stall shop, but it worked out pretty well, "and I never went back to work!" Painting in the new shop was a big improvement for Art. At his house, to paint a big car like a Cadillac, he had to shoot the front end first, turn the car around, and then shoot the rear. "In the beginning, we would do a lot of stuff that you would consider lowrider stuff now, but it really wasn't lowriders in its days. To me, the guys that are having fun now are the lowrider painters cause they got a free hand to do whatever the hell they want to do. Back in the day, we got to the point where we got a free hand on what we were painting, but to start with, it was pretty conservative. Then it got a little bit looser." In the mid-1960s, Art did a lot of 1966 Buicks. "They were really popular. It kind of went in phases. In the early sixties, we did nothing but motorcycles for a while. That and a lot of boats."

The Moonshiner T

In 1963 Art laid a chartreuse and violet Metalflake panel paint job on his little brother Mickey Himsl's 1927 Ford Model T. Named the Moonshiner, the car landed the cover of the June 1963 issue of Rod & Custom Magazine. The car was made from the front half of a 1927 Ford T touring and had been shown at the Oakland Roadster Show in 1959, when it was owned by a guy named Larry Selmer. Three years later, Mickey traded his 1929 Ford Model A pickup for $700 and the frame and body. He rebuilt the car, and Art gave it a chartreuse and violet Metalflake panel paint job. Art also pinstriped the car and stitched a custom tuck and roll upholstery for it.

The Mod Rod

The same year Art started building a 1916 Dodge Phaeton for himself. It featured a 1916 Dodge roadster pickup cab that he mated to the back of a 1927 Ford T touring. The frame and fuel tank were all aluminum, courtesy of Aerojet. Art was still living at home with his parents when he started the build. The build took four years and was completed in 1967. Featuring a striking faded candy tangerine paint job with multi-hued flames, it was shown as the Mod Rod at the 1967 Oakland Roadster Show. Classed as a Rod Phaeton, it was not eligible for competing for the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award. It took home the "Glamour Rod of the Year" award. The car has also become known as "The Painter's Bucket." Art's buddy Reinhard Moody was building a similar roadster alongside Art. Moody's roadster was a Dodge body with a Model T back section and grille shell. The two were building the cars together, helping each other out. Moody's roadster received a matching blue metallic paint job with multi-hued flames, and it was shown next to Art's Dodge at the 1967 National Roadster Show. In 1968 Art was invited to show the Mod Rod at the San Francisco Art Institute. "It was a show they held there, and my car ended up as a centerfold in Rolling Stones magazine because of that show." Titled "Contemporary Folk Art: The Hot Rod Aesthetic," the show at the San Francisco Art Institute included Art's Dodge and two choppers that he had also painted. Around 1970 Art traded the Dodge to his brother Mickey for a complete Dragmaster chassis for a Model T. Mickey owned the Dodge for about a year before he sold it. In 2005 Art was able to buy the car back in pieces. He restored the car back to how it once appeared, giving it a paint job similar to the one he gave it in the 1960s.

The Alien

Art wanted to win the big one at the Oakland Roadster Show, so he teamed up with his brother Mickey and set out to build a futuristic fiberglass show rod called the Alien. "That was the one that I won the AMBR with in 69. I did not know how to weld, so I built the body in my backyard just out of wood and fiberglass. I put in on a Dragmaster chassis." Mickey had traded off his personal C-cab to Harry Costa for a Dragmaster chassis and a sedan body. Art wanted the chassis and Mickey the body, so they parceled out the project. The radical build featured a lay-down interior and a plexiglass roof inset, and it was finished with a step-paneled green paint job. The Alien debuted at the 1969 Oakland Roadster Show, and it did what it was supposed to do; "All I wanted to do was win that show. And it worked. I named it the Alien because it looked kind of strange. It ran well and everything, but I didn't like it, so I sold it at the show." When Sondre Kvipt asked him why he didn't like it, Art replied; "Number 1. You couldn't see anything with the top on. So I didn't like it, and I sold it at the show." Art sold the car to Bill Roach, who owned a Budget car rental agency. The Alien was displayed next to a trike that Mickey built. Named "The Mantis" (also known as "The Praying Mantis"), Mickey's three-wheeler featured a matching step-paneled green paint job by Art. The body was designed by Art and Mickey. Steve Archer made a mold, and the bodies were sold as kits. The trike was featured in Choppers Magazine, a motorcycle magazine run by Ed Roth.

The Instant T

After winning the America's Most Beautiful Roadster Award in 1969, Andy Brizio came by Art's shop to talk about paint. Brizio had won the Sweepstakes a few years in a row with his Instant T, but he could not quite get it over the top, so he stopped by Art for some advice. Art told Andy to leave the car with him for six months so he could paint it. "If you don't like it, we can paint it after the show," he told Andy. Art laid down a psychedelic ribbon paint job, putting the car over the top. It won the America's Most Beautiful Roadster Award in 1970, also putting Art over the top, as he by now had become known as one of the best painters in the custom car business. Andy Brizio's Instant T C-cab Panel truck also featured a ribbon paint job by Art. The car was built mainly to drive to the Street Rod Nationals in Memphis, Tennessee, in August of 1971. At the show, it won the "Best Appearing Car" award in competition with 1,500 other cars. Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham bought the truck and shipped it to England, where it later appeared in the film The Song Remains the Same. Andy's Instant T featured a Himsl paint job with character drawings on each side by his wife Ellen, showing the people who had a hand in building it, including Ken Foster of AAction Auto Interiors, Bob Burton who did the custom wiring, Carl Mattman of C&M Plating, Steve Archer of Archer's Fiberglass, welder Ray Callejo, and project ramrod Jerry Stitch.

Downtown Concord Shop and the Van Era

By 1968 Art and Ned had opened up their first formal shop in downtown Concord. Around that time, the business really boomed, as Art started taking on custom paint jobs for van conversion outfits. "We prepped six cars every day and painted six cars every day." Art and his crew did about 40 vans a week for three years. The work was overwhelming, so Art made Mike Haas his partner. Haas, who is Joe Bailon's son, left Barris Kustoms to work for Art in the late 1960s. "He was doing a good job for me, so I gave him part of the business." In 1973, when the oil crisis began, the van business stopped overnight. Art had to lay off people when it stopped, but he was happy because he wanted to get back to doing nice stuff. "I hated vans, but I loved the money," Art once told Chris Shelton.

Unlimited Promotions and the San Mateo Auto Show

Art did not just attend shows to compete. In the late sixties, he began promoting his own shows. "I had eight car shows. Ed Green was my partner, and we had a company called Unlimited Promotions." In April of 1970, Art sponsored the first annual Northern California Custom Motorcycle Show in Concord. Art's paint business was now profitable enough to allow him to also buy the rights to the already well-established San Mateo Auto Show from Harry Costa. After buying the show, Art renamed it the San Mateo Auto, Boat and Cycle Show. Phil Finch of the San Francisco Examiner interviewed Art before the 1972 San Mateo show, and according to the story, there were almost 40 exhibits on the floor that sported one of his paint jobs. "You made money on one show and lost money on another. At the end of the year, you look back and ask yourself was it worth all the trouble?" The booming business and the shows became too much for Art to handle in the seventies. "It was kind of fun, but my wife finally said, 'Hey, it's either me or the shows because you're going in too many directions.' She was right, so Ed ended up with the shows. Then he got killed in an auto accident, and it all just went away."

The 1970s

After the van-bubble burst, Art went back to doing a lot of boats. "In the seventies, everything kind of died down. Nobody was doing anything too wild. Everything was pretty conservative." The Cycletron was the creation of Art and Bob Dron in 1973. The duo wanted something that would be both decorative and functional. Art and Dennis Craig did most of the work, following Dron's design. It was then decorated with a multi-color ribbon paint job. In 1974 Art painted a C-cab tow truck for Jerry Stitch. Art also published an illustration catalog containing a portfolio of ready-to-transfer illustrations.

Retirement and Return

In the mid-1980s, Art got bored, and in 1985 he formally shut the shop down. He enjoyed retirement for a short period of time, but it did not take long before he was back in business doing custom paint in a shop he had at his home. Again it worked out pretty well, and he kept doing it every day. "A lot of fun," he told Kustomrama. "It's funny, but it goes around through the sixties. I was doing flames back in the fifties, then that kind of died out before it came back really, really strong in the 1990s. It all seems to go around. What's popular today will die out; something else will come in tomorrow. It all goes around." Art has kept the name of his shop pretty much the same all these years. "When you first open up, trying to make a living doing nothing but custom paint, it is a little tough," he admitted. "Most of the other guys that were doing the same things were doing bodywork and everything else. We didn't get into doing the bodywork. We just did paint, and it worked out really well. I don't know anyone else that has made it just doing the painting. Most guys do bodywork, paint, and anything else." Art did the bodywork on his own stuff but not on customers' cars.

Hall of Fame and Comeback

In the late eighties and the nineties, everything came back real strong for Art. "Like, for Brizio, we were doing a whole lot of fine jobs. It was just going kind of crazy there again for a while. But like I said. Things kind of die, but then they come back. It's weird. I don't know where it's all headed now with the driverless cars and all that. Things are changing really fast, and I hope people can keep up with it." In 1992 Art was inducted into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame. Art's list of regular customers at the time included the likes of Bill Reasoner, Andy and Roy Brizio, Richard Zocchi, John D'Agostino, and Mickey Galloway. Noted builders that helped Art back in the spotlight again, and three years later, he was given the Builder of the Year award at the 1995 Grand National Roadster Show. Not having a car to show at the 1995 Grand National Roadster Show, the year he was honored as Builder of the Year, Art teamed up with Bill Reasoner and Mickey Galloway to restyle his old 1958 Chevrolet wagon prior to the show. He had owned the car in the late 1960s, sold it, and bought it back several years later. By then, it had been chopped by Rod Powell.

Later Work

In the 2000s and 2010s, Art continued painting. "Today Art just picks and chooses his projects. Doing what he wants. Right now, everything is pretty conservative. There are a lot of just straight colors, which to me is boring, but it's OK, you know. Whatever. There is always somebody out there that has enough guts to try something different. You know, be different. I've always been that way anyway. It has been fun. A lot of crazy stuff, and it's not done yet. It has been a busy life. I never had time for kids, but it worked out real well…"

Favorite Paint Job

Art's favorite paint job ever was the purple and gold scallops George Barris and Junior Conway originally laid on the Ala Kart. Art and Darryl Hollenbeck painted the restored version of the car for John Mumford. "It was done in good taste. It wasn't overdone, but yet you couldn't miss it. It grabbed you. I really liked that."

Personal Rides

Art Himsl's 1916 Dodge Phaeton - The Painter's Bucket
Art Himsl's Alien
1929 Ford Model A Pick-Up truck — Art's first real car, given a custom green paint job with striping. Later passed down to his brother Mickey Himsl. Model T Roadster Pick Up — Drove in high school in the late 1950s, hopped up with an Oldsmobile V8. 1949 Chevrolet — His everyday driver while working at Concord Auto Body; featured Art's first scallop paint job. 1950 Oldsmobile — Mildly restyled, also drove in high school. 1934 Ford Tudor sedan 1916 Dodge Phaeton (The Mod Rod / "The Painter's Bucket") — 1967 Oakland Roadster Show Glamour Rod of the Year. Sold around 1970, bought back in pieces in 2005, restored. Alien — Built with Mickey Himsl, won America's Most Beautiful Roadster at the 1969 Oakland Roadster Show. Sold at the show to Bill Roach. 1958 Chevrolet wagon — Owned in the late 1960s, later restyled together with Bill Reasoner and Mickey Galloway for the 1995 Grand National Roadster Show. Himsl Zeppelin Roadliner — A rare prototype Housecar made by Chris Craft Motor Boats in 1937. Art bought it in 1968, used it as an office for some years, then restored and restyled it in 1999.

Cars Restyled by Art Himsl

Andy Brizio's 1915 Ford Model T C-Cab Panel Truck - Instant T
Matt Taylor's 1927 Dodge Roadster - The Fool's Goldster
Frank Livingston's 1949 Chevrolet Fleetline - The Caribbean II
Richard Zocchi's Second 1962 Pontiac Grand Prix
Joe Himsl's 1941 Ford Coupe — Art striped the dashboard in primer in the early 1950s. Mickey Himsl's 1927 Ford Model T (Moonshiner) — Chartreuse and violet Metalflake panel paint job, 1963. Cover of the June 1963 issue of Rod & Custom Magazine. Mickey Himsl's "Mickey's Mouse" 1929 Ford Model A truck — Painted by Art and Brandon Flaner in 2016. Mickey Himsl's "The Mantis" trike — Matching step-paneled green paint job to the Alien. Reinhard Moody's roadster — Blue metallic paint job with multi-hued flames, shown at the 1967 Oakland Roadster Show. Mike Foster's T-bucket (The Expression) — Psychedelic paint job, 1969. Andy Brizio's Instant T — Psychedelic ribbon paint job, won America's Most Beautiful Roadster in 1970. Andy Brizio's Instant T C-cab Panel truck — Ribbon paint job, won "Best Appearing Car" at the 1971 Street Rod Nationals in Memphis, Tennessee. Later owned by John Bonham. 1967 Chevrolet Impala — Fade and panel paint job, prior to 1968. Bob Dron's Cycletron — Multi-color ribbon paint job, 1973. Jerry Stitch's C-cab tow truck — 1974. Dean Jeffries's Mantaray — Colorful paint job. Joe Moreno's 1941 Ford Coupe — Flame paint job, shown at the 1991 Grand National Roadster Show. John Conley's 1941 Ford Convertible — Restyled for Conley by Bill Reasoner with paint by Art in the 1990s. Richard Zocchi's Furys 1 1959 Plymouth Fury — Chartreuse and off-white paint job with a subtle flake inset and a hint of red pearl on the roof. Richard Zocchi's 1950 Oldsmobile — Pearl yellow paint job, December 1993. Richard Zocchi's 1956 Chrysler — Two-tone Metallic Tiffany's Turquoise and pearl paint job, December 1995. Ala Kart (restored version) — Purple and gold scallops, painted with Darryl Hollenbeck for John Mumford. Playbunny Coach — A chopped and sectioned 1955 Chevrolet Nomad originally restyled in the late 1960s; received one of Art's colorful 1990s paint jobs after a restoration around 1999. Lars Theander's Mystery Bird 1958 Ford Thunderbird — Joint project between Art, Ray Hill, and Pekka Wizzzard Mannermaa, painted together at the 2008 Custom Motor Show in Sweden. Matt Taylor's Fool's Goldster 1927 Dodge roadster — 2017. One of the 13 contenders for the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award at the 2017 Grand National Roadster Show; took home the George Barris Kustom D'Elegance Award.

Clubs

East Bay Rods — Art, Mickey, and their older brother Joe were charter members.

Magazine Features

Rod & Custom Magazine, June 1963 — Moonshiner cover feature. Rolling Stone magazine, 1968 — Centerfold feature on the Mod Rod from the San Francisco Art Institute "Contemporary Folk Art: The Hot Rod Aesthetic" show. Rod & Custom Magazine, July 1970 — Andy Brizio's Instant T Oakland Roadster Show winner cover feature. Choppers Magazine — Feature on "The Praying Mantis" trike. San Francisco Examiner, 1972 — Phil Finch interview before the San Mateo Auto, Boat and Cycle Show.

Awards

1967 Oakland Roadster Show — "Glamour Rod of the Year" with the Mod Rod. 1969 Oakland Roadster Show — America's Most Beautiful Roadster with the Alien. 1970 Oakland Roadster Show — America's Most Beautiful Roadster for paint on Andy Brizio's Instant T. 1971 Street Rod Nationals — "Best Appearing Car" for paint on Andy Brizio's Instant T C-cab Panel truck. 1992 — Inducted into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame. 1995 Grand National Roadster Show — Builder of the Year. 2017 Grand National Roadster Show — George Barris Kustom D'Elegance Award for paint on the Fool's Goldster.