At the 2017 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Jonathan Goolsby of Goolsby Customsin Bessemer Ala. won the Glasurit Best Paint Award for his Glasurit Cabernet Goolsby Edition colour, out of more than 20 entries.
The finish was applied to a stunning 1940 Ford convertible owned by Debbie Walls.
Goolsby, who received the award from automotive celebrity designer and builder Chip Foose, worked with BASF’s Colour Expert Paul Czornij to come up with the one-of-a-kind hue, marking the first completed example of BASF’s custom Color Ideation process.
Collision Management caught up with Goolsby and asked him about why he chose the colour and the car, as well as what got him on the road to building hot rods in the first place.
How did you get started building hot rods?
I used to play around with race cars as a kid, designing and building them. Many of the people I knew with race cars also owned hot rods, and I thought if I could build race cars I could build and paint hot rods—it kind of snowballed from there. Before long, I’d opened my own shop.
Tell us a little about this particular car?
This one, called Lucille, was built for Debbie Walls, the wife of Skip Walls who founded Lokar Performance Products. It was one of their first hot rods that got torn apart and sat for around 25 years. When we got the car and began the build, the goal was an early 1950s traditional style hot rod. It has a lot of custom touches, including a 1948 Ford convertible top, 1946 Chevrolet bumpers, a 1939 Ford front grille and 1950 Studebaker taillights.
What about the paint finish? How did that come together?
We wanted to create a colour that was deep and matched the traditional flavour of this car but something that would also pop in the sunlight. When you get up close, the pearl really comes out. Working with BASF allowed us to develop a completely one-off custom colour. It was a great experience. Paul [Czornij] and his team were always just a phone call away. No matter the time, whether it was day or night, we were able to get the technical support to make this colour come to life.”
How does it feel winning the Glasurit award with a car like this?
It’s great because for our shop it also represents something a little different. We are known for building muscle cars and this 1940 Ford shows that we can do something different. It’s especially great for Skip and Debbie too because now this car is back together after such a long time.