Joe Rybicki

THE GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW

By Joe Rybicki – Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Four years ago I first walked into a store called Car Books on Broadway in Englewood, Colorado and met the store owner, a man named Neal East. With each visit to his great store, I learned more about him, but I still did not know his background, until I started to see his name in print in the major hot rod magazines, such as Rodder’s Journal, Hot Rod, and Rod and Custom. Mr. East is a quiet, unassuming gentleman with a singular passion, “Old School Hot Rods”. In his office he showed m(#) four inch thick binders containing all the magazines his cars were featured in or were on the cover. In a conversation with Neal in the summer of 2006, he mentioned that 2007 would be a very special year, being the 75th anniversary of the 1932 Ford V-8. A special tribute to the top seventy five 32 Ford hot rods ever built was planned. The cars were to be displayed in a special exhibit at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California in January.
What made it more exciting was that three of Neal’s former cars were chosen: the Bill Woodard, Neal East and Bill Moeller Sierra Gold Roadster, presently owned by Richard Munz; and the Doane Spencer Roadster, owned today by Bruce Meyer. A five window coupe that Neal and his father built in the 50’s wasn’t available, but was shown in a photographic montage in the display building.




		This is the photo of the Nebraska farm field find of the rusted-out 32 five window coupe body that Mr. Coleman resurrected and built into the Coleman Coupe. He did all the work himself in his backyard garage, the metal work, paint, engine building, upholstery, etc.

   Neal mentioned that he was going to enter his present car; an old school chopped five window Deuce highboy coupe he purchased a few years ago from a Mr. Coleman in Denver.
   The car was a favorite at local car shows and had been completely reconstructed from a find in a Nebraska farm field into a magnificent hot rod.
   Mr. Coleman not only did the body and all mechanical work, but also upholstered the coupe in white tuck and roll, befitting a 50’s Deuce. Since it was the dead of one of Colorado’s worst winters, after the thirteen hundred mile trip to the show, the car would need work.
   So I volunteered my fifty years of detailing experience and asked him to let me detail the car at the show. He looked amazed that someone would make such an offer, but accepted.

As show time neared, I realized that I would not be able to do the detailing job by myself, so I called my best friend and car buddy, Jerry in Detroit, and asked if he would help with Neal’s car. He immediately accepted. When my friend Roy, in Chicago, and my work colleague, John, heard of my plan, they also asked to participate. The Coleman Coupe detailing team was in place.

During the waning months of 2006, John and I put together the required “build book” of the coupe for Neal from twenty year old construction photos provided by Mr. Coleman. The photographs were scanned and electronically reproduced. Neal provided the text and I assembled the book for him, and sent a copy to Mr. Coleman. Neal’s friend, Denver automotive artist Dave Kurz, painted a large water color of Neal’s car which we planned to display next to the car at the show.




	This is the group photo in front of the finish detailed Coleman Coupe of the "imported Colorado detailing crew". The crew consisted of me (first one to the left), my best friend Jerry from Detroit, my friend Roy from Chicago, and my work colleague John from Denver.

Neal obtained set-up day passes for us and we arrived on Wednesday. The following day was set-up day. Man, were we excited to be there! It was hard to believe that we could all make it! Prior to the car’s arrival, Jerry and I had picked a nice spot in Building 7 and rolled out the display carpet. Neal arrived with the very dirty coupe and after a quick wash we rolled it onto the carpet. Jerry brought his commercial buffer and I brought my detailing products. As the four of us detailed the coupe to show car condition, we weren’t aware that a crowd of onlookers gathered.
Owners of other hot rods displayed around Neal’s coupe stopped to ask us for help in detailing their cars. One onlooker asked where our shop was and if we had a business card. I told him we were an “imported detailing team” from Denver, and we worked for the “Love of the Deuce”. After hours of work, the coupe was shining and it was ‘Show Time’.

Walking through the building housing the historic display of Deuces with Neal was an experience the four of us will never forget. The atmosphere inside the special exhibit building was very quiet and subdued, since everyone there held these vehicles in great reverence. For those of us who always dreamed of owning a Deuce, it was a near religious experience. We met Jack Stewart, founder of the LA Roadsters and of which Neal was chairman in the 50’s when he was editor of Rod and Custom, and Tommy Foster from Detroit, whose Deuce was ‘Most Outstanding Car’ in 1953’s Autorama. As we walked the hall, Neal described the cars and the people owned and built them, insights only someone who was there in the heyday of hot rodding in Southern California would know. He told of his good friend Gray Baskerville, whose red roadster was displayed in the same condition as when he owned it, brown primer spotted fenders and all. Neil pointed out the California license plate on it, and said that’s what Dick would say when ever he left. The single word “Adeeose” was on the plate.

It was the kind of insight that Neal provided that will stay with us forever. We feel privileged to know him. To be in the same place with the most famous Deuce hot rods ever built, such as the green channeled roadster that Ricky Nelson drove on the Ozzie and Harriet Show and the Bob Tindle Orange Crate, which we built models of as kids, is a feeling that only those of us who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and who are truly car crazy can appreciate and understand. It is doubtful that there will again be in one location, a gathering of the most famous Deuce hot rods and the people who built them over 50 years ago who still have the passion. Oh, and by the way, the rest of the show was all right too.




			This is a photo of Neal East with his Deuce. He still has the passion for hot rods he had 60 years ago.



				This is a photo of Neal East with one of the three Deuces he owned that were in the top 75 Deuces ever built. It is the Bill Woodward, Neal East, Bill Moeller Sierra Gold Roadster, presently owned by Richard Munz of Madison,Wisconsin.

This is a photo of Neal East with the famous Doane Spencer Roadster he owned. Doane Spencer was the technical editor for Rod & Custom Magazine in the 50's when Neal was editor of the magazine. Doane built the roadster. He died fairly recently and was designing and building the Doane Spencer 2 Roadster, that was on display at the Grand National Roadster Show in pieces. It has now been completed in the style he would have expressed, had he built it in the 50's.There are many more stories and memories about the various historic
Deuces and quite a few of the owner/builders who were there, now in the eighties, but still filled with the passion for Deuce hot rods. For example, when I approached Tommy Foster for a photo with his channeled Deuce roadster that won the Detroit Autorama back in the 50's, he threw away his cane so he could be seen standing by his car. Amazing memories of a historic show. .


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