In its 60th year, Autorama is one of the oldest hot rod shows in the United States, and the Ridler Award has been given for 49 years. To be nominated for the award, the car must have never been shown before. For Pilkenton, his success is also unique — he has entered four cars for the Ridler and won three times, in 1993, 1996 and 1999. He is also entering a car this year.
“I’d have to say my favorite winner is the 1996 car, which also won America’s Most Beautiful Roadster,” he said. “It was a 1937 Ford, and I always liked those cars, and they’re really rare. Ford only built 612 of them, and when I found this one, it was one of about a dozen left in the world. I wanted to build the car for myself but George Poteet of Memphis talked me into building it for him, and we also won Street Rod of the Year.”
Pilkenton was bitten with the car bug in high school and the soon-to-be 60-year-old served his apprenticeship with Butch Bunn of Butch’s Rod Shop in Moraine, spent some time at Brookville Roadster and went out on his own in 1989.
“I really have no idea how many cars I’ve built, it’s literally hundreds,” Pilkenton said. “I have a lot of repeat customers. I’ve built 16 cars for one gentleman. I like to think it’s my attention to detail, and making sure the customer is satisfied with the car.”
At the height of his career, Pilkenton employed 16 people and had developed a product line featuring more than 100 hot rod parts.
“I got sick in 2004 and had to cut back, but Rob Weeks is still with me. He’s my right hand man, and we’re picking up the pace a bit,” he said. “I opened this shop in Carlisle three and a half years ago, and Phil Salisbury has the back half for Carlisle Custom Paint. He does all of the paint work on my cars and while we’ve scaled back, we’ve got five projects going right now and two more cars waiting to get in the shop.
“I’m just a really fortunate guy. I’ve spent my whole life doing what I love, building hot rods, and I’ve made a good living at it,” Pilkenton said. He paused, glanced around the shop and said, “And now, Builder of the Year, Man, I’ve got nothing to complain about.”
Pilkenton and his cars can be seen Feb. 25-26 at Meguiar’s Detroit Autorama at Cobo Center in Detroit, Mich. For hours, directions and cost go online to www.autorama.com.
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