Andy Graybeal

The Boulevard Cruiser is one of Andy's designs from 1952. It was designed to fill the personal runabout market, like the T-Bird or the first Corvette, only about three years in advance of them, as it turned out. It featured tunneled-type headlights and flushed rear wheel covers.

This photo, taken across the street from Gordon Vann's Body Shop shows an aluminum-bodied coupe that Andy helped design during the years of 1953-1954. Andy had to leave the project partially designed due to the army. This photo was taken on a weekend pass in the fall of 1954. Photo courtesy of Andy Graybeal.

The coupe was built around a Studebaker firewall, windshield and door mechanism. The rest of the body was inspired by the Ghia concept cars done for Chrysler in the early 1950s. Gordon decided that building his own chassis for the coupe wasn't profitable, so he built it on a Kurtis 500K chassis with torsion bar suspension. Photo courtesy of Andy Graybeal.

A photo of Andy with one of his Art Center School projects. Andy was a classmate of well-known industrial designer and neo-futurist concept artist Syd Mead. Photo from The Andy Graybeal Collection.

A photo of Andy taken at the GM Tech Center in 1960. In 2017 Howard Miereanu told Kustomrama that the three of them were selected as stand-ins for a publicity photo showing the head of design; " Chrysler's Virgil Exner, GM's Bill Mitchell and Ford's Henry Ford ll. Left to right, George Angersbach as Exner, me as Mitchell and Andy Graybeal as Ford. All are ArtCenter grads and all were hired by GM the same time." Photo courtesy of Howard Miereanu.

Andy reunited with his lost portfolio. Early in 2022, Andy's daughter, Michele, told Kustomrama that several years ago, her dad received a phone call from a person, "a peddler of sorts, claiming to have his portfolio. After describing the contents, it was clear that it was indeed his old portfolio from the 60s. The man happened to be passing through LA, where I live, so he dropped it off with me. Upon unzipping the dusty, old portfolio, a treasure trove of gorgeous car illustrations were revealed. There were various non-car-related sketches inside as well." Photo courtesy of Michele Graybeal.

Somehow Andy's portfolio had been left behind at a house and it ended up being sold to the peddler. "He took a few pieces he wanted and decided to find the owner. Thankfully he signed his artwork," Michele told Kustomrama. Photo courtesy of Michele Graybeal.

One of Andy's concept car designs from the lost portfolio. This futuristic coupe was dated November 18, 1961. Photo from The Andy Graybeal Collection.

Andrew Wilcoxson Graybeal (January 29, 1933 - September 29, 2018) of Mountain View, California. Known as Andy, he was born in Miami, Arizona.

Gordon Vann

Back in 1953 Andy happened to cruise by Gordon Vann's Body Shop in Berkeley, California. A beautiful Ferrari was parked at the entrance of the building. It belonged to a San Fransisco attorney named Alfred Ducato, and it had been featured in Sports Car Illustrated. It was designed by Vignale. Andy, who was an inspiring young designer at the time, decided to stop by and check out the car and the shop. He met the shop owner Gordon Vann, and they started to talk. Andy carried a sketchbook with him, containing some autos he had designed. As seen in those early sketches, Andy had no ellipse guides, no sweeps, or even a straight edge. He might have had a wooden school ruler and a compass. According to Andy, Gordon was a non-conformist. If you look at his 1917 Dodge roadster, he could have found a number of T-buckets and 1932 Ford radiator shells to use when he built the roadster, but he wanted an original. Andy "marched to the beat of a different drummer as well," and they hit it off, so Gordon asked if Andy might like to try his hand at designing an aluminum coupe he had scheduled to build. Andy agreed, and Gordon gave him a little office space with a window at the West end of his shop. The coupe was built around a Studebaker firewall, windshield, and door mechanism. The rest of the body was inspired by the Ghia concept cars done for Chrysler in the early 1950s. Gordon decided that building his own chassis for the coupe wasn't profitable, so he built it on a Kurtis 500K chassis with torsion bar suspension. Andy had to leave the project partially designed due to the army.

The US Army Calls

Andy was first shipped to Ft. Ord. After that, he was shipped to Germany where he found a German girl that he married.

Art Center School

After Andy returned to the US, he enrolled at Art Center School. He became a classmate with Syd Mead, and he remembers that Syd inspired everyone in transportation design and that it was a real stretch to equal his design concepts.

GM Styling

After graduating from Art Center School, Andy landed a job at General Motors designing cars in 1960. Andy told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama that he considered the time at Gordon Vann's shop as a valuable incubator. For Andy, getting a design job at GM Styling was like getting into Pixar. It was the Taj Mahal of facilities with one problem: it was in Michigan. After two winters in Warren, Michigan at the GM Tech Center, Andy threw in the towel and returned to Tucson for about four years.

Back to Berkley

In 1965, Andy moved back to Berkley, where it all started for him and his automotive career. He moved to Mountain View in 1970, working in design and illustration until he passed away in 2018.

The Lost Potfolio

Early in 2022, Andy's daughter, Michele, told Kustomrama that several years ago, her dad received a phone call from a person, "a peddler of sorts, claiming to have his portfolio. After describing the contents, it was clear that it was indeed his old portfolio from the 60s. The man happened to be passing through LA, where I live, so he dropped it off with me. Upon unzipping the dusty, old portfolio, a treasure trove of gorgeous car illustrations were revealed. There were various non-car-related sketches inside as well." Somehow the portfolio had been left behind at a house and it ended up being sold to this peddler. "He took a few pieces he wanted and decided to find the owner. Thankfully he signed his artwork!"

My Dad, the Gearhead

According to Michele, Andy was such a gearhead! "He has Road & Track magazines dating as far back as the 40's I think. Plus a bunch of other magazines car-related he collected throughout the years."