Dick Dean
Encyclopedia
Dick Dean born Richard Dean Sawitskas [Sa-wits-kas], was an American automobile designer and builder of custom cars.
, 20 miles south of Detroit, the heart of the automotive world, Dean studied art and drafting at Theodore Roosevelt High School (Wyandotte)
and also attended the Ford Trade School because his life's ambition was to be a model-maker at Ford Motor Company. His father, Vic, owned a Nash
dealership and Dean worked in the body repair shop. He learned the technical aspects of auto body repair, but was frustrated with the lack of creativity.
Dean recalled, "Dad's body men could remove and replace fenders, bumpers and anything that unbolted, but little else. He used this outside fellow, who owned a tin building with a dirt floor, to do the serious repair that called for replacing quarter-panels and lead work, and his name was Bill Hines. Bill let me hang around and watch him work, and he taught me how to work lead and do other neat custom tricks."
Dean mastered pin striping
and began earning extra cash. He also started chopping tops, which very few people were doing at the time. He was a member of the Down River Modified car club. After high school, he went to Pasadena, California and studied at the Art Center College of Design
under famous automotive designer Strother MacMinn.
Dean entered the Air Force and served in the Korean War
as a radio operator until his Honorable Discharge in 1956. In 1954 Dean married Jeanne Schrader. They had met in high school and spent the rest of their lives together.
Returning to Michigan after the Air Force, he worked at a steel mill job until a deadly accident scared him away. He then rented a little two-stall shop and started customizing on his own. South End Kustoms was a struggle to keep in business, but he held on and his luck changed. It was 1959 at the Detroit Autorama
when he first met George Barris
.
Dean related, "I built and entered an orange-and-white '57 Ford hardtop that I called 'Orange Peel.' The custom had neat little tricks that George liked, such as the stacked taillight lenses and the front grille treatment. Barris said, 'If you ever get to L.A., I'll give you a job.' We went to L.A. in [April 1960], and true to his word, George gave me a job at $175 a week, and there was plenty of work to do."
The 1959 Autorama car show was also when he got his famous nickname. The show announcer couldn’t pronounce his last name and asked for his middle name. Then he shortened ‘Richard’ to ‘Dick’ and announced him as ‘Dick Dean,’ which became his permanent trade name.
In Los Angeles during the early 1960s, Dean augmented his show car work by building chassis frames and aerodynamic bodies for dragsters and cars intent on setting world land speed records. These included the Goldenrod and Challenger for Mickey Thompson
. Dean occasionally slid himself behind the wheel at Lions Drag Strip
.
In 1960, Jack Ryan
of Mattel
toys, an avid car buff, tapped Dean to customize His/Hers Studebakers. With a young family and plenty of creativity in his grasp, Dean then worked for Ryan at Mattel for several years, designing such notable toys as “Blaze the Wonder Horse,” and the V-RROOM! X-15 tricycle with rear wheel steering.
In 1964 George Barris asked Dean to run the famous Barris Kustom City. His work with Barris included many notable cars, including the Surf Woody (designed by Tom Daniel), the X-PAK 400 floating air fan car, and cars for television shows such as the Munster Koach
and Dragula for The Munsters
, and cars for Beverly Hillbillies and Mannix
. He collaborated with Dean Jeffries
in 1966 on several TV cars, including Black Beauty for The Green Hornet
and the Monkeemobile
for The Monkees
.
In the later 1960s, Dean built many dune buggies on shortened Volkswagen Beetle
chassis with fiberglass Meyers Manx
bodies. Capitalizing on this premise, in 1968-69 Dean created his own body for a shortened Volkswagen chassis, the Shalako. The first car had an aluminum skin, but production models were built with fiberglass bodies. The low-slung two seater featured gull wing doors and a low, flat windshield. A later model, the Shala-Vette, had a longer nose and conventional doors. Model car
manufacturer MPC produced 1/20 scale models of the Shalako and Shala-Vette.
The Shalako was featured on the cover of seven national car magazines where it caught the attention of Malcolm Bricklin
. Bricklin contracted Dean to develop his sports car concept into a full production vehicle named the Bricklin in the early 1970s. The Bricklin carried an impact-absorbing bumper, longer nose, and the signature gull wing doors.
In 1985, Dean built the world’s longest limousine with his son, Keith, as a promotional car for Jay Ohrberg
. The car was built in two parts so that it could be shipped to Europe in standard shipping containers. In the grueling pace of construction, Dean lost three fingertips on his left hand in an accident. Despite the accident, Dean later built many other original and replica cars for Ohrberg.
Dean continued to build cars with Dean Jeffries until his retirement, including the character cars in Death Race 2000
[1975], the remote-control Ford Broncos for Jurassic Park
, the ECTO ambulance for Ghostbusters
, prop vehicles for the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever
, and the Flintstones movie.
In the 1990s, Dean worked mostly at his passion of customizing cars from the 40’s and 50’s. His repertoire included chop, channel, section
, lowering, custom grilles, lead work, and sculpting headlights and fenders.
In 2004, Dean appeared on an episode of the television show Monster Garage
with several of his peers (including Gene Winfield, and Bill Hines) to customize a 1954 Chevy sedan for the show’s host, Jesse James
.
After a career spanning over 50 years, Dean retired in 2005. Several of his cars are on permanent display at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Dick Dean was survived by his wife Jeanne (b. 1933 - d. 2011), six children, and friends (including George Barris, Dean Jeffries, Gene Winfield
and Bill Hines). Dean’s second son and lifelong apprentice, Keith (Kid Dean) took over the business, renaming it South End Kustoms in honor of Dean’s start in Wyandotte, Michigan.
Dean was honored with many trophies and was inducted into thirteen Halls of Fame, including:
Biography
Born in Wyandotte, MichiganWyandotte, Michigan
Wyandotte is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 25,883 at the 2010 census, a decrease of 7.6% from 2000. Wyandotte is located in southeastern Michigan, approximately south of Detroit on the Detroit River, and is part of the collection of communities known as...
, 20 miles south of Detroit, the heart of the automotive world, Dean studied art and drafting at Theodore Roosevelt High School (Wyandotte)
Theodore Roosevelt High School (Wyandotte)
for schools of the same nameTheodore Roosevelt High School, also known as RHS or Roosevelt, or also Wyandotte High by alumni, is the secondary school in Wyandotte, Michigan. Established in 1923, RHS is the only public high school in the city of Wyandotte. Its mascot is the Bear, with athletic...
and also attended the Ford Trade School because his life's ambition was to be a model-maker at Ford Motor Company. His father, Vic, owned a Nash
Nash Motors
Also see: Kelvinator and American Motors CorporationNash Motors was an automobile manufacturer based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the United States from 1916 to 1938. From 1938 to 1954, Nash was the automotive division of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation...
dealership and Dean worked in the body repair shop. He learned the technical aspects of auto body repair, but was frustrated with the lack of creativity.
Dean recalled, "Dad's body men could remove and replace fenders, bumpers and anything that unbolted, but little else. He used this outside fellow, who owned a tin building with a dirt floor, to do the serious repair that called for replacing quarter-panels and lead work, and his name was Bill Hines. Bill let me hang around and watch him work, and he taught me how to work lead and do other neat custom tricks."
Dean mastered pin striping
Pin striping
Pin striping is the application of a very thin line of paint or other material called a pin stripe, and is generally used for decoration. Freehand pin stripers use a specialty brush known as a pinstriping brush...
and began earning extra cash. He also started chopping tops, which very few people were doing at the time. He was a member of the Down River Modified car club. After high school, he went to Pasadena, California and studied at the Art Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design is a private college located in Pasadena, California, and was cited by BusinessWeek as one of the 60 best design schools in the world. The college’s industrial design program is consistently ranked number one by both DesignIntelligence and U.S...
under famous automotive designer Strother MacMinn.
Dean entered the Air Force and served in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
as a radio operator until his Honorable Discharge in 1956. In 1954 Dean married Jeanne Schrader. They had met in high school and spent the rest of their lives together.
Returning to Michigan after the Air Force, he worked at a steel mill job until a deadly accident scared him away. He then rented a little two-stall shop and started customizing on his own. South End Kustoms was a struggle to keep in business, but he held on and his luck changed. It was 1959 at the Detroit Autorama
Autorama
The Detroit Autorama is a large showcase of custom-built cars held each year at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan. It is put on by the Michigan Hot Rod Association and is held every year in March. As of 2006, the show has been in existence for 54 years.-History:...
when he first met George Barris
George Barris (auto customizer)
George Barris is a designer of custom cars.-Early history:George and his brother Sam were born in Chicago in the 1920s. After the deaths of their parents, they moved to Roseville, California as children to live with relatives. Both were good students, interested in drama, music, and design...
.
Dean related, "I built and entered an orange-and-white '57 Ford hardtop that I called 'Orange Peel.' The custom had neat little tricks that George liked, such as the stacked taillight lenses and the front grille treatment. Barris said, 'If you ever get to L.A., I'll give you a job.' We went to L.A. in [April 1960], and true to his word, George gave me a job at $175 a week, and there was plenty of work to do."
The 1959 Autorama car show was also when he got his famous nickname. The show announcer couldn’t pronounce his last name and asked for his middle name. Then he shortened ‘Richard’ to ‘Dick’ and announced him as ‘Dick Dean,’ which became his permanent trade name.
In Los Angeles during the early 1960s, Dean augmented his show car work by building chassis frames and aerodynamic bodies for dragsters and cars intent on setting world land speed records. These included the Goldenrod and Challenger for Mickey Thompson
Mickey Thompson
Marion Lee "Mickey" Thompson was an American off-road racing legend. He won many championships as a racer, and later formed sanctioning bodies SCORE International and Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group . He also raced in dragsters and land speed record automobiles.Thompson was born in Alhambra,...
. Dean occasionally slid himself behind the wheel at Lions Drag Strip
Lions Drag Strip
Lions Drag Strip was a US raceway in the Wilmington district of Los Angeles, California adjacent to Long Beach that existed from 1955 to 1972. The track was named after its sponsors Lions Clubs International and featured many races that were sanctioned by the American Hot Rod Association .As the...
.
In 1960, Jack Ryan
Jack Ryan (designer)
John W. "Jack" Ryan was an American designer noted for creating the popular image of the Barbie doll and being the sixth husband of Zsa Zsa Gabor...
of Mattel
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...
toys, an avid car buff, tapped Dean to customize His/Hers Studebakers. With a young family and plenty of creativity in his grasp, Dean then worked for Ryan at Mattel for several years, designing such notable toys as “Blaze the Wonder Horse,” and the V-RROOM! X-15 tricycle with rear wheel steering.
In 1964 George Barris asked Dean to run the famous Barris Kustom City. His work with Barris included many notable cars, including the Surf Woody (designed by Tom Daniel), the X-PAK 400 floating air fan car, and cars for television shows such as the Munster Koach
Munster Koach
The Munster Koach was the family car that was used in the television series, The Munsters. The show's producers contracted George Barristo provide the Koach. Barris asked Tom Daniel to design the car, and had it built at Barris Kustoms, First by Tex Smith, but finished by Dick Dean, his shop...
and Dragula for The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
, and cars for Beverly Hillbillies and Mannix
Mannix
Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors...
. He collaborated with Dean Jeffries
Dean Jeffries
Dean Jeffries is an American custom vehicle designer, fabricator, stuntman and stunt coordinator for motion pictures and television programs based in Los Angeles, California....
in 1966 on several TV cars, including Black Beauty for The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
and the Monkeemobile
Monkeemobile
The Monkeemobile is a modified Pontiac GTO that was designed and built by designer Dean Jeffries for The Monkees, a pop-rock band and television program...
for The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
.
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
chassis with fiberglass Meyers Manx
Meyers Manx
The Meyers Manx dune buggy was designed by Californian engineer, artist, boat builder and surfer Bruce Meyers. It was produced by his company between 1964 and 1971.The car featured a fiberglass bodyshell coupled with the Volkswagen Beetle frame and engine...
bodies. Capitalizing on this premise, in 1968-69 Dean created his own body for a shortened Volkswagen chassis, the Shalako. The first car had an aluminum skin, but production models were built with fiberglass bodies. The low-slung two seater featured gull wing doors and a low, flat windshield. A later model, the Shala-Vette, had a longer nose and conventional doors. Model car
Model car
A model car or toy car is a miniature representation of an automobile. Other miniature motor vehicles, such as trucks, buses, or even ATVs, etc. are often included in the general category of model cars...
manufacturer MPC produced 1/20 scale models of the Shalako and Shala-Vette.
The Shalako was featured on the cover of seven national car magazines where it caught the attention of Malcolm Bricklin
Malcolm Bricklin
Malcolm Bricklin born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an automotive entrepreneur. He is best known for his self-named automobile company, and for being one of the few Americans who has successfully introduced foreign cars in bulk to the American public from firms such as Subaru, Fiat and...
. Bricklin contracted Dean to develop his sports car concept into a full production vehicle named the Bricklin in the early 1970s. The Bricklin carried an impact-absorbing bumper, longer nose, and the signature gull wing doors.
In 1985, Dean built the world’s longest limousine with his son, Keith, as a promotional car for Jay Ohrberg
Jay Ohrberg
Jay Ohrberg is a car collector and car builder specializing in cars for film and television. His company Jay Ohrberg Star Cars has an extensive collection of original cars and replicas, many of them are offered for hire....
. The car was built in two parts so that it could be shipped to Europe in standard shipping containers. In the grueling pace of construction, Dean lost three fingertips on his left hand in an accident. Despite the accident, Dean later built many other original and replica cars for Ohrberg.
Dean continued to build cars with Dean Jeffries until his retirement, including the character cars in Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000 is a 1975 cult action film directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone. The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment...
[1975], the remote-control Ford Broncos for Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park (film)
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...
, the ECTO ambulance for Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis and follows three eccentric parapsychologists in New York City, who start a...
, prop vehicles for the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever (film)
Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films...
, and the Flintstones movie.
In the 1990s, Dean worked mostly at his passion of customizing cars from the 40’s and 50’s. His repertoire included chop, channel, section
Chopped and channeled
Chopping and channeling is a form of customization in the "kustom kulture" and among hot rodders. Both procedures are often combined, but can be performed separately.-Chopping:...
, lowering, custom grilles, lead work, and sculpting headlights and fenders.
In 2004, Dean appeared on an episode of the television show Monster Garage
Monster Garage
Monster Garage is a television show for the Discovery Channel hosted by Jesse G. James. Each episode is an hour in length and was conceived and produced by Thom Beers.The show aired the series finale on June 12, 2006. Jesse G...
with several of his peers (including Gene Winfield, and Bill Hines) to customize a 1954 Chevy sedan for the show’s host, Jesse James
Jesse G. James
Jesse Gregory James is an American television personality and CEO of West Coast Choppers, a manufacturer of custom-made motorcycles. James was the host of the reality TV shows Jesse James is a Dead Man on Spike TV and Monster Garage, on the Discovery Channel, and the focus of the documentary...
.
After a career spanning over 50 years, Dean retired in 2005. Several of his cars are on permanent display at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Dick Dean was survived by his wife Jeanne (b. 1933 - d. 2011), six children, and friends (including George Barris, Dean Jeffries, Gene Winfield
Gene Winfield
Gene Winfield is an American automotive customizer. In the mid-1960s, his designs caught the attention of the film community, resulting in a large body of his work being seen on screen, including in the iconic 1982 film Blade Runner...
and Bill Hines). Dean’s second son and lifelong apprentice, Keith (Kid Dean) took over the business, renaming it South End Kustoms in honor of Dean’s start in Wyandotte, Michigan.
Dean was honored with many trophies and was inducted into thirteen Halls of Fame, including:
- San Francisco Rod, Custom, and Motorcycle Show Hall of Fame http://www.sfcustomshow.com/navigation/halloffame.html, 2004.
- Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame, 1988.
- Kustom Kemps of America Hall of Fame, 1998.
- AAAA Hall of Fame, 1990.
- Darryl Starbird's National Rod & Custom Car Hall of Fame, 2008.
- NHRA Rod & Custom Winternationals Award of Excellence, 1963.
- Theodore Roosevelt High SchoolTheodore Roosevelt High School (Wyandotte)for schools of the same nameTheodore Roosevelt High School, also known as RHS or Roosevelt, or also Wyandotte High by alumni, is the secondary school in Wyandotte, Michigan. Established in 1923, RHS is the only public high school in the city of Wyandotte. Its mascot is the Bear, with athletic...
, Distinguished Graduate, awarded in 1995.
External links
- http://www.legends.thewwbc.net/gpage49.html
- http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/thehistoryof/dick_dean_history/index.html
- http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/special/ddean/
- http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/heroes/08dickdeantribute/