In 1956, Nethercutt purchased two cars, a 1936
Duesenberg Convertible Roadster for $5,000 and a 1930
DuPont Town Car for $500, which both needed
restoration. He estimated the restoration of the DuPont would take a few weeks, but ended up taking over 18 months and over $65,000. In 1958, his prolonged project to rebuild his DuPont was not in vain and he won Best of Show at the
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. In 1971, Nethercutt purchased a large
land lot in the Los Angeles neighborhood of
Sylmar. Construction began on a personal 60,000 square-foot
10 story tall building with six floors to house his vehicles and other antique collections, featuring his private penthouse on the top floor. The Nethercutt Collection was built next to a Merle Norman manufacturing plant. In 1984 he bought back a 1936
Duesenberg Convertible Coupe for $800,000 that he sold to Las Vegas-based businessman
William F. Harrah in 1961 for $5,000. Over the period of 1959 to 2000 he gave the
Bugatti Type 51 Dubos several restorations from its reverted Grand Prix No. 51133 chassis design to its former famous Dubos Coupe design with a dark purple paint. In the early 2000s, the Nethercutt Collection expanded with a 40,000 square foot addition to the tower and a 60,000 square foot new display building directly across the street called the Nethercutt Museum, which is
self-guided. Outside of the museum are his CPR steam locomotive Royal Hudson
No. 2839 with a 1912 Pullman
private car. By 2004, Nethercutt Collection and Museum included nearly 250 automobiles and led
Autoweek to call the Nethercutt Collection one of America's five greatest
automobile museums.
Jay Leno described Nethercutt's collection as a "
Smithsonian-style effort on the history of transportation in America" and "the hall of fame for cars." He has been called as the greatest car restorer of all time.
Concours d'Elegance Nethercutt competed in dozens of
Concours d'Elegance shows in North America with his cars from the collection and was one of the most successful competitors in history. He holds the most
Best of Show victories at the pinnacle
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance at six: 1958 with a
duPont Model G Merrimac Town Car, 1959 with a
Bugatti Type 57C Gangloff Atalante Coupe, 1969 with a
Duesenberg J Murphy Dual Cowl Phaeton, 1970 with a
Daimler Double-Six 50 Royal Limousine, 1980 with the
Twenty Grand Duesenberg, and 1992 with a
Rolls-Royce Phantom II Brewster Town Car. Nethercutt is widely regarded to be the greatest car restorer of all time. == Philanthropy ==