RIP - Boyd Coddington

[adrian jaye]

I love AHR,

a great show, good builds

a lot good and bad said about the man and the show.

but whatever else, he was the man

peace out sir....... this one's for you !




Car-Building Legend Boyd Coddington Dies
By JEFF WILSON – 8 hours ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Car-building legend Boyd Coddington, whose testosterone-injected cable TV reality show "American Hot Rod" introduced the nation to the West Coast hot rod guru, has died. He was 63.

Coddington died at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in suburban Whittier at 6:20 a.m. Wednesday. His La Habra office spokeswoman Amanda Curry wouldn't disclose the cause of death.

Coddington, who started building cars when he was 13 and once operated a gas station in Utah, set a standard for his workmanship and creativity, with his popular "Cadzilla" creation considered a design masterpiece. The customized car based on a 1950s Cadillac was built for rocker Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top.

"That was a groundbreaking car. Very cool," said Dick Messer, executive director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

"This was your modern era George Barris," Messer said. "He did things to hot rods and customs that weren't being done by anyone else. But the main thing is he designed cars that were drivable."

Coddington was a machinist by trade, working at Disneyland during the day and tinkering with cars in his home garage at night and on weekends. His rolling creations captured the imagination of car-crazy Southern Californians and soon he was building custom cars and making money.

Most often, he customized 1932 Ford "little deuce coupes."

"It was one of those things when a hobby turned into business," Messer said, noting Coddington was also "one of the first guys to get into the custom wheel business."

Wheels by Boyd were fetching $2,000 apiece, which was unheard of two decades ago.

Coddington also surrounded himself with talent. Alumni from his shop include Jesse James and Chip Foose, who went on to open their own shops and star in reality TV shows.

Coddington twice won the Daimler-Chrysler Design Excellence Award and he was inducted into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame, the National Rod & Custom Museum Hall of Fame and the Route 66 Wall of Fame.

Always dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, Coddington said he loved his "American Hot Rod" Discovery Channel show, which featured ground-up construction of $500,000 hot rods.

"The viewers are ... people who lived in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and loved these cars. Now, they have money," Coddington told The Associated Press in a 2004 inte

[Danny_Ocean]

Stress-induced heart failure, no doubt.

RIP Boyd. Loved your wheels.

[kqw]

More like "Self-Induced" stress heart failure....RIP

[Joeaksa]

Made the news in Beijing!

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/28/content_7687461.htm

Kinda sorry to see him go but was not a fan of the show. Too many idiots working for him and too much crap going on in the background.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by kqw

More like "Self-Induced" stress heart failure....RIP

Good point. Boyd wasn't exactly the "Bob Ross" of car customizers.

[TerryBPP]

So he was the "producer" of some cool cars. Not sure how much he got his hands dirty on the actual construction.

Doesn't make up for the demeanor.

[tchanson]

From AutoWeek:




When you saw a Boyd car you knew it was a Boyd car," said Chip Foose, who worked as a designer at Boyd's shop from 1989 to 1996.

Perhaps his best trait, realized at the height of his creative passion in the mid-1990s, was his ability to gather a talented team to produce the creations he envisioned.

"His biggest talent was bringing talent to the table," said Foose. "It was like we were all spokes but we had to attach to one hub. He was the hub. He gave us the freedom to create."

Brad Fanshaw, who was president of the Coddington Companies during its glory days in the '90s, said: "I always looked at him as a conceptual designer. He couldn't draw himself but he had the concepts in his head and he would stand behind (designers) Chip (Foose), Larry (Erickson) and Thom (Taylor) and say, 'Yeah, that's what I want."

In the early '90s he had assembled one of the best teams ever, including designer Foose and builder Lil' John Buttera, to produce some of the best hot rods the hobby had ever seen, raising the level of what could be expected from such a craft.

Coddington went through his share of troubles, including a bankruptcy in the late 1990s. He is best known outside the rodding community for his Discovery Channel show, "American Hot Rod," which often showed his short-tempered side.

"The show was ridiculous," said Taylor. "I've been in his shop for years and years and I've never seen it like that. I think the show was really contrived. That wasn't Boyd, that wasn't how it worked."

Love him or loathe him, his influence on hot rods and customs cannot be overstated.

“In an era where most cars were hobbled-together fiberglass junk, he changed an industry by demanding old-world coach building techniques,” said one-time Coddington employee Jesse James. “He just had the eye for cleanliness and design. The cars that came out of that original hot rod shop were amazing examples of graceful craftsmanship.”

"It is my firm belief that Boyd is the founding father of this street-rod movement," said Gary Meadors of the Goodguys. "From the Boyd cars to the Boyd billet aluminum wheels ... that whole smooth look that he brought to street rodding is what set him apart. He took our hobby to a whole other level with all the exposure he got in media outside our world. He was a forerunner, and he will be missed."

Fanshaw said: "He elevated hot rodding into an art form. He raised the visibility of the hobby and gave it a broader acceptance in popular culture by getting his car on the cover of Smithsonian magazine, by working with Mitsubishi on the AlumaCoupe, by showing a car at the New York auto show. It gave the entire market legitimacy."

Foose said: "He is the reason the industry is what it is today. He took what people were doing in their garages and put it into production and really legitimized this hobby into a business. Without him and Lil' John (Buttera) and I would still be in garages."





Tim

[mgatepi]

Does anyone know the actual cause of death?

Very sad!

R.I.P. Boyd!

[Ronbo]

I read it was liver failure.