Farewell Boyd

[slugbelch]

BOYD CODDINGTON

1945-2008

 

Famous hot-rod builder and designer Boyd Coddington died this morning of undisclosed causes at 63.Most recently known in enthusiast circles from his involvement in the hit cable TV series, American Hot Rod, Boyd has come into our living rooms with his creativity and innovative team leading persona. Obituaries around the net tell that he grew up in rural Idaho and moved to Southern California.

 

His creations in the rod world include several well known customs that include works for ZZ-Top. He won several awards for cars such as the Boydster, Smoothster, Alumacoupe and Chezoom. He also dabbled in the Mustang realm in 2003 with the Boyd Codington / Roush California Roadster. The customized Mustang built by Roush and designed in part with Coddington featured a unique two tone pain scheme that later became very popular in Mustang custom circles, as well as distinctive Boyd Coddington designed wheels.

 

His line of wheels were a large part of his legacy. The unique billet and cast wheels have been a significant part of the aftermarket custom business since the early 1990’s. We shall all miss his innovative style, his creations, and his influence on the custom car world.

[GMSea97]

This is just insane. I didn't believe it till I googled it. I actually liked this guys taste.

[slugbelch]

Detractors will point to the "American Hot Rod" show as what his life will be remembered from, but true hot rodders will remember him from his lifes work because not only did he excell at what he did, he did what he loved.

 

Few of us can say that.

 

He was the founding father of the "modern" hot rod and leaves quite a legacy:

 

Chezoom:

Probably his most famous creation, Coddington built the Chezoom, a highly stylized version of a 1957 Chevy, in the early 1990s. Toymaker Mattel has replicated the Chezoom in miniature. Only 10% of the Chezoom's body retains any of the metal from the original '57. The front fenders and hood are handmade, and the engine is from a 1992 Corvette. It sold at Barrett-Jackson auction on '05 for $373k

 

Cadzilla:

Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top talks about Cadzilla:

 

 

Whatthehey:

Also sold at Barrett-jackson auction in '05 for $540k

 

Alumacoupe:

Featured on "Home Improvement"

[slugbelch]

Besides his own talents, Boyd has worked on special projects with some of the top designers in the automotive aftermarket. Chip Foose and Jessie James both worked in the Boyd Coddington hot rod shop for several years and now each have their own cable TV shows.

 

Other well-known designers such as Thom Taylor, Larry Wood (Hot Wheels designer), Todd Emmons, Chris Ito (Peterbilt) and Eric Brockmeyer happily collaborated with Boyd as well. Larry Erickson, currently with Ford Motor Company (Chief Designer, Mustang), worked with Boyd in the late Eighties to develop Cadzzilla.

 

Boyd's cars have won the prestigious "America's Most Beautiful Roadster" an unprecedented seven times, the Daimler-Chrysler Design Excellence Award twice, and he's been inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame, the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame, the National Rod & Custom Museum Hall of Fame, the Route 66 Wall of Fame, the Street Rod Marketing Alliance Hall of Fame, and was voted "Man of the Year" in 1988 by Hot Rod Magazine.

 

An unusual honor for Boyd was to have the only hot rod ever displayed on the cover of the Smithsonian Magazine, when his '33 coupe was part of a 1993 exhibit titled "Sculpture on Wheels."

 

Cars from the Coddington shop have also won the Ridler Award and the Al Slonaker Award.

 

Aluma Truck:

Coddington says this is his number one favorite among all of his hot rods, "because it has a little bit of retro in it and it's got some hi-tech to it too." The hi-tech part is the fact that this pickup is built entirely of aluminum, a material that is still catching on in high-end automobiles. The Aluma Truck was going to be a treatment of a Ford Model A pickup but ended up being "something else," says Coddington--"a more modern-looking version of it."

[slugbelch]

The workers on Coddington's show routinely put in 15- or 20-hour days, one of many signs of respect they show for their boss--and they should respect him, given his history.

 

At 13, he traded a shotgun for his first truck, one of GMs' 1931 Chevrolet pickups. In 1966, he was building hot rods in Southern California by day and working as a machinist at night. By 1978, his hot rods were among the most celebrated in the world.

 

Coddington said in an interview that a hot rod is any vehicle with a high-performance motor and modified suspension and wheels. "My definition of a hot rod is probably a '32 Ford roadster Highboy, which means there are no fenders on it," he says.

 

His early works were swaddled in simple, flowing lines. The Foose-designed Boydster was an early Coddington interpretation of the iconic '32 Ford roadster, but Boyd's take was stretched three inches, lowered and smoothed out beyond what anyone else had ever done. The subsequent Boydsters II and III carried that theme but with full, fenders:

 

BOYDSTER 1:

 

BOYDSTER 2:

 

BOYDSTER 3:

[/url]

 

LEAD ZEPHYR:

Built in the late 1990s, the sinister Lead Zephyr is an interpretation of the 1937 Lincoln Zephyr.

The handmade car was built from steel and used a large, big block motor.

[cambo]

I just saw this on another forum I frequently visit. It's a terrible loss.

[slugbelch]

His company has released a statement stating that Coddington was "a long-time diabetic" who "died from complications that were brought on from a recent surgery."

 

Being a diabetic myself, makes you think twice about surgery.