| Boyd Coddington | |
|---|---|
Boyd Coddington (r) from American Hot Rod sign autographs aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz in 2005. |
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| Born | August 28, 1944 Rupert, Idaho, United States |
| Died | February 27, 2008 (aged 63) |
| Occupation | Automobile designer, TV show host |
| Website | |
| http://www.boydcoddington.com/ | |
Boyd Leon Coddington (August 28, 1944 – February 27, 2008) [1] was an American hot rod designer, the owner of the Boyd Coddington Hot Rod Shop and star of American Hot Rod on TLC.
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Coddington grew up in Rupert, Idaho, reading all the car and hot rod magazines he could, and got his first car (a 1931 Chevrolet truck) at age 8. [2] He attended machinist trade school and completed a three-year apprenticeship in machining. In 1968, he moved to California building hot rods by day and working as a machinist at Disneyland during the night. He soon became known for building unique hot rods and in 1977 he opened his own shop, Hot Rods by Boyd, in Cypress, California. He realized quick success: his first major customer was Vern Luce whose car, a 1933 coupe, won the Al Slonaker Award at the 1981 Oakland Roadster show.
Coddington was known for his clean, elegant designs combining old school with what was to be known as the "Boyd Look". It featured radically transformed vintage styling, but re-engineered around modern and scratch-built components: at the customer's preference.
One of Coddington's signature innovations were his custom-fabricated alloy wheels, typically machined from a solid billet (block) of aluminum (an industry first). Together with John Buttera,[3] Boyd pioneered this 'billet' machined look and applied it not only to wheels but broadly throughout the car.[4]
In 1988, Coddington founded Boyd's Wheels, Inc., to manufacture and market these custom billet wheels. His popularization of machined billet wheels had broad impact, eventually spreading out of the hot rod world to enormously influence the popularity of custom rims within hip-hop culture. Among his many innovative designs was the ability to produce unique designs of wheels known as One-Off wheels.
The "CadZZilla" was commissioned by ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and designed by Larry Erickson .[5] It is acclaimed as one of the great expressions of automotive customization .[6] Columnist Gray Baskerville called CadZZilla "the most incredible transformation he'd ever witnessed",[5] and in their "History of Hot Rods & Customs" the auto editors of Consumer Guide praise it as "the first really new type of custom since the heyday of the 1950s" [4]
Many of the next generation of customizers started their career with Coddington. Larry Erickson, later the Chief Designer of the Mustang and Thunderbird for Ford Motor Co., worked with Coddington early on, and specifically credits the CadZZilla collaboration for jump-starting his career .[7] Designer Chip Foose (Overhaulin'), and fabricator Jesse James (Motorcycle Mania ) [8] both started their careers in his shop. [9] Coddington hosted the Discovery Channel show American Hot Rod, where he competed fiercely as well with his former protégé.
Coddington's creations have won the Grand National Roadster Show's "America's Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR)" award seven times, (the only back-to-back winner) of America's Most Beautiful Roadster, the Daimler-Chrysler Design Excellence award twice, and entry into both the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame, SEMA Hall of Fame, Route 66 Hall of Fame, the National Rod & Custom Museum Hall of Fame [10] In 1997, Coddington, was inducted into the Hot Rod Hall of Fame .[11]
In 1998, financial trouble due to a $465,000 loss from a bankrupt customer led Coddington to re-organize Boyds Wheels and partnered with his eldest son (Boyd Coddington Jr.).
His designs, centrally feature scratch-built components and appropriated the foundation of a vintage automobile. In his later days he began registering cars that were essentially completely custom fabrications as antique automobiles, avoiding major emissions restrictions and tax liabilities. California officials considered this a "Ship of Theseus" fraud, claiming that so many central elements were replaced the cars ceased to be the same entity. Coddington was charged with a misdemeanor and pleaded guilty on April 7, 2005.[12]
Coddington was hospitalized on December 31, 2007 shortly after New Year's Eve. [13] He was discharged, but was readmitted just a few days later to Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in suburban Whittier, California.
After being readmitted, doctors performed surgery and Boyd was expected to make a complete recovery. Coddington died on February 27, 2008. His publicist stated that Coddington was a long-time diabetic who died from complications that were brought on from a recent surgery along with liver and kidney complications.[14]
He is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California