R.I.P. boyd coddington (merged )

[70GMCer]

Originally Posted by 72freak

An icon to our sport/hobby. A great loss! Terrible taste in women and shop managers though!!!!! I had to stop watching the show because of Joe and Duh-Wayne.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Bummer//.......

[Fred T]

Originally Posted by abadsvt

everything i have read just tells that he has been in and out of the hospital a few times before he died but I haven't read anything telling why he died or why he went to the hospital.

Josh

Josh

According to the wiki Boyd fell at home over the holidays. No details on anything else, except that he went back to the hospital because he was still having problems. Another surgery was done, I think it was the day before he died. Somewhere it said it was due to complications from the surgery.

[Fred T]

WARNING

From one of your usually friendly mods. ANY more negatives about Boyd, his shop, the show or staff will result in this thread closing and penalty points assessed to the poster. At least show some respect for the dead.

[kdrodworks316]

I agree with fred, like him or not, a great loss for the automotive world. Rest in peace Boyd-you will be missed

[abebummy26]

ty Fred

[Liz]

I had not read back on this thread today.. I am in shock and fully ashamed at the direction some have gone in this thread. I asked on page two for the hate to stop and apparently it is to much to ask.
Fred ty for stepping in again.. Liked or not the man is dead... he has a family and friends who will miss him and are hurting. I can not believe the lack of compassion and utter ignorance displayed by some here...

[get me on the road]

Was that the guy I saw on TV racing at the salt fields/planes or something like that?

[augie]

It's sad that some people will only know him thru his TV show. He was a true pioneer in the industry. Although I have my own opinions about him I have enough respect for him to keep them to myself.

[piecesparts]

Originally Posted by augie76

It's sad that some people will only know him thru his TV show. He was a true pioneer in the industry. Although I have my own opinions about him I have enough respect for him to keep them to myself.

Not everyone can be a nice guy every day. Boyd surely had good ones and bad ones. I see him as a guy that did what he wanted to do and in the long run made some great things for all of us. He would talk to you if he was not being centered in the lime light.

[EdB]

I thought his show was the better of the three. He had some very talented
people working for him and there is no doubt that he was very dedicated. I
sensed that he had some problems by the way he carried himself but he
stuck with it and his team turned out some beautiful work. His family is
in my thoughts.
EdB

[redneckgirl]

The name Boyd Coddington first came to my attention with an article in Hot Rod featuring Caddzilla. I didn't like everything he did, but the man had a talent for turning the ordinary into works of art. Not all art can be appreciated by everyone, thus opinions on his work vary. But the bottom line is that the automotive industry has lost a true icon.
I wasn't crazy about the show, but I'm not all that crazy about any of the reality-based stuff. I figure it was about as 'real' as the cast of "Survivor" actually facing starvation....it's all twisted for ratings (IMO) But the fact remains that he was one of the most recognized faces in the automotive customizing industry. He was one of the first to make it 'big'.
He was a craftsman. And he will be missed.

[bobbo]

Wow. I as well never heard anything about it! Very sad to hear.

[Infanti]

As a machinst my self,he was quite the insperation for me .With all the unique parts he created,a true craftsmen and talent. R.I.P Boyd

[70GMCer]

Says the cause was complications of diabetes

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/sp...tml?ref=sports

[63sbssbbw]

It just won't be the same without seeing what Boyd is going to come up with next
RIP
T

[Fred T]

Originally Posted by get me on the road

Was that the guy I saw on TV racing at the salt fields/planes or something like that?

Yes. The last episodes of American Hot Rod showed building and running a roadster at Bonneville. It was not a successful run, and is now a sad ending to the show.

[RunninLo]

I owe all of my interest in the automotive hobby, my past business and the car centric life I live to Boyd and an at the time little known employee named chip. I had an epiphany in the seventh grade and never turned back. I dug out my old Hawaian shirt today to honor one of my fallen heroes. Boyd, I look forward to seeing what you build from here on out without the limits of this mortal world.


To everyone with anything bad to say..... give me an hour of videotape of yourself and watch me edit you into the most hated person on TV.... that crap is NOT reality....

Josh

[willis0107]

Boyd Coddington, one of the first, and perhaps the best known, of the Southern California hot-rod builders, who turned a backyard hobby of tattooed guys in T-shirts into a boutique industry of high-end car customizers, died Feb. 27 in Whittier, Calif. He was 63 and lived in La Habra Heights, Calif.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Discovery Channel via Associated Press

Boyd Coddington, renowned among Southern California designers of hot rods and custom cars, starred in the show “American Hot Rod.”

The cause was complications of diabetes, said Brad Fanshaw, a former president of two of Mr. Coddington’s companies.

From 1978 to 1997, Mr. Coddington was the owner of Boyds Wheels and of Hot Rods by Boyd, each located in Stanton, Calif. In 1999, Mr. Coddington reincorporated the businesses into Boyds Hot Rods and Collectibles, in La Habra. He gained wide recognition as the host of a boisterous show (a lot of words had to be bleeped) on the Discovery Channel, “American Hot Rod.”

From plush offices beside body shops that seemed more like pristine studios than garages, Mr. Coddington — usually wearing sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt — presided over crews that bent and welded sheet-metal car bodies into customized hot rods that captured the curves of, perhaps, a ’48 Ford or a ’55 Mercury.

Most of those bodies came from manufacturers who specialized in evoking nostalgia for vintage models. But the choice of details — everything from sleeker shapes for the fins and intricate patterns for the grille to the cushiest seats — would be to the taste of Mr. Coddington’s affluent customers. Lifted from a large crate, an engine supplied by one of the nation’s major car companies would be refitted and slipped into place — perhaps a 350-horse hemi with a four-barrel carb and a supercharger, able to race from zero to 60 in six seconds.

Of course, with flawless finishes of, say, flaming stripes or candy-flake graphics, most of those hot rods would rarely hit the road and certainly not a drag strip. Mr. Coddington’s cars were not for the kid on the block. In 2005, a Boydster II, which looked like a 1932 Ford roadster, sold at auction for $68,000, and his Whatthehaye, modeled after a Delahaye, a classic French car from the 1930s, sold for $500,000.

“They were hot rods for grown-ups, expensive and beautifully finished,” Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, said Thursday. “He stayed true to the old-time aesthetic while crossing over to the custom realm and had a unique way of blending the two.”

Boyd Leon Coddington was born in Rupert, Idaho, on Aug. 28, 1944, the son of Harold and Lorna Sparrow Coddington. His father was a dairy farmer and later, after the family moved to Salt Lake City, the owner of a landscaping company.

Mr. Coddington’s first marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife of 11 years, the former Jo Clausen; a sister, Klis Ruesch of Las Vegas; five sons, Boyd Jr., of Kansas City, Mo.; Gregory, of Santa Ana, Calif.; Christopher, of Whittier; Thomas, of La Habra Heights; and Robert, of Perris, Calif.; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

Mr. Coddington was 13 when he started building cars. He graduated from a technical trade school in Salt Lake City and later owned a gas station. He moved to California in the 1950s and later worked as a machinist at Disneyland while tinkering with cars in his garage at night.

Eventually, his tinkering earned him two Daimler-Chrysler Design Excellence awards and induction into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame and the National Rod & Custom Museum Hall of Fame.

Mr. Coddington was also a mentor to several other hot-rod notables. For most of the 1990s, his chief engineer was Chip Foose, who is now host of his own cable show, “Overhaulin’,” on TLC.

“He gave us the opportunities," Mr. Foose said Thursday. “He was the hub of this industry and all of us were the spokes."
More Articles in Sports »



sad day in hot rodding

[willis0107]

the address for Boyds customs

Phone - 562.691.8215 or Toll Free at 866.HOTROD (414.6876)
E-mail - cars@billetgear.com
Our showroom is located at:
Boyd Coddington's Hot Rods and Collectibles
811 East Lambert Road
La Habra, California 90631

[motopatzo]

Wow! I just found out....where was I this past week? He will be missed in the Hot Rod world. He was just in Abbotsford B.C. a year ago at the World of Wheels custom show.

Condolences to his family and I know that he will still be customizing something, somewhere else

[paintpyro]

Boyd had been in the hospital more than once since the end of last year. He suffered from multiple health issues, that when combined, all contributed to his death

[beautimus]

Back in the seventies, (when i was growing up) there were several icons. Men that i followed their careers, through several automotive publications.
Among these, Eddy Paul,Pete Chaporis, lil John Butera, and Boyd Coddington. they were the innovaters. They were the ones to watch. They frequently turned out the cars that everyone else tried to imitate. Pete chaporis now owns the famous SOCAL_SPEEDSHOP. Lil John Buterra, i believe was later on the staff of one of the major car mags, and of course Mr. Coddington went on to have his own shop/design studio/tv show/etc/etc. His influence on the automotive hobby will be felt forever. He will be missed greatly. I for one have been a fan since i saw an old coupe that he did and was featured in an old magazine. I can't even recall which name was on the cover, but i remember Boyd Coddington sitting in the drivers seat in the first photo in the article. I was impressed with the subtle changes he made to almost every car he touched. He was colorfull, and that, my friends, is the stuff that legends are made of.