Boyd Coddington
Background
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. He attended machinist trade school at Idaho State University and completed a three-year apprenticeship in machining. In 1968, he moved to California building hot rods by night and working as a machinist at Disneyland during the day. 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.
Design innovations
Coddington started his career amid the kandy-kolored tangerine-flake rococo aesthetic of the Ed “Big Daddy” Roth days and reined it back to earth. His clean, elegant designs married modern automotive streamlining to the classic forms of 1930s to 1960s American iron. It featured radically transformed vintage styling, but re-engineered around modern and scratch-built components: at the customer’s preference a George Barris-style body could sit atop a chassis with the comfort and accessories of a modern luxury vehicle, or around the roll cage and open pipes of a salt-flats racer.
CadZZilla on display at the April 2005 Longhorn Hot Rod the best movie ever show, in Austin, TX. The car was driven to the event.
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, Boyd pioneered this ‘billet’ machined look and applied it not only to wheels but broadly throughout the car.
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 a unique set of wheels commissioned for the Chevrolet Camaro RS/SS.
Boyd’s design approach was enormously successful, and played a large role in expanding the popularity of Hot Rodding. As opposed to its previous zenith among the youth of the 1940’s to early 1970’s, its resurgence in the 90’s was among an older crowd — those selfsame youth, nostalgic for classic styling but demanding modern appointments, and now with the checkbook to pay for both. This eventually led to excess of its own. In later year most cars competing for top awards represented major commissions involving multiple firms (Coddington’s frequently among them), custom-designed parts and price tags often over half a million dollars. In the process this priced out much of the hobby’s grass-roots appeal. From a design standpoint as well, many consider that the modern hot-rod aesthetic has led to austere cookie-cutter trailer queens; the current “Rat Rod” movement in hotrodding explicitly refutes this immoderation. Some of Coddington’s work is considered bland and dated in rat rod traditional hot rod circles, particularly his earlier work. Still, to the end of his career (and continuing currently), those with the means to do so have eagerly sought Coddington’s services and products. His major works continue to be held in high regard, and throughout his career he ranked among his industry’s top practitioners, both commercially and artistically.
CadZZilla
The “CadZZilla” was commissioned by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and designed by Larry Erickson. It is acclaimed as one of the great expressions of automotive customization. Columnist Gray Baskerville called CadZZilla “the most incredible transformation he ever witnessed”, 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”
Artistic legacy
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. Legendary designer (and “Overhaulin'” star) Chip Foose, and fabricator (and “Motorcycle Mania” star) Jesse James both started their careers in his shop. Foose rose to become the president of Coddington’s company Hot Rods by Boyd, but later departed to start his own firm. The two became fierce competitors, to the point that their personal relationship split. Coddington hosted the Discovery Channel show merican Hot Rod”, where he competed fiercely as well with his former proteg.
Coddington’s creations have won the Grand National Roadster Show’s “America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR)” award seven times, the Daimler-Chrysler Design Excellence award twice, and entry into both the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame and the National Rod & Custom Museum Hall of Fame . In 1997, Coddington (along with Foose), was inducted into the Hot Rod Hall of Fame.
Later financial trouble and the “Ship of Theseus”
In 1998, financial trouble and a $465,000 writeoff of money due from a bankrupt customer led Coddington to re-organize Boyds Wheels.
More seriously, in 2005 Coddington’s design aesthetic and some questionable judgement gave rise to severe epistemic and financial difficulties. His designs, as has been said, centrally feature scratch-built components and appropriated parts to extensively modify 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 plead guilty on April 7, 2005.
Death
Coddington had been hospitalized December 31, 2007 shortly after New Year’s Eve. 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.
References
^ “Boyd Coddington, Hot Rod King, Dead At Age 63”. jalopnik.com. http://jalopnik.com/361391/boyd-coddington-hot-rod-king-dead-at-age-63.
^ Lienert, Dan (June 1, 2004). “The Hot Rod King”. Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/vehicles/2004/06/01/cx_dl_0601feat.html.
^ A gallery of Coddington’s work: “Boyd Coddington, Hot Rod King, Dead At Age 63”. http://jalopnik.com/361391/boyd-coddington-hot-rod-king-dead-at-age-63.
^ John Buttera obituary in Hot Rod Magazine: “”Lil John” Buttera, Master Hot Rodder, 1941-2008″. http://www.hotrod.com/whereitbegan/hrdp_0803w_lil_john_buttera_death/index.html. “He may very well have been the “father of billet components” in racing and street rodding, as his love of taking a chunk of aluminum and machining it into something uniquely functional were legend.” Coddington and Buttera are often jointly credited for the popularity of billet componentry.
^ a b The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide (September 19, 2007). “History of Hot Rods & Customs”. Consumer Guide. p. 10. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hot-rod10.htm. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
^ a b “Iconic “Cadzzilla” Part of New Exhibit at Saratoga Automobile Museum”. http://www.cliftonpark.org/articles/content.asp?MemberID=4268.
^ The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide (September 19, 2007). “History of Hot Rods & Customs”. Consumer Guide. p. 11. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hot-rod11.htm. Retrieved 12 December 2008. The design language of the top, hood, side window openings, and front and rear ends was completely new and different from anything that had gone before it. CadZZilla created a stir and was instantly recognized as one of the all-time great custom cars.
^ HOT ROD Magazine. “Dream – 1932 Chevrolet Roadster”. Petersen Automotive. http://hotrod.automotive.com/75974/0301-hrdp-1932-chevrolet-roadster/index.html. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
^ The COACHBUILT Encyclopedia of American Coachbuilders & Coachbuilding. “Jesse James (profile)”. http://www.coachbuilt.com/des/j/james/james.htm. Retrieved 12 December 2008. In 1992, after an apprenticeship of sorts with the legendary hot-rod builder Boyd Coddington, James started up his own shop.
^ Chantal Lamers (2006-05-07). “Driven to be the best”. Orange County Register Newspaper. http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1132711.php. Retrieved 12 December 2008. The reunion sparked a feud between Foose and Coddington after a handful of people left Boyd’s for other shops, then sooner or later landed at the Foose shop.
^ “Boyd Coddington, 63, King of Hot Rods, Dies”. New York Times. March 1, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/sports/othersports/01coddington.html?scp=1&sq=coddington&st=cse.
^ a b “Troubled Company Reporter – BOYDS WHEELS: Third Quarter Report”. InterNet Bankruptcy Library. December 18, 1997. http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/971218.MBX.
^ “Troubled Company Reporter – BOYDS WHEELS: Reorganization Plan Filed”. InterNet Bankruptcy Library. July 23, 1998. http://bankrupt.com/TCR_Public/980723.MBX.
^ “Boyd Coddington, Hot Rod Hero, Dies at 63”. New York Times. February 27, 2008. http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/boyd-coddington-hot-rod-hero-dies-at-63. In 2005, he was accused of fraud by the State of California for titling his custom-fabricated creations as “antique cars” to avoid emissions controls and tax obligations
^ Hot Rod Legend Boyd Coddington Hospitalized
^ Boyd Coddington, 63; custom car designer starred on ‘American Hot Rod’ – Los Angeles Times
External links
Boyd Coddington Official Website
American Hot Rod Official Website
Boyd Coddington Helps Exhume Buried 1957 Plymouth Belvedere in Tulsa, Oklahoma
The official tribute site owned and maintained by the sons of Boyd Coddington, Boyd JR., Chris and Greg
Categories: 1944 births | People from Idaho | Idaho State University alumni | American automotive engineers | American fraudsters | SEMA Members | 2008 deathsHidden categories: Articles with hCards
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