Boyd Coddington
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Boyd Coddington (August 28, 1944 – February 27, 2008) was an American
hot rod Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimised for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made ...
designer, the owner of the Boyd Coddington Hot Rod Shop, and star of ''
American Hot Rod ''American Hot Rod'' is a reality television series that originally aired between 2004 and 2007 on The Learning Channel and Discovery Channel. The series followed renowned car designer Boyd Coddington and his crew as they built hot rods and cust ...
'' on
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.


Early life, education and early career

Coddington grew up in
Rupert, Idaho Rupert is the county seat and largest city of Minidoka County, Idaho,. It is part of the Burley Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,554 at the 2010 census.Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
truck) at age 13. He attended
machinist A machinist is a tradesperson or trained professional who not only operates machine tools, but also has the knowledge of tooling and materials required to create set ups on machine tools such as milling machines, grinders, lathes, and drilling ...
trade school and completed a three-year apprenticeship in machining. In 1968, he moved to California building
hot rod Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimised for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made ...
s by day and working as a machinist at
Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
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
Stanton, California Stanton is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The population was 37,962 at the 2020 United States Census. The city was incorporated in 1956 and operates under the council–manager form of ...
. His first major customer was Vern Luce whose car, a 1933 coupe, won the Al Slonaker Award at the 1981
Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
Roadster show.


Design innovations

Coddington was known for clean, elegant designs combining old school with what would come to be known as the "Boyd Look". Some of Coddington's signature innovations were his custom-fabricated alloy wheels, typically machined from a solid aluminum billet, an industry first. Together with
John Buttera John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
,John Buttera obituary in Hot Rod Magazine: "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. 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 his custom billet wheels.


CadZZilla

In 1989, ''CadZZilla'', a customized 1949 Cadillac, was commissioned by
ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound ...
's
Billy Gibbons William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...
, conceived by Jack Chisenhall, and designed by Chisenhall and
Larry Erickson Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...
. It is acclaimed as one of the great expressions of automotive customization. "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." Columnist Gray Baskerville called CadZZilla "the most incredible transformation he'd ever witnessed", and in their "History of Hot Rods & Customs" the auto editors of ''Consumer Guide'' praised 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. Designer
Chip Foose Chip Foose (born October 13, 1963) is an American automobile designer, artist, and star of Velocity's reality television series ''Overhaulin. Life and career Foose began working on automobiles at age seven for his father's company, Project ...
(''
Overhaulin' ''Overhaulin'' is an American automotive reality television series. The show originally ran for five seasons between 2004 and 2008 on TLC. After a four-year hiatus, sixth season premiered on October 2, 2012 on Velocity and Discovery (Cablevision) ...
'') and fabricator
Jesse James Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the " Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained stro ...
(''Motorcycle Mania'') ''In 1992, after an apprenticeship of sorts with the legendary hot-rod builder Boyd Coddington, James started up his own shop.'' both started their careers in his shop. Coddington hosted the Discovery Channel show ''
American Hot Rod ''American Hot Rod'' is a reality television series that originally aired between 2004 and 2007 on The Learning Channel and Discovery Channel. The series followed renowned car designer Boyd Coddington and his crew as they built hot rods and cust ...
''. 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) and the Daimler-Chrysler Design Excellence award twice, and earned him entry into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame, the SEMA Hall of Fame, the Route 66 Hall of Fame, and the National Rod & Custom Museum Hall of Fame. In 1997, Coddington was inducted into the Hot Rod Hall of Fame.


Later financial trouble

In 1998, financial trouble due to a $465,000 loss from a bankrupt customer led Coddington to re-organize Boyd's Wheels and partner with his eldest son (Boyd Coddington, Jr.). In his later days, he began registering cars that were essentially completely custom fabrications as
antique automobile An antique car is an automobile that is an antique. Narrower definitions vary based on how old a car must be to qualify. The Antique Automobile Club of America defines an antique car as over 25 years of age. However, the legal definitions for th ...
s, avoiding major emissions restrictions and
tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
liabilities. California officials considered this a "
ship of Theseus The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about whether an object that has had all of its original components replaced remains the same object. According to legend, Theseus, the mythical Greek founder-king of Athens, had rescued the children of ...
" 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. ''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''


Death

Coddington was hospitalized on December 31, 2007. He was discharged shortly after New Year's Eve, but was readmitted a few days later to Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in
Whittier, California Whittier () is a city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States ...
. Doctors performed surgery; despite the prognosis of 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 for a
perforated colon Gastrointestinal perforation, also known as ruptured bowel, is a hole in the wall of part of the gastrointestinal tract. The gastrointestinal tract includes the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. Symptoms include severe ab ...
along with
sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
and kidney complications.Boyd Coddington, 63; custom car designer starred on 'American Hot Rod' – Los Angeles Times
Coddington was buried at
Rose Hills Memorial Park Rose Hills Memorial Park is located in Whittier, California. It is currently owned and operated by Service Corporation International (formerly, Loewen Group). It claims to be the largest cemetery in North America. Sites ; Mausoleums * Whittier ...
in Whittier, California.


References


External links


''American Hot Rod'' TV seriesBoyd Coddington Helps Exhume Buried 1957 Plymouth Belvedere in Tulsa, OklahomaThe Boyd Coddington Virtual Museum
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coddington, Boyd 1944 births 2008 deaths American automotive engineers People from Rupert, Idaho Burials at Rose Hills Memorial Park 20th-century American engineers People from Stanton, California American automobile designers