Boyd Coddington, dead at 63

Legendary Californian hot-rod builder and customizer Boyd Coddington, passed-away last Wednesday, at 63, from complications related to a recent surgery. His influence and legacy is immense, not just in the street-rod scene, but for the automotive design community as a whole.

Raised in Rupert Idaho, Coddington moved to California in the late 60's to start his hot-rod shop while working for Disneyland as a machinist. Although he sometimes called himself a "hot-rod designer", Boyd couldn't draw and acted more like a "hot-rod architect", collaborating and launching the careers of now well-established designers like Thom Taylor, Chip Foose, or Larry Erickson (now chief-designer at Ford). It was the Erickson-designed Aluma Coupe and CadZZila that brought world-fame to Boyd Coddington and his shop in the early 90's. Then came the Boydster I and II, the CheZoom and many other noteworthy cars.

With his partner Lil' John Buttera, Coddington was instrumental in the invention of the "billet look" where one-off parts are machined or "carved" from solid aluminum ingots. This brought a new aesthetics to hot-rods, along with cleaned lines and revised proportions and stance. To build his post-modern glorified reinterpretations of classic Ford roadsters of the thirties, Coddington never hesitated to lower, widen, or stretch the wheelbase of a car, to achieve the look he wanted. Contrary to his taste for loud Hawaiian shirts, he liked his rods painted in bold and flawless color schemes devoid of flames, graphics or other artifices.  

Jesse James, famous Chopper builder and former Coddington employee sums it up: "He changed an industry by demanding old-world coach building techniques. He just had the eye for cleanliness and design. The cars that came out of that original hot rod shop were amazing examples of graceful craftsmanship."

In recent years, Coddington became a cable TV star with the "American Hot-Rod" reality show that cast him as a stubborn and irascible boss. Nevertheless, those who knew him personally depicted a very different character: humble, soft-spoken, generous and caring for others.

By Pascal Boisse