Boyd Coddington Dies

[Kevy Baby]

This may only be of interest to Capt Jack, NM and I (and maybe a couple of others), but this was a huge surprise to me:

Car-Building Legend Boyd Coddington Dies
Car-building legend Boyd Coddington, whose testosterone-injected cable TV reality show "American Hot Rod" introduced the nation to the West Coast hot rod guru, has died. He was 63.

Coddington died at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in suburban Whittier at 6:20 a.m. Wednesday. His La Habra office spokeswoman Amanda Curry wouldn't disclose the cause of death.Whole story (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/27/state/n103701S80.DTL).

While he was a bit of an arrogant bastard, he was still damned good at what he did. I know that Chip Foose (http://www.chipfoose.com/profile1.aspx) (and others) cut his eye teeth under Boyd's tutelage.

[CoasterMatt]

WOW!

Yeah, he was an arrogant bastard, but this still sucks for his family and for hot rods in general.

[Kevy Baby]

The man built a helluva hot rod!

I pass by his shop in La Habra all the time (it's on Lambert about a half mile west of Harbor on the north side of the street).

[CoasterMatt]

Yeah, Cadzilla is still a simply stunning automobile.

I wonder how much his cars are gonna go for now?

[Kevy Baby]

And as a small tie-in: Boyd was a Disneyland machinist!


For those who may not have seen his work:

http://www.izui.com/autos/Chezoom/Chezoom.jpg

http://www.leblogauto.com/images/1936_delahaye_boyd_coddington_front_side_2.jpg

http://www.billetwheel.com/projects/sobe1.jpg

http://lylefisk.com/boyd-car-anim.gif

http://www.tuningfever.fr/pics-max-7803-213084-zephyr-boyd-coddington.jpg


http://www.cameltoe.net/imagefetch.ashx?size=2&ImageID=369

And the Cadzilla that CoasterMatt mentioned:
http://www.petersen.org/images/Exhibitimages/cadzilla.jpg

[NirvanaMan]

Holy crap!

That was unexpected. What an incredibly talented artist we have lost.

[Deebs]

My ex used to watch him all the time. He did seem pretty dang arrogant, but 63? That's young and he looked to be in good health in his Hawaiian shirts. Wow.

[Capt Jack]

you can only stay wound up that tight for so long before it catches up to you

[Alex]

I enjoyed the show when I'd stumble across it, but except for that station wagon the rest are not at all attractive to me.

But I admire any person who figures out how to turn a hobby into a life.

[cirquelover]

Alex- are you really my father in disguise?! He would go for the Rambler, Ranchero or El Camino too.

Sweet rods. I bet I've seen his work at car shows years ago with my Dad. My neighbors when I lived in Shedd were some amazing car guys, even though they were farmers. They had some sweet custom roadsters, buggies and even a few old model T's( maybe) and the ones with the seat that comes out of the back hatch, a jump seat maybe?

[CoasterMatt]

Here's a nice tribute to Boyd (http://jalopnik.com/361971/cadzilla-a-delorean-and-zz-top-a-boyd-coddington-tribute)

[Kevy Baby]

Cool! Thanks for posting that CM

[Mousey Girl]

Have they released the cause of death yet?

[Capt Jack]

one of the things Ive heard was liver failure

[Kevy Baby]

I've seen this at the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-coddington29feb29,1,910979.story):
Coddington, a longtime diabetic, died Wednesday at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier of complications stemming from a recent surgery, said publicist Brad Fanshaw.