Comments on: RIP Boyd Coddington.

RIP Boyd Coddington.

fixedgear — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:30:31 -0800

RIP Boyd Coddington. American Hot Rod star and wheel maker is doing a big burnout in the sky.

By: Gungho

Gungho — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:16:22 -0800

... o_o I enjoyed the American Hot Rod even though he sometimes came off as a bit of a pompous ass. He seemed to know what made a good car into a great car.

By: winks007

winks007 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:35:44 -0800

By: jbelshaw

jbelshaw — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:48:50 -0800

I wasn't a huge fan of his hi-tech approach to some of his cars, but he was an innovator and truly a legend among hotrodders. He will be missed. .

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:11:00 -0800

Unfortunately, Coddington will be best remembered by many people as the asshole that ran that hotrod shop on TV. That was such a bad move on his part. Still... *

By: Ricky_gr10

Ricky_gr10 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:13:18 -0800

Wow. Never saw that coming (from the article it looks like no one did). .

By: billypilgrim

billypilgrim — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:40:19 -0800

What a dick.

By: 1f2frfbf

1f2frfbf — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:59:33 -0800

Sad. I spent many hours in study hall during the late 80's trying to capture the lines of his vehicles with a bic pen on the cover of my Trapper Keeper. Classics like the CadZZilla and CheZoom really did change the hot rod world back then, at the time they set a level of craftsmanship and near perfection no one had dreamed of. Hopefully he won't be remembered only for the awful show or his dishonest car emissions registrations, but instead for those slick lines he produced and that still haunt the garage of my teenage dreams.

By: mosk

mosk — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:17:05 -0800

Regrets and sympathies to his family. He was a very talented builder, but it's worth noting that his business practices made him more than his share of enemies in the SoCal car scene. WYSIWYG.

By: so_

so_ — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:14:32 -0800

Dude didn't seem too healthy when I saw him on TV now that I think back on it.

By: jackiemcghee

jackiemcghee — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:48:50 -0800

My god, that Cadzzilla is beautiful. I only caught the show a couple of times and I guess I just saw him on a good day, or perhaps it was the spin of the editing, but he always seemed like a fairly decent guy who had a few guys among his workforce who really just tried to take the piss out of him. Great shirts, great cars. .

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:53:50 -0800

. . . ...O='o

By: mosch

mosch — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:22:16 -0800

. ` : : . .O='o

By: mosch

mosch — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:25:34 -0800

One of my project cars is sitting on Boyd Coddington wheels. Makes me want to go do a burn-out in his honor.

By: Ogre Lawless

Ogre Lawless — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:56:04 -0800

While watching that show I couldn't help but wonder if he wasn't riding the ugly stages of chronic alcoholism. My old man looked and acted just like him about the time things got critical. Fortunately, for my dad, it only cost him his leg...

By: Joakim Ziegler

Joakim Ziegler — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:08:58 -0800

The cars he built were beautiful, but I could only watch one or two episodes of the TV show before I had to stop. He was such an asshole to his employees that it made me constantly cringe. In one episode I think he actually fired a guy for an offhand remark, with no second chances or anything. So yeah, RIP, asshole.

By: rhythim

rhythim — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:36:51 -0800

Boyd could build, er, design some really nice cars seeing as he probably hadn't turned a wrench in 20 years...but they all started to run together after awhile...if you've seen one of them, you're familiar w/ the styling cues. "Oh look, a really clean, well built hot-rod with a small/big block Chevy...that's never been done before." Still a great hot rodder. Didn't make too many friends over the years...gods know he and Chip Foose didn't get along.

By: isopraxis

isopraxis — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:53:50 -0800

Goes to prove that any asshole can have a nice car, but that doesn't change their basic nature. IMHO its about how you treat people more than it is what cool stuff you can make them make. And when you die, people will mark up the price because it was a coddinton or whatever, but in casual conversation they will all still remark at what an asshole you were. Hows that for a legacy?

By: jscott

jscott — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:42:54 -0800

How about everyone do everyone else a favor and refrain from thinking that their vantage point from the Magic Television Eye gave them any insight into anything about Boyd? Thanks. Locals who dealt with him can proceed. See ya, hotrodder.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 11:43:19 -0800

I too couldn't stand to watch his show. He came off as egotistical and mean which is sadly not uncommon among hot shot car guys. It was too bad because it would have been nice to sit and drool over the equipment, facilities and human resources he had at his disposal. jscott writes "How about everyone do everyone else a favor and refrain from thinking that their vantage point from the Magic Television Eye gave them any insight into anything about Boyd? Thanks." Well one would think Boyd had at least a little control over his show image. Either he was an asshole or he wanted the image he was an asshole. Either way that's going to be how a lot of people remember him.

By: jscott

jscott — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:22:17 -0800

You know, I want to agree to, but everything I've read is that in some things Boyd didn't think them through. An old chestnut of my film teacher back in school was he knew a actor getting paid $400k a year to play a vampire on some TV show. The actor quipped to my teacher than $50k of that was for the acting job; the other $350k was all the times people in the streets who believed he was an actual vampire harassed the crap out of him. I feel like this is just another one of those things where someone signs on and lets the people do their work, takes the paycheck, and just doesn't have a say for what he signed on. But that's the the thing, I just don't know. I do know what editing can do to someone, though.