Custom car icon and inspiration for the Roush/Coddington Roadster leaves us.
02-27-08: Famous hot-rod builder and designer Boyd Coddington died this morning of undisclosed causes at 63. It is not known that news that he has been hospitalized a number of times and has had surgery in the past month is related.
Most recently known in enthusiast circles from his involvement in the hit cable TV series, American Hot Rod, Boyd has come into our living rooms with his creativity and innovative team leading persona. Obituaries around the net tell that he grew up in rural Idaho and moved to Southern California.
His creations in the rod world include several well known customs that include works for ZZ-Top. He won several awards for cars such as the Boydster, Smoothster, Alumacoupe, Cadzilla and Chezoom.
He also dabbled in the Mustang realm in 2003 with the Boyd Coddington / Roush California Roadster. The customized Mustang built by Roush and designed in part with Coddington featured a unique two tone paint scheme that later became very popular in Mustang custom circles, as well as distinctive Boyd Coddington designed wheels. 58 of the Boyd Coddington / Roush California Roadsters were built.
His line of wheels were a large part of his legacy. The unique billet and cast wheels have been a significant part of the aftermarket custom business since the early 1990’s.
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A longtime contributor to charitable organizations, Coddington and his wife Jo founded the Coddington Foundation, a non-profit corporation in 2005. The Coddingtons formed the organization exclusively for charitable and educational purposes to provide terminally ill children with a chance to realize their dream of building a hot rod, which were, in turn, auctioned for charity.
In addition to his induction into the SEMA Hall of Fame in 1995, Coddington was also welcomed into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame, the Route 66 Wall of Fame and the National Rod & Custom Museum Hall of Fame, to name but a few. Hot Rod magazine voted him its "Man of the Year' in 1988.
We shall all miss his innovative style, his creations, and his influence on the custom car world.
