In 1966, Boyd Coddington left his home state of Idaho, lured to Southern California by the music of the Beach Boys.
He wasn’t interested in chasing big waves or going on surfin’ safaris. Instead, he wanted to build “little deuce coupes” powered by big hotrod engines.
One of his first stops was at Disneyland, not as a tourist, but to apply for a job as a machinist. He told Celebrity Car Magazine that the plan was to work all night maintaining and repairing rides so he could spend his days building hotrods. The plan paid off.
Ironically, years later, one of his celebrity clients would be Beach Boy Al Jardine, who wanted cars built that matched the lyrics of the old songs: a deuce coupe; a 409 Chev; and a “woodie.” And, thanks to the worldwide appeal of Discovery Channel’s American Hot Rod TV show that gives viewers a behind-the-garage-doors lowdown on the interaction of people and parts in building a custom car, Boyd Coddington’s Hot Rod Shop, like his former employer, has become a tourist destination.
“It’s true,” he chuckles, as he looks out over the showroom (in La Habra, not too far from Mickey Mouse’s place) filled with cars he built as well as muscle cars, motorcycles and other custom cars on consignment.
“The TV show is huge in Canada and in England, [and] Australia. We get people in here from all over the world. The show’s also been good for the sport overall.”
Of course, the celebrity that gave Coddington’s reputation a huge boost was Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top for whom he created one of his most highly regarded automobiles, the long, low, and zoomy makeover of a 1946 Cadillac called “Cadzilla.”
Coddington estimates that he has been involved in building more than 250 custom cars since beginning at about age 15, when he took a 1940 Ford coupe and, on the advice of his buddies, replaced the “flat-head” V8 with a Studebaker V8.
“The new Studebaker V8 was supposed to be the hot setup,” he recalls. “It took me three or four weeks to get done, and I found out the Ford flat head was faster.”
His first car was a 1934 Chevy pickup he acquired when he was 13. He traded a shotgun for it. He never finished it, much to his father’s dismay.
“That’s why I preach today, if you start something you finish it,” he says.
A philosophy that along with the pressure to meet TV deadlines to build what Coddington calls “eight-week cars” creates the tension and melodrama that keeps American Hot Rod viewers tuning in for each week’s installment.
“Every car’s got a story and has to be finished by a certain date,” he explains. “Plus we have our regular customer cars to build.”
So wires do get crossed, people make mistakes and tempers flare.
In case you were wondering, having Coddington build a car for you would cost about $200,000. The first step is a small deposit for drawings. The next step is proving you can pay for everything. Then the work begins. Coddington explains that some cars take longer to build than others, mainly because the owners call “time-out” until they can come up with the next installment of cash.
If you watch the show, then the antifreeze green 1959 Chevy, pictured here, is no stranger. The car was built for a customer who wanted a 1950s car reminiscent of the boat-tail roadsters of the ’30s. Coddington’s idea was to cut the top off a two-door hardtop coupe and install a cover over the backseat. Power comes from a 495-horsepower big-block Chevrolet V8 with an electric-shift four-speed automatic transmission. By the way, the hardtop and rear seat weren’t the only bits of ’59 Chevy removed. The chassis has been completely upgraded to modern specs.
A bit more subtle is the 1954 Corvette that features a late-model Corvette motor and five-speed manual transmission.
So what does Coddington drive to work? Well, he just bought a 1941 Ford pickup, but his daily driver is a Mercedes-Benz CLS four-door coupe with all the Coddington upgrades, from “shaved” (removed) door handles, big wheels and an aggressive stance.
“I’ve always preferred owning a Mercedes.”
What else is he up to?
Coddington has a new coffee-table book, American Hot Rod: The Fine Art of the Custom Hot Rod, which depicts his cars along with many more.
He’s also excited about a new project car based on a 1960 Mercury four-door hardtop station wagon. He predicts that cars of the 1960s and ’70s will be the hot trend in the custom-car business for the foreseeable future. Down the road, he sees ethanol-powered hot rods-and even some form of hybrid gas/electric power for custom cars once the engineering issues are worked out.
Does that mean 20 years from now the Toyota Prius will be the hot-rodder’s dream machine?
Coddington just rolls his eyes, shakes his head and heads for the shop to see what his crew is up to.
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