chrisruzin.net :: Chip Foose (March 17, 2004)

Boyd is an old timer to be sure and is a classic.

Roy and his lead working skills are unfortunately perishing right in front of our TV viewing eyes.

Chip is a wizard and with that comes some personality quirks… all these folks at the top of their perspective games have quirks to be sure.

Charlie is a skilled body shop manager and for some reasons revealed and many many more not revealed made a change… the TV audience is not the deciding factor for Charlie and for that I tip my hat…

Blue-Bear… not my favorite and never was… I must be getting older and don’t suffer fools as easily as I once did…

And as for Jessie James… well he is and will remain an original… there would never have been an American Chopper or American Hot Rod or Overhauling or the like if it were not for the instant success of Jessie’s first 3 documentaries and his series Monster Garage.

Please understand my TV viewing guilty pleasures are: the entire NFL football season and the production reality shows like Monster (fill in the blank) American Chopper, American Hotrod and Overhauling and shows where you get at least a glimpse of a group making something under pressure… sometimes beautiful and sometimes hideous. It is in a way inspiring and motivating… I am building a chopper and have done some revisions to my trucks inspired by these shows… heck I even did a small remodel to my house…

My point is this… we now live in a time where sit-coms are way in the back seat… reality shows of any ilk are in the forefront… but remember it is TV. Made by and for the preservation of TV viewing. None of the principals are as good or evil as they are portrayed… some projects are very detailed and very impressive… no doubt they all lay the preverbal egg now and again, but weather they show up on the tube is up to the producers… Monster Garage failures are twice as entertaining when they are destroyed…

I don’t know these folks (wish I did). I have never met a single one of them ( again wish I did). But I do watch them all as much and as often as I can… I watch them over and over again and don’t even try to explain it to myself.

Jessie pouts, Paul Sr. yells, Boyd has meetings, Chip has markers… bla bla bla… its successful entertainment for now and I appreciate them all… If any of them took interest or pity on me and my fledgling projects I would be honored and thankful… for now I just wait for new builds…

Thanks for the forum

Whoa – you’re getting way too serious in your tv watching!!!!

Brain,
Thank you for your reflective prospective. I share a similar outlook towards these “reality shows.” I intialy felt that Monster Garage was the Bomb, but as American Chopper, American Hot Rod, Overhauling, Rides and the new Unique Whips hit the tube, a separation was clearly in progress where there’s a show for everyone to enjoy based upon thier individual entertainment taste. As I mentioned, I intially & still do dig Jesse James’ documentary’s, but I’ve found the Monster Garage Series to also very childish and sophomoric. I’m certain Jesse James has matured and grown individualy and professionaly, but all we see is the same old rebel, having fun (trying to anyway) at all costs stuff. I admire Jesse James’ accomplishments tremendousily, (especially since back in the day he worked for Hot Rods by Boyd for a short time) but I’m of the opinion that although he doesn’t come accross as a jerk to his employees, he still remains a Man/Child seeking a quick rush, which sends the wrong (potentially dangerous) message to young fans and followers.

yes boyd has came along way but the cars arnt boyds there built in his shop but not by him yes he built the business up to where he doesnt have to get dirty but i still think he needs to get in on the work to call them his own that would be like painting a painting with a famous painters brushes

Ant-Ram & Matt,

thanks for the replies.

You both highlight a fine point in that Chip is definately seperating himself by the way he is involved in a ‘hands-on-kind-of-way’.

I do not understand the above comment regarding Chip not wanting to ‘rush through’ and offer Charlie the opportunity to, ‘take time for the finer detaining’ given he “Overhauls” in 7 days and Boyd and his crew take 4 to 6 weeks… but that just might be TV magic. Perhaps Charlie won’t be involved in the “Overhauling” projects.

Boyd is probably not as able to be crawling around as he once was and the marketing ( of the show and his shop) is most likely all-consuming.

I never knew that Jessie worked for Boyd… interesting little click these motor-heads of southern California…

Man it takes Boyd month’s to build his cars. Chip could do it in 7 days. Boyd ain’t got nothing on that

yeah, i definately have to say i agree with you. look at the yellow mustang boyd did, then look at the one chip did on overhauling. chips car he did in 7 days had more detailing and finer touches than the car boyd did in six weeks. im not saying boyd doesnt build a good car. chip just builds a better car, with more attention to details, and ALOT faster.

Get over it already!!!
Chip builds cars in 7 days to appease his Overhaulin TV show. These Foose built “custom cars” are basically “clunkers made-over”. Note: Boyd does not
“refurbish any clunkers for sale”. Chip’s TV vehicles are not built from a blank sheet of paper, but are built from existing vehicle platforms that are refurbished. There is a major level of difference between a custom refurbished car and one that is built from scratch, can you finally comprehend this fact???

So build time really is a non-issue. There are numerous custom fabrication shops that take up to a whole year to build a customer ordered Custom Rod from a sketch design and nothing else. Remember this is a business and the successful shops “schedule & build numerous cars at the same time”, so quality and not quantity or delivery time is the priority, unless
your building vehicles for a TV show.
None of the Full-On Custom built from scratch Foose vehicles was ever built in 7 days, so there is no comparison.

wow, you take your tv watching two seriously. if you noticed, iwasnt talking about a full on custom built from scratch. i was just comparing to similar cars. so pay attention and be corect when you get all pissy. even still, the cars boyd builds that are”full-on customs” still lack the detail, that chip can acmoplisshin 7 days. you are very corect about shops taking up to and over a year to build cars, thats true. look at the grandmaster, or the chicayne, these cars have the detail to win the awards, yes, they took more time than boyds cars, but they are a higher quality, thats why they win the awards. look at the aluma tub or the woody, they lacked detail. they where an ok car, but the detail just wasn’t there.

Matt,
Thank you for your above comments, but your clarity appears to be as cloudy as your judgment!

What I mean to say is that you and Kevin seem to feel that it’s a negative or bad trait to be passionate about what one views on TV, obviously TV is only an entertainment medium, but all these scripted Custom Car Building Reality shows highlight a real part of life for numerous individuals such as myself who make their livihood from the Custom Car Fabrication Industry.

So, although I appreciate your correct comments about “Viewing TV Too Seriously”, in my case it’s an occupational hazard due to my business. If I could, I would nonetheless pay Boyd, Chip, Troy, etc…. any $amount$ to build me a total custom rod from scratch, without regards to build time.

hey,its cool. i understand what you are saying. im just reffering to who builds a higher quality car. i commend boyd for building his buisness up to what it is. im the vise pres of a company, so i can understand bolth the worker and the boss side of it. im a car guy to so, i can understand whree your coming from. but i wasnt atacking anybody. i was just reffering to the cars.

Does anyone know why Chip Foose and Boyd Connington don’t get along. I know that they used to be real close friends, but now they hate each other.

Freddy,
Back in the early-mid 1990’s after Boyd filed for Bankruptcy Chapter-13 protection, he ended up losing his first “Hot Rods by Boyd’ business, the stock holders petitioned to have Chip Foose, who at the time was Vice President, take over Boyd’s company. Boyd & Diane (Boyd’s first wife and Controller of the current business; Boyd’s Garage) were both “removed” from any ownership or involvement of Hot Rods by Boyd. Basically, Boyd lost not only his Hot Rods by Boyd business, but also the Boyds Billet Wheel business, the Mattel, Revell, Pactra Paints and other licensing rights to the Hot Rods by Boyd name, Cars and all products Boyd had built or created during that time – Mr. Boyd Coddington just lost about everything including his pot to piss-in due to both bad business decisions and the stock market crash at that time. Boyd to this day resents the fact that Chip Foose was approached by the stock holders to run the Boyd Companies and feels that although he had a great hand in helping Chip establish himself back then, Chip personally & professionally stabbed him in the back. Whether this is 100% true, only Boyd & Chip really know. I suggest reading “Hot Rods by Boyd” as published in 1997 by the Thaxton Press Company. This hardcover book with the Yellow Boydster II on the cover, can be found on Ebay. The pictures alone are worth the price.

Links to financial problems

Has anyone who resides in Orange County visited Boyd’s Garage in La Habra, CA on the second Saturday of every month? Boyd & crew put on a free open house, with numerous customs on display, Live Music, Hot Dogs & Burgers. Although most cars displayed are Boyd built Rods, there are also a great variety of both local and distant Rods also on display. There’s also a drawing for a free set of 18” Boyd’s wheels as well as the crowd voting for the Top Rod in attendance. See http://www.boydcoddington.com/ for more details and pics. I’ve yet to win anything, but I enjoy myself each and every time I visit. In fact, during my last visit in January ‘05, there was American Hot Rod filming going on in the Final Assembly Dept. and some of the crowd was allowed to see actual filming process.

boyd might have done something for hotrods history in general, but the fact is, just like martha stewart doesnt stitch the pillowcases she sells at kmart with her name on them, boyd doesnt build his cars. and on top of that 90% of what the guy sells is just like orange county choppers – glorified legos. they all have a parts bin of 3 or 4 different fenders, which only get modified on their made for tv theme bikes, not exaclty their bread and butter.

chip foose deserves the respect because he can do basically a full restoration, pluse customization of a car, make it truly unique, and all of that in a week. even with 20 guys helping – thats impressive. and his showcars are just plain nuts. he sets the bar for custom cars, because his are so good on so many different levels. maybe not all at once, but if you happen to be the type of person the car was built for – its pefect.

chip foose makes awesome rides now ith charley and beetle on his team boyd is in trouble

WHOA I would love 2 b the owner of a boyd or O.C.C. creation. But if all the boo -boos r charged 2 the customer i would either have 2 #1team up with Bill Gates #2win a lottery or #3grow pot, Shop Overhead in a REGULAR garage$50 +per hr.per man,6 or seven men ?(morons) getting in each others way WOW $$$ Maybe we should get back 2 the old school way of building rods,D.I.Y.Then if a mistake was made you wouldn’t have 2 mortgage your house,

I wonder.

Did anyone else hear that to avoid a Court Trial, Boyd Coddington pleaded GUILTY recently to DMV Auto Registration Fraud?

Apparently, the DMV is being defrauded $2-$3 Million annually by auto registration misrepresentation. Boyd got caught when registering 5-new from the ground-up 1932 Ford Custom Rods prior to selling them all. Boyd listed the cars as being built in 1932, but they were actually built between 2003-2004, making them all liable for smog and the normal high annual registration fees, just like any other expensive new vehicle. Boyd was registering these new Rods using counterfeit out of state Pink Slips. He plea bargained a $3,000 fine and 160 hours of community service; Which he will start by “educating” the whole custom car building community on how to legally register newly built custom rods as new vehicles and not old. What a trip, Huh???

I just watched last night American Hotrod/ Boyd, the episode when Charley quits, good for Charley !! I have watched this show for sometime and think Charley is very talented !! I think Boyds deadlines are putting a strain on the employees free time, Quality not Quantity dictates the success of a company ! I feel sorry for the craftsman at Boyds when they give it there best and have to work on weekends and ev to satisfy a poor judgement for a deadline, these are custom cars !

ok were do i start; my name in ricardo arciniega 28year old male.married whith two beautifful boys.
I recently purchase a 62 buick special, it’s an ok shape for beeng that old . any way i do not know how to work on cars and dont have the money to fix it up ,the way i want,so PLEASE HELP ME. email me at calorico@msn.com [LOVE YOUR WORK CHIP. THERE IS NO BODDY TO COMPARE YOU TO]

Ricardo:
I believe you’re mistaken! This is not the Chip Foose “Overhauled” website where people and their cars are selected for overhauling on television. If you cannot afford to “fix-up” your 1962 Buick Special the way you’d like to, then why did you purchase it in the first place?

I believe the intent of this site is to share different opinions, experiences, and inside knowledge about Chip Foose and Boyd Coddington as custom car builders and overall businessmen.

Heck, I wish Chip Foose would read these comments and select one of us and overhaul our vehicles, but unfortunately I don’t believe that’s going to happen any time soon.

As far as what to do with your Buick, how about selling it and opening college saving funds for your two boys, who knows – maybe one of them or both will be the next Chip Foose or Bill Gates?

I WOULD SAY THERE ALL GOOD AT WHAT THEY DO BUT I AGREE THAT CHIP IS SIMPLY A NOTCH ABOVE THE REST.

Your site sucks if people cant leave their opinions without submitting the above crap and I think that Boyd, Chip, The OCC clowns and J. James are all just a bunch of sellouts to the Hollywood Dick Suckers Hall of fame