Boyd Coddington before American Hot Rod 

I appreciate the oppertunity Boyd gave me back in 1982 when he then had his shop in a garage behind his house. It alowed many of us then to exspand our own shops and good customers.

What a throw back, Boyd had all the right people at the right time..timeless rods still today,

I met him at Barrett-Jackson, his entire TV show crew was in the skybox next to me. He signed my program and took a pic with me. Cool guy!

I thinks I saw old Roy (RIP) in the background there!! Damn he has a good head of hair!! RIP Boyd, you Legend

This was my hot rod hero when I was a kid. My parents went to the NSRA nats in Louisville and met him at his booth. My dad bought me a shirt and had him sign it for me. He said that even tho Boyd was busy and completely swamped, he still took the time to make a kid happy by signing a shirt for me and that he was one of the most humble and kind “superstars” of the hot rod community. I miss him.

R.I.P. Boyd Coddington....

As a young adult I stayed with my brother out in California for a few months back in 2000 and we went to a couple of car show during that time & one we were going to, I was in a pissy mood about going to a show that was all convertibles and I thought it was going to be stupid. Turns out it was the Oakland roadster show and out of the hundreds of carshows I’ve been to it had the most beautiful cars.

The whole process from the sketches, clay models and actual fabrication of these cars is so amazing and is an art form from start to finish. I grew up watching people like Boyd on TV and was glued to the set when they were on.

What a legend in the hobby, great stuff Dennis, thanks for sharing! I met him in Rockwall, Texas. He was good friends with Scotty Gray at the time, maybe 20 years ago. The car that comes to my mind when you mention Boyd is "Whatthehaye" 1936 Delahaye. He had just finished it and they had it displayed at the regular car auction. A Car God! Long live Boyds creations (RIP)

I think everyone remembers him from the tv show which was really good And you look at how many of the guys that were on the show have moved on and have there own shops doing Specialty work now Those were good times watching his crew build cars 👍👍

Wow - from the archives! When Dennis was just a high-pitched pup and Boyd had some extra pounds ha. He was a visionary, even saw an old Jag sedan in the background. Thanks for pulling this out! 🌲

I remember he did a build for a charity, kids with life limited illness. Incredible guy that got the job done. I hope his wife and everyone involved is doing ok? Very sadly missed. Greetings from the UK 🇬🇧

The most interesting part for me, is when he said he went to California in 1967 in search of hot rods but didnt find many. All the while he was probably daily driving a car we all dream of today in 2021. Just imagine the muscle car scene in SoCal in the late 60s? what a life.

Thanks Dennis, I always respected Boyd and his vision to create wonderful things. I remember reading about him and Lil John Buttera with all the neat things they were doing from the pics and pages of magazines.

Awesome video!!!!

Some great ones got their start at Boyd’s. Foose being one of the most famous. I think he was the one that actually designed a good amount of Boyd’s most ground breaking cars.

Great vid, he was a true master of the art!

Boyd was a true Hotrod legend. I loved watching American hotrod.

Merry Christmas Dennis.

Amazing how many people glorify this man that didn't TRULY know him....

Great job Dennis and crew. Merry Christmas to you all

Great clip Dennis.

Amazing, one of my TV-Heroes back in the days (in the Netherlands)

Young Roy working crazy

Wow. Another great clip Dennis. Wish Boyd had taken better care of himself. What a talent.

I’ve always enjoyed watching you Dennis , and did watch American hot rod , miss both of you guys on the tube , but we still have RU-vid

Wow! Work of art!

Boyd was very frendly in this video.

I sorely miss his show and his personality. He was a true uncomprimising leader

Always watched 'American Hotrod',some amazing creations by some real talented Engineers Also,the show was far more believable than "some" that are shown now. Car Art

Car building is an overlooked art form and should be treated as such. Many of Coddingtons's cars should be in a fine art display.

Merry Christmas Dennis!!!!!!

*LOOKS LIKE A PERSON DRESSED UP TO LOOK LIKE BOYD*

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

I liked Boyd's creation and his TV show. I was saddened when he died suddenly and miss him and the show.Ummm Dennis you looked like you were about 21 in that 1995 video! Haha!

I will never forget that a bunch of us, mostly his friends played a trick on him at the O.C. Hot Rod show one night years ago. It involved his golf cart and alcohol was involved. We were laughing so hard that we had tears rolling down our legs.

Crazy seeing a young Jesse James in this video.👍🏻

The T.V. show was the deal breaker. People throwing chairs, screaming at each other. Shop foreman Dewaine the knitt witt didn't know 2 cents about cars. Always high. Right before the end, they build a red "57 Chevrolet for O'Reilly's auto parts. A friend had that car for a while and it was crap. NO fit and finish, things just randomly screwed together. Rattled when you drove it.

Jesse James worked for Boyd before launching West Coast Choppers. He worked for Boyd Coddington in the late-80s, where he further refined his welding and fabrication skills. It's during this time, he says in an interview, that he started to make his own fenders after work. He tells about how he made $700 in salary per week from working at Boyd's shop compared to making $15,000 a week, “Welding in my garage at night.” This was the last job he had before fully diving into just custom motorcycle work.

Merry Christmas - 👍 👍 🔧 -

Super like,,, 😃👍

RIP Boyd! 😔

Bad ass cars

Not seeing an LS in any of that stuff made me feel old.

Where did the Smoothster end up? Beautiful car, I'm envisioning it when the opti-spark takes a dump at a show. I hope they repowered it.

Looks like he did not miss a meal.

*AMAZING STORY, THIS OLD YELLOW CAR, CAME BACK TO DUANE IN 2021 OR 2022. DUANE HAS IT AND SAYS HE PUT IT BACK TO BOYDS ORIGINAL DESIGN. CHECK OUT THE RU-vid VIDEO. AMAZING TURN AROUND IN TIME*

Was that Jesse James (WCC) working at the table in the bike area?

💕👍

👍

HOT ROD'S BY BOYD = SET THE BAR ~ Z - BEST

2:07 - Roy Schmidt on the left, the other guy with the dark blue shirt might be Al Simon, minus the beard.

Roy in the background

Isn't it a little difficult to build all those cars in one room and worry about getting the floor dirty, or dust on the cars?

More like thank you Chip Foose

Was that a young jesse james working on the motorcycle?

*LAST CAR WITH NO PAINT, AWESOME CUSTOM DESIGN. TOO BAD BOYD WASNT COOLER. DIDNT SEEM VERY FRIENDLY ON HIS SHOW*

Great builder designer but a very narcissistic personality. Tried to screw so many people over, foose included, didn’t like it if his workers went elsewhere to further there own interests. I think he’d have gone bankrupt again as other builders like Dave kindig etc have come up big time

I grew up thinking he was my dad. Lol

Some of his staff / tv show acted like he was too harsh but he only got on them if they tried to circumvent his wishes - just like how it was meant to be - the boss was the boss - no room for mutiny to tske place or your fired

Hot Dogs by Boyd😆

Im more interested in the fact that Dennis looks the same now as he did then

If only American Hotrod focused on the craftsmanship and teaching of building the hotrods to us the viewers the show would have been much better without the manufactured drama of ridiculous deadlines.

A young no tats Jesse James @4:22

Videos en castellano tienes

It is decent of you to try and provide some additional perspective of Coddington. I will credit him for managing to pull together a group of talented people (which allowed him to take credit for all of their ideas and work). Look at the names on the drawings. Look at the design and style. That design eye belongs to Chip Foose, not Coddington. The modeling and process was taught and learned in automotive engineering school. Some people have actual artistic talent and spacial visualization skills. I saw him as a terrible leader because of how he treated people and went about 'running' his business. American Hot Rod only made him more outrageous. Of all the custom car people he was the opposite personality of the group who were all talented and nice guys. I did watch his tv show a few times but could not deal with his attitude and treatment of others. I do not miss him, at all.

The voice doesn't match his looks, on the show he was older, skinnier and smaller. The voice matches that Boyd in my head.

Man he was overweight, led to his demise.

The producers of American Hot rod did nothing for his compony. That show made Coddington look like a bunch of incompetent fools.

Hmm dont forget his son quit hated him as well as many of his workers

*LOL CALLED HOT RODS BY BOYD. YET BOYD NEVER WORKED ON THE CARS*

Never really cared for Boyd's work, I read so much negative stuff about over the year's. Chip Foose is a much better designer & builder along with Dave Kindig.

He built more of street rods and not a real hot rod. The cars he built just look dated. Kind of like the Easter egg bikes.

However Boyd may have started on his way to hot rod fame - he sure became a donkey along the way. I worked at Nicholas Chevrolet in Garden Grove and one Sunday he came in with a couple of his associates wanting to buy a commercial truck. He was not friendly at all and demanded that we sell it to him for a significant loss “because he was Boyd - and we would get great advertising because he would leave our license frames on the truck.

Shame he dumped his ageing wife for a gold digger ! Not a nice man .