Boyd Coddington

[CT Mark]

Just heard that he died this morning. Anyone else heard that?

[Mr70]

Who..Boyd or John?

[John]

...sad news indeed

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=246079

[ANDY M]

I called Boyd's web strore, boydcoddington.com, and they confirmed the news.
My sympathy to the family. May his memory alway be a blessing.

[PeteLeathersac]

Sorry to hear the sad news...prayers and sympathy to Boyd's family and friends..

Sad also to hear Lil' John isn't well...haven't heard much of him in recent years and sure hope he comes around..

~ Pete

[427TJ]

So I guess the Boyd bashing will stop now. Funny how we humans love to attack someone while they are alive but then sadly mourn that person's passing.

I am guilty of this behavior myself.

Boyd definitely revolutionized hot rodding, as did John Buttera (who "discovered" Boyd), and some have grown to dislike Boyd's style because it pushed the price of hot rodding, for a vast majority of us, to unaffordable levels and away from the backyard rodder on a tight budget. One could make the case that Boyd was the father of today's "Rat Rod" (sorry, I know that's a stupid term) and low-buck hot rod scene through the backlash against his (and Buttera's) style of car and the ever escalating cost of that style of car. The GNRS can no longer be won with anything less than a Boyd-style half-million dollar (and up) car. So Boyd deserves both scorn and praise because overall he kept the "hobby" alive and pushed us, one way or another, to keep innovating. He innovated upward in style and cost while the backlash to his style forced innovation downward (in cost only, low-buck innovation is incredible these days) and the result is the low-buck "traditional" hot rod scene.

Either way, thanks Boyd!

[Hylton]

He did a lot for the hobby even though he wasn't the nicest guy in the world. R.I.P. Boyd Coddington...

[427TJ]

Most successful business people are not always the nicest people. If you wanna' get rich you will probably have to piss people off along the way. If Boyd were a nice guy all the time he might never get a car finished. "Nice guys finish last." Probably why he hired Wayne to crack the whip in the shop and be the designated a-hole, otherwise those guys might work at their own speed and BS a lot more during the day. (How many shops have you been in where BS dominates a lot of the work day?) Ever wait 6 to 12 months (or longer) for body and paint? Maybe if the body/paint shop owner was more of an a$$hole and less of a nice guy your car would get done sooner! Plus, the a-hole charges more because he gets your car done in a reasonable period of time! The "cheap" guy is often (not always) the guy who takes a year to get your body/paint done. You gotta' pay to play and Boyd seems to have learned that early.

[MosportGreen66]

Wow. My sympathies to the family.
What a shock. RIP

[wheelhop]

After reading about ten pages of post on that other site, I read he died of liver failure.
Lot of good things said about him, not portrayed well on his own show. RIP