Boyd Leon Coddington (August 28, 1944 – February 27, 2008) was the owner of the Boyd Coddington Hot Rod Shop and star of American Hot Rod on TLC (TV channel).
Background[]
Coddington grew up on a farm in Rupert, Idaho, reading all the car magazines he could, and got his first car (a 1931 Chevrolet truck) at age 13. He attended Machinist trade school at Idaho and completed a three-year apprenticeship in machining. In 1966, he moved to California building Hot rods by night and working as a machinist at Disneyland during the day. He soon became known for building unique hot rods and in 1977 he opened his own shop, Hot Rods by Boyd, in Cypress, California. His first customer was Vern Luce whose car (a 1933 coupe) won the Al Slonaker Award at the 1981 Oakland Roadster show, a prestigious award for those "in the know."
In 1988, Coddington founded Boyd's Wheels, Inc., to manufacture and market custom automobile alloy wheels made from Billet (manufacturing). His aluminum wheels were an industry first and many innovative designs are credited to Boyd's Wheels. By 1997, Coddington (along with his then chief designer Chip Foose), was inducted into the Hot Rod Hall of Fame. In 1998, Coddington had to re-organize Boyds Wheels as the result of bankruptcy. On April 7, 2005, Coddington pleaded guilty of perpetrating a "Ship of Theseus" fraud. Coddington had registered completely custom-fabricated, hand-built cars as Antique automobiles in order to avoid Emissions and Tax liabilities.
Death[]
Coddington had been hospitalized in January 2008, shortly after New Year's Eve. He was discharged, but was readmitted just a few days later to Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in suburban Whittier, California.
After being readmitted, doctors performed surgery and Boyd was expected to make a complete recovery. Unfortunately, Coddington died on February 27, 2008. His publicist, Bradley Fanshaw III, stated that Coddington was a long-time diabetic who died from complications that were brought on from a recent surgery along with liver and kidney complications.