Legends: Boyd Coddington

During his all-too-short life he became as synonymous with custom-car building as Mickey Mouse is to Disneyland. In fact, Boyd Coddington, best known as a modern-day blacksmith who can hammer, weld and sculpt lumps of cold metal into hot works of rolling art, spent a part of his younger life with Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck. Coddington, the man who built a custom-wheel empire? Coddington, the man who won the coveted “America’s Most Beautiful Roadster Award” seven times. Coddington, a machinist by trade, had a job maintaining rides at Disneyland theme park near Los Angeles, Calif. However, in 1978, with a love for custom cars, the Idaho native opened a shop simply called Hot Rods by Boyd. Under the warm California sun, he hand-built vehicles from the lug nuts up, fabricated the body panels and, as it would turn out, design and build a line of custom wheels to match his equally unique vehicles. today, his shop has numerous employees and produces about 12-15 cars a year. Of his more notable works is the all-aluminum scratch-built Alumatruck (above left) based on a Ford Model A pickup, and Boydster III (below), a stylized version of a 1932 Ford open-air roadster. Coddington’s work is so highly regarded, in fact, that many of his creations have been reproduced by Hot Wheels and The Franklin Mint. Coddington became a household name while appearing on a TV show called American Hot Rod that featured the day-to-day life of building custom cars. The show lasted for five seasons, ending in 2007. Coddington died in February of 2008

at age 63.