T Man
12-09-04, 12:12 PM
With all of the stir caused by the recent events on "American Hot Rod" and all of the recent bad mouthing of Boyd Coddington, I felt like I should share my take on the whole situation. First off, I dont know Boyd Coddington, and probably never will, so as far as passing judgemets on his character, I have no place to do so. TV can be edited so many ways, just think if someone followed you around at work for a week, then had to make a 15min video clip of you. They could edit it in so many ways to portray you as whatever they wanted. I have never had any involvement with thier wheels, except on a buddies truck, and that is only because he ran into a curb and bent a rim. My complaint with Boyd is the title he puts on himself. Boyd Coddington fancies himself as an "innovator", from what I have seen, I am going to have to disagree. Back in the early 90's, he was, but today, it is all cookie cutter. My problem is that he doesn't seem to want to venture out of the box. His major sellers as far as cars go, are early 30's highboys. And that is what the majority of what he builds are, old rods with a plethora of new parts and a new corvette motor thrown at it. Where is the innovation? Rodders have been doing that for almost 70 years now. I will admit that he had a huge hand in starting the big billet wheel trend. He made them "affordable" to the "common man".
In my opinion, a true innovator is someone that takes something they have never done before, and says f it, lets go. A true innovator is someone that will buck common trends that will eventually date a vehilcle. (Can we say daytons?) Chip Foose (http://www.chipfoose.com/) and Troy Trepanier (http://www.radrides.com/home.php) , in my opinion is the epitome of an innovator. They arent afraid to do something no one else has, and from that they have earned respect from nearly everone in the automotive industry. If that isnt an innovator, I dont know what is.
In my opinion, a true innovator is someone that takes something they have never done before, and says f it, lets go. A true innovator is someone that will buck common trends that will eventually date a vehilcle. (Can we say daytons?) Chip Foose (http://www.chipfoose.com/) and Troy Trepanier (http://www.radrides.com/home.php) , in my opinion is the epitome of an innovator. They arent afraid to do something no one else has, and from that they have earned respect from nearly everone in the automotive industry. If that isnt an innovator, I dont know what is.