
Foose’s career has earned him four Ridler Awards, seven Goodguys Street Rod of the Year Awards, and eight Most Beautiful Roadster Awards, among numerous other accolades. The show centered on building custom cars for unsuspecting owners. The special’s success culminated in the release of Overhaulin’, starring Foose and his team. His builds began receiving more and more trophies, leading to a TLC documentary. Chip Foose AwardsĪfter rebuilding the Boydster II into 0032 and winning the the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) trophy, Chip Foose moved his company to Huntington Beach by 2000. Both photos by ShanHams – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. Above: 1960 Ford Starliner at the Marconi Automotive Museum, customized by Chip Foose. He took the opportunity to start his own shop, Foose Design, first established in Orange, California. After becoming president of Hot Rods by Boyd the company faced bankruptcy due to trouble with Boyd’s wheel company.

Chip earned design credit for some of the most famous cars to come out of the shop, including the Boydster and Boydster II.
#Chip foose custom cars full#
Foose accepted a full time job with Boyd and started working his way up the ladder. After being recruited to work for J Mays at Ford, Coddington made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. It was in this era he drew the first version of the Hemisfear, which influenced the design of the Plymouth Prowler. You’ll see some fabulous very high dollar builds in process, and many of Chip’s own cars.Following graduation he started working part time for Boyd Coddington and Sterenberger Design. And he’s a really nice man.Īnyway, tour information is up on his website, offered most weekdays at noon, as you face the main shop line up at the gate on the far right by noon and they’ll welcome you in and show you around. He has the gifts of eye, color, line, proportion, and taste. His designs pay great respect to the original ethos of any car, yet are often entirely custom, tasteful, and dazzling yet classy. After his stint at Boyd’s, Chip hung his own shingle, where his otherworldly talent could really shine. While it’s great to see a faithfully-restored classic car, it’s also fun to see what kinds of fresh spins people can put on such a vehicle. Chip’s father Sam was also a highly credible rod and custom builder. Plenty of people love restomods and for obvious reasons. He later worked for the late Boyd Coddington, arguably among the premier hot rod builders of his day, or any day. Winning it once is only huge winning it four times says your the best.Ĭhip is a classically and formally educated designer, having gone through the transportation design program at Art Center. They have won four Autorama Riddler awards, which in the hot rod and car building universe is the best picture Oscar. Chip and his team of designers, hot rodders, and craftsmen, do incredible world class work. What you will see at Foose Design is some of the incredible hot rod and uber custom builds currently in process or recently completed. Visiting the Foose Design shop is NOT the Overhaulin set that shop is at a different location, and the show is not currently in production, so nothing and nobody to see.

The good news is that the tour is free, and its easy - with no tickets or advance reservations required. He also has a serious hot rod and custom build and design shop in Huntington Beach, California, and anyone who calls themselves a motorhead must visit.

His build a car in a week television show, Overhaulin, is a staple on automotive TV, at the moment with a healthy reruns schedule on the Velocity network. If you’re visiting this site, you likely know who Chip Foose is.
