Chip Foose
| Chip Foose | |
|---|---|
Foose at a SEMA show
|
|
| Born |
October 13, 1963 Santa Barbara, California, United States |
| Residence | Southern California, United States |
| Occupation | Automobile designer, television presenter |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | www |
Chip Foose (born October 13, 1963) is an American automobile designer and the star of Velocity's reality television series Overhaulin'.
Foose began working on automobiles at age seven for his father's company, Project Design, in Santa Barbara, California. Encouraged by Ford and Preston Tucker designer Alex Tremulis, Foose started to attend the Art Center College of Design in 1982; however, he dropped out after two years due to financial difficulties. After working for four years at Clenet Coachworks, Foose returned to the Art Center to complete his education.
After graduating in 1990, Foose worked full-time for Sterenberger Design and part-time for Boyd Coddington. In 1993, Foose resigned from Sterenberger to work for J Mays at Ford; however, Coddington was able to convince Foose to work for him instead. Working for Coddington full-time, Foose eventually became the president of Coddington's company Hot Rods by Boyd. While working for Coddington, Foose designed many of Coddington's well known creations such as the Boydster I and II.
In 1998, with Hot Rods by Boyd facing bankruptcy, Foose left his position and with his wife Lynne started his own automotive and product design company called Foose Design in Huntington Beach, California. Foose's departure from Boyd's was not an amicable one as in a 2006 interview, Foose stated: "Boyd has chosen to not have any relations with me, since I stopped working at his shop." One of the main reasons for the bitter relationship between Boyd and Chip is claimed to be that Chip retained many of the talented builders from Boyd Coddington. Mike and Charley left Boyd shortly after Foose had established his shop.
Foose gained more exposure in 2003 as a result of a TLC documentary on his design and creation of a modified 2002 Ford Thunderbird called the Speedbird. In 2004, the TLC program Overhaulin' began to air with Foose as the star of show. At the 2005 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show, a unique 1969 Foose Designed Camaro Convertible was displayed, to be produced in a 300 car run by Unique Performance of Dallas Texas. Press releases following this period announced UP would also be handling the marketing of Foose's other custom car lines, including Hemisfear, along with the Foose 2006 Mustang Stallion. Foose also designed a paint scheme for 4 time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jeff Gordon to promote Dupont's Hot Hues paint line. Foose has since severed ties with DuPont and now promotes the BASF Glasurit paint line exclusively.
...
Wikipedia