I've always liked Cadzilla, and think it should ave been on the show. While we have this thread started,how many "famous" or "name" players worked for Coddington over the years? Did they find Boyd or was he smart enough to track them down?
Boyd!!!!!????? Boyd's an A'HOLE!!! Ever see him weld???? Or Simms for that matter? Builder is not the term!!! Biller is!!!!
Thanks for the info - that makes sense that it was sort-of associated with Boyd. Too bad it (and the man who really built it) don't get more recognition. I may not have tons of respect for Boyd, and have heard very little good about him, but his crew is awesome, and FWIW he (directly or indirectly) has helped a lot of people over the years make a career out of hot rods. He deserves some credit for that. In the same way I hate NASCAR, but I appreciate that it opens a few more eyes to our lifestyle. I never want to be like all those street (show only) rod/muscle car/harley types that look for reasons to exclude others. I would be alot further along if even one of the hundreds of people I approached at a young age would have given me the time of day & helped instead of being negative and making sure that I knew they were "better than" me. I got into all this stuff with little or no support from my family, and didn't have many friends to turn to (this was pre-internet of course) for help. If I would've had someone to hire me or just let me hang out @ his garage, I'd be a lifetime ahead of where I am, now that I have all these other responsibilities to compete with build time. I just hope that I can help others learn about & have fun with the same things as I do (cars), and despite people's character flaws (Boyd included) I have to give props to those who "support the cause" - even if it's not totally on purpose. [Off the soapbox] - The black roadster was cool when he built it (early 80s) because it was (maybe?) the first of it's kind, but he and his cars haven't changed much since - and that's not very cool. The yellow Chevy was cool 'cause it is suttle, and Cadzilla is the best, baddest, most beautiful custom - EVER.
Dennis Varnis Roadster, is a VERY nice car. yes it is simple. its not a 32, its a 29, which i prefer personally. but its nice. and it won AMBR in 91 or 92.... i would take a A or 33/34 Roadster before id take a 32, but thats my opinion. i lust after that Jersey Suede 34 3 window that i think? Lance Scorchik(sp) had? that would be in my top 5 of Hot rods of all time. That packard was one of the ugliest cars i have ever seen. anyone cat the little "Fun FACT" that they posted on there that Hot Rods are ALSO known as street rods, and RAT RODS? what a joke.
Actually, hot rods were referred to as street rods back in the 50's. Several feature cars in the magazines had that tag, mostly to indicate that it was a street car, and not a dual purpose drag/street car. But I never heard the term rat rod until a few years ago. Mutt
I've got the Ron Covel vidio taken at Craig Naff's shop. There is some amazing work going on there. He seems like a nice guy and is very quiet and through when he explains something. I was blown away by some of the projects he has underway. He is truely one of the masters. Frank
Dave, that yellow one is the nicest 55 chevy on the planet, nothing else comes close. Anyone who has ever seen that car and really looked at it has got to be impressed with the work. To me it deserves a top 10 spot. maybe he should have done top 10 hot rods and top 10 customs.
Cadzilla was essentially Larry Erickson's design work rendered in metal by Craig Naff. Larry was with GM at the time, as head of Cadillac styling where among other tasks, he was responsible for and credited with the STS -- one of the handsomest pieces to come out of GM and Cadillac since the early '60s. Larry is a NorCal hot rodder through and through, grew up in smallish Cloverdale and hung out in big-city Santa Rosa just a few miles down the road. Larry's local heroes were tuners like Ed "Bing" Binggeli, drag racers like Arnold Birky, Gene Gilmore, and Frank Bradley, and builders like Ron Fry and Vern Tardel. I interviewed Craig Naff a couple of years after I met Larry and well after Cadzilla hit the streets. Of the hundreds of similar interviews I've done with folks doing significant work in automotive and motorcyling pursuits, Craig's is one my favorites. The man has a very positive attitude and the sort of gentlemanly class that was more common a generation or two ago. Craig was not even inclined to call into question the integrity or intentions of others, nor did I press him to. Here, then, is the short profile on Crag Naff . . . CRAIG NAFF--TIN MAN EXTRAODINAIRE A visit with one of the hobby's major movers and shapers. Craig Naffs is not exactly a household name--not yet. But give him time. Craig is responsible for the metalwork on some of the hobby's most exciting milestone rods and customs of the last decade--cars like Cadzilla, and Smoothster. American Rodder was given the opportunity to "look in" on Craig and his shop, courtesy of a free-lance photographer. We followed up with a telephone interview to get a measure of the man and now share with you a bit of what, where, why, and how he does what he does. Craig Naff's shop has a busy, well-organized look about it. Surrounded by woods at the foot of a mountain, the large open building shelters several major jobs that are underway. In one location, a '33 Willys coupe is taking shape, as is a Deuce three-window nearby. There's a '40 Ford convertible from California and the body of a championship-winning three-quarter midget that's being restored. While the jobs in Craig's shop are interesting, it's the large-tool inventory that's impressive, particularly so for a one-man shop. There's a Pullmax, a multi-task metal forming "system" that's more common to big commercial shops. Then there's a large English wheel that Craig built, as well as an enormous bead roller, also of his design, with which he makes floor pans and other such large pieces. An Eckold power shrinker/stretcher quickly makes compound detail pieces. A large shear and a brake are requisite, of course, and an air-driven planishing hammer makes short work of finishing shaped panels. About to come on line is a power body hammer that promises to be a big time saver. Typical of veteran tin men, Craig has an extensive inventory of specialized hand tools--dollies and anvils, hammers and slappers, picks and files--that he's accumulated throughout the course of his career. In the hands of someone with Craig's skill and experience, these are the devices--the magic wands--that help create impossible shapes and elegant details. For Craig, his work is his calling. He began his training in a body-and-paint Voc-Ed program in high school, and after a stint in the body shop at a Ford dealership, he moved on to more interesting work at White Post Restorations in Winchester, Virginia. Recalling the experience, Craig says that at the time he was hired, each person was responsible for both paint and metal work on a given job. The procedure changed when the owner saw Craig's welding work on patch panels. From then until he left White Post this was his area of responsibility. In the mid-'80s Craig moved to North Carolina and opened his own shop. A Grand National-winning '33 Ford he built in 1985 attracted a great deal of attention in the car-building hobby and business, including that of Boyd Coddington. When Boyd offered him a spot in the Coddington shop in 1986--to help create an exciting and severely altered custom project--Craig packed up and moved to California. The project was Cadzilla, and in addition to ensuring Craig a permanent place in the metalman's pantheon, it marked the beginning of a highly successful teaming of Craig and styling wizard Larry Erickson. "Larry and I have developed a pretty good rapport," Craig says of their association. "We work real well together. I can call him and tell him what I have in mind and he'll send me something on paper that's very close to it." Craig moved back to Virginia in march 1989, to Woodstock and the area he had grown up in. Since then, there's been a reasonably steady flow of high-profile jobs through the shop, like Larry Erickson's own roadster (American Rodder No. 39--Under the Wrench) that will be debuted at Oakland next year. "I did the nose panel, the sills, a lot of the body modification," says Craig. He built the chassis and body for the Smoothster--the 1995 Oakland AMBR winner and another collaborative effort with Larry--in '92-'93 and then shipped the package to Boyd's for final assembly and finishing. Larry's full-size scalable rendering of the yellow roadster dominates one wall of the shop. Craig is also responsible for Butch Martino's elegant purple roadster ("...with a pointy nose--looked like an iron."). Most recently, Craig crafted the sensational body and brightwork for Smooth-Ness, the latest super custom from master Harley-Davidson builder Arlen Ness. Debuted at the SEMA show in November 1995 and shown at Oakland last January (AR No. 85), with nothing but clear acrylic protecting the brushed aluminum, the seamless Smooth-Ness showcased Craig Naff's most-considerable metal-working skills. When asked about the duration of the project Craig replies "...about three months." Amazing! Other than creative collaboration, Craig works alone--by choice. "I have complete control over the quality level," he says. It also allows him to accept all sizes of jobs, from fresh-sheet-of-paper cars like Smoothster to individual tasks. He describes one of last Winter's "lesser" tasks: A rodder from Denver sent the 'glass fenders from his '34 Chevy to Craig to have them duplicated in steel. "He had been running with the fiberglass fenders for awhile and he wanted an all-steel car," Craig explains simply. While it sounds extravagant, it's probably a reasonable approach when Craig' skill and speed and his $45 shop rate are taken into account. It's clear that the clean-sheet jobs are the ones that light his fire. He is partial to integrated, unified styling and cars that are going to be on the road and driven, he says. "I tend to favor vehicles that look like something that could have actually come out of the factory," he explains. "...Where nothing jumps out at you." Craig is in touch and in tune with the hobby at its current levels of interest and expression in spite of working in those areas that most of us are just beginning to understand. "You see a lot of growth in the nostalgia cars," he says. "But I don't know how long that it will go on. There's a lot of growth in phantom cars, and I like that!" Craig's interest and understanding also extend beyond just sheet metal and trim. "We're seeing a good swing toward performance in chassis and engine--not just more horsepower." That swing is coming from throughout the hobby, as Craig observes. "Home building is up because of all the good parts a guy can buy. I'd like to think that this is where the real grass roots are, with the home builder." Home builders and pros alike are doing a great job of it today, as Craig sees it. "You used to go to an event and see a couple hundred outstanding cars out of thousands. Now it's turned around and you see just a couple of hundred that aren't so nice as the others." That's pretty heavy praise from a fellow with the track record of Craig Naff. Mike Bishop
I thought that Ness's bike was yellow....hmm damn foggy memory. Anyway what I really want to ask is this - if he was working on Ness's bike at the same time then who build the two bikes that accompanied Cadzilla everywhere she went? I had just assumed the same guy had a hand in the entire lot - before I heard this news here.....
BIG THANKS to chopt34 and AV8 for the Craig Naff 411. I've been waiting all day to log-on and get the answer I knew would be here. Hehe. Thanks guys. -murph
The Cadzilla bikes were done by someone else. I think it was PC3g,Pete Chapouris Group, which later became Socal Speedshop.
That car is awesome. I would have like more variety, lincoln, mercs, rpu's I just would have a problem picking ten out of the hundreds of great cars built over the year therefor I would have any that were similiar. for example, I was hoping to see the red ferrari engined roadster that was built by steve moal. That is right up boyds alley and an interesting rod.
im new here and stumbled up on this topic. Craig Naff lives about 5 mins. from my house. i had no idea he was this popular.
Wow, what a truly excellent thread. Thanks all for the info, I definitely learned something today. I saw CadZZilla at the Roundup this year. Her chrome was getting a little dingy, and she needs some work. But the metalwork is still as awe inspiring as ever... Yes it is.
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