2008-03-01 - The 2008 event calendar is finally posted. My apologies for doing it so late.
2008-02-28 - There is some sad news from the hot-rodding industry:
Boyd Coddington, Hot Rod Hero, Dies at 63
By Jerry Garrett
Tags: Boyd Coddington, customization, hot rods
Your king is dead, hot-rodders. Long live the king.
Boyd Coddington died today in Whittier, Calif., a few miles from his shop where the cable TV reality show “American Hot Rod” was produced, and where he spent much of his adult life. Mr. Coddington lived a life as highly stressed as any of his high-octane creations. On one hand, his vision left a legacy of elevating hot rod design and the use of chrome to high art. On the other, his hard-driving business practices created problems for himself, his employees and even clients.
Though Coddington was a Hot Rod Hall of Fame inductee, he also suffered through bankruptcy and a fraud conviction. He had a keen eye for design, as well as talents who could compete at his lofty, prolific level. His “discoveries” included the likes of Jesse James and Chip Foose, both of whom began their careers with Mr. Coddington before going on to fame, fortune and TV shows of their own in the customizing industry.
Mr. Foose, who became a fiery rival of Mr. Coddington’s the last decade, was not available for comment. But his wife, Lynne, told me that “people didn’t understand the true nature of their relationship” and that “Chip was on good terms with Boyd when he died.” In an interview with Mr. Foose last year, it was suggested that friction had developed over whether proper credit was given for certain Foose designs that came out of the Coddington shop in the 1990s; also, some property that Mr. Foose believed to be rightfully his became entangled in the financial collapse of one of Mr. Coddington’s companies in the late 1990s.
Mr. Coddington’s business interests were later reorganized, and he re-emerged as a force in custom car design. But in 2005, he was accused of fraud by the State of California for titling his custom-fabricated creations as “antique cars” to avoid emissions controls and tax obligations. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in connection with the allegations, and was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine and perform 160 hours of community service.
Mr. Coddington, born in Rupert, Idaho, spent his early years learning his craft in Idaho and Utah garages. He moved to California in 1966 and worked at Disneyland as a machinist by day and as a hot rod tuner by night. Among his famous creations was the Cadzilla street rod built for Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. But he is probably best known for his many variations of the classic 1932 Ford deuce coupe.
His creations have sold at auctions for well into six figures. But there were indications shortly before his death that perhaps he had been a bit too prolific. A pristine 1934 Ford roadster by Mr. Coddington failed to meet its reserve price at RM Auctions’ Scottsdale event in January; it earned “only” a $110,000 high bid — shockingly low by Coddington-creation standards.
Mr. Coddington was a colorful outsize character who preferred loud shirts and loud talk. On his television show, he was often portrayed as a ruthless taskmaster. But as someone who has worked a bit in television, I can tell you it was an image that was carefully cultivated by producers who wanted the show and its star to have an edge. In private, he projected a mischievous sense of fun and excitement that was irresistibly infectious. His followers generally went willingly where he decided to lead.
Boyd Coddington relentlessly pushed the art of the hot rod forward like few men before or since. His fellow customizers and show competitors will have a hard time finding a source of inspiration with high-power wattage as brilliant.
2008-02-13 - There is a new ride in the Member's Ride section. Go and check out Claude Narainsamy's beautiful 1958 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
2008-01-26 - I have now categorized the Technical articles into related sub-sections. I have also added 4 new links, to the Metal Working sub-section, to cool video clips on sheet metal shrinking.
2008-01-16 - There will be another meeting next week Tuesday, the 22nd of January. This meeting is open to all member and the topics of discussion will be the NSRCA (National Street Rod and Custom Association) and the 2009 Street Rod Nationals. It is important that we have as many members attending as possible.
2008-01-07 - I have updated some detail on Gerald Engelbrecht's 1935 Ford Pick-up. I have also added photos and detail of his 1956 De Soto Diplomat. Go and check it out!
2007-12-25 - Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year!!! We hope that 2008 will be a very productive year for all rodders.
2007-10-22 - Yesterday was the Cars in the Park event at the Pistong Ring Club in Modderfontein. Go to the event gallery to check out the photos.
2007-09-09 - We have created a new section called "In the press" which will contain any articles about the Reef Street Rod Club. The first article being from the Stormberg Gazette, covering the club's visit to a small town called Molteno, on their way back from the Street Rod Nationals. Go and check it out!
2007-09-08 - Another member's ride has been added namely that of Des Nel. Go and check it out.
2007-08-23 - Unfortunately our e-mailing function has been down for a short period but I am glad to report that it has now been fixed again. Our ISP moved the web sites onto a new physical server and that unfortunately broke that functionaility. Please accept our sincerest apologies if you have tried to contact us during the past week or two without no reply. We ask if you could contact us again as we will now receive the e-mail messages again.
2007-08-10 - I have just uploaded 11 new members rides. More will follow in the next few days. Go and check them out!
2007-07-04 - I have updated the details on two of our member's rides, namely that of Harry Corbett and Piet Kok. Go and check it out. More will follow soon as well as some more rides.
If you are a club member and would like to have your ride(s) placed in the Members Rides section you are more than welcome to send me an e-mail through the "Send us an e-mail" interface found at the bottom of the menu on the left. I will then get back to you with the detail on what I need.
2007-06-26 - If you wanted to know the history of the Reef Street Rod you can now go to the updated 'Club History' page in the 'About the club' section.
2007-05-24 - Apologies for the long period of silence. It's been a hectic past 3 months but things are back to normal again. To top it off I've been offline for the last two weeks or so and couldn't access the site for admin work.
The 2007 S.A. Street Rod Nationals has come and gone. It was a very nice show even although it rained nearly all weekend down in East London. That kind of weather does however make for very nice photos. Go and see them in the events gallery section and enjoy!
Also in the events gallery is the April Piston Ring Club meeting photos. Unfortunately I had other commitments and could make the meeting for May.
2007-02-15 - I have now also made the events calendar downloadable in a Microsoft Excel format.
2007-02-11 - The events calendar for 2007 is finally up. Go and have a look.
2007-01-30 - I added a new technical article that shows the construction of a body rotisserie. The first page also has a .PDF with detailed plans. Go through his construction pages to see more detail of how he put it together.
2007-01-22 - I have added a new technical article 'The Suspension Bible' which describes the workings of a number of suspension systems.
2006-12-25 - Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all visitors!!! There are 3 new technical articles. 2 about the adjustment of the GM 700R4 transmission's T.V. cable and the third about doing a pressure test on this transmission.
2006-09-28 - Today I added 2 new tech articles, both on building your own english wheel. I also added 2 new links in the 'General' category. The first is 'MetalMeet - for Metalshaping Enthusiast & Professional Metalshapers' right down the bottom of the page and the second is 'Plans for home made workshop equipment'. Enjoy.
2006-09-22 - There are two new techincal articles in the 'Technical Sections', both on electrolysis for removing rust from parts. Please read the articles carefully if you are not familiar with the process!
2006-09-03 - I have found a nice new tech article on how to make your own wide whitewall tires with video. I found the article on the H.A.M.B forumn, posted by the user Bugman. The link in the "Technical sections" area will actually load another page which contains the video clip. Here is the actual discussion thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124144
I'm sure that everyone who knows how expensive whitewalls are will like this article. Best way to learn how is to get some scrap tires and practise before buying new. Also try a few different makes to see which give the best results.
2006-08-06 - Uploaded the photo gallery for the 2006 Cars in the Park show was held today at the Zwartkops race track.
2006-04-19 - A new "Classifieds" section has been added where people can advertise old cars and old car parts that they have for sale or that they are looking for.
2006-04-02 - Uploaded photos of Piston Ring Club's meeting on 19 March 2006 and also of Angela's Picnic held today, 2 April 2006.
2006-03-29 - A few more interesting links were added to the "Communities & Forums" and the "General" links sections. A very nice forum is 'The H.A.M.B.' where they only discuss traditional hot rods and customs.
2006-03-02 - A new "Member's Rides" section has been added where we will slowly start posting photos of the rods of the club members.
2006-03-01 - PLEASE NOTE: The monthly club meetings will from now on take place on the first Tuesday of every month and not the Wednesday anymore.
2006-01-19 - All existing event gallery photos were updated with a watermark which displays this site's internet address and also the event at which the photo was taken. All new photos loaded in future will contain such watermarks. The reason for the watermarks is to 'label' the photos as being the property of this web site and any unauthorised copying thereof can lead to legal action. We want to ask of anyone coming across any photos with these watermarks at any other location than on this site to please let us know about it.
2006-01-15 - History has been made! For the first time the Reef Street Rod Club has received "official" recognition by one group of purists (no offense intended), namely the Piston Ring Club. Today we were given "centre stage" at their monthly gathering in Modderfontein. There was a time that the building of a street rod was just about seen as blasphemy. Slowly but surely they started allowing us into their circles and started giving us recognition for the hard work and effort that goes into building a street rod. There was a good turnout of some of our club's best cars. Click here to see the photos.