ARC MAGAZINE

The Godfather of the custom-build TV drama

We all know his story. It’s become part of the cinematic and pop-culture lexicon of the past half-century. He’s the cold, ruthless manipulator whose methods are merciless and whose influence is far reaching. He oversees a family of operatives — some connected by blood, others by sacred oath, all of them fiercely loyal — who are ready to do his bidding with nothing more than a word or even a nod from the capofamiglia.

The truth is, Chip Foose is none of these things.

He’s a leader and an influencer, yes. And he does oversee an extended family of a sort. And yeah, he looks pretty good when he changes out of his shop clothes and into a dark suit and silk tie. But he’s anything but ruthless or manipulative. The scores of designers, fabricators, painters and other craftsmen with whom he’s crossed paths over the years will attest that he’s more the generous, unassuming mentor and guide. He’s the big brother, the helpful, avuncular figure who has cut a path for others to follow by spending countless long and late hours in his shop, looking over dozens of shoulders and offering guidance and support where needed.

Foose’s combination of innate talent, tireless work ethic and media savvy has enabled him to introduce custom design and building to a mainstream audience. In the process, he’s opened up a world of opportunities for young craftsmen where none existed a couple decades ago.

Foose is a godfather of a different kind.

“I build cars to feed my passion,” says Foose, owner and founder of Foose Design, based in Huntington Beach, California. Aided by a hand-picked and rotating team of fabricators and related tradesmen, Foose custom built more than 100 cars — each over the course of just seven days — as the host of Overhaulin’ for nine seasons, originally on the TLC network and later on Velocity, from 2004 to 2015.

“But if I didn’t have the people around me and nobody to share the passion with, I’d never pick up another wrench,” he adds. “It’s the people — the ones I build the cars for and the ones I share the work with — who are the reason why I do it.”

There was never a time when cars weren’t Foose’s passion. He remembers hanging around Project Design, his father’s shop in Santa Barbara, when he was just three years old. He spent hours watching his father build, copying his drawings over and over again. “I was seven years old when I knew that I wanted to design cars,” he says.

Armed with a degree from Art Center College of Design in 1990, Foose went to work for a string of high-profile designers – Clenet Coachworks; Mark Stehrenberger at Stehrenberger Design; J Mays, VP of design at Ford; and Boyd Coddington, owner and founder of Hot Rods by Boyd. He spent five years working fulltime with Coddington and eventually became president of the company. But when the shop went bankrupt in 1998, Foose launched Foose Design in Orange, California, and relocated to Huntington Beach a year later.

After a string of awards and honors beginning in the early 1990s (and they’re still coming to this day), Hollywood came knocking in the early 2000s, when Foose Design was still in its formative years. Television producer Bud Brutsman sold TLC a pilot about custom building called Rides, and Foose was his star. Brutsman parlayed the pilot into Overhaulin’, a weekly series that introduced Foose to a mainstream television audience. The premise was fairly simple: “steal” a vintage car with an emotionally resonant back story, tear it down and turn it into a custom masterpiece in seven days, reunite car and owner, and play a few pranks on the owner along the way for comedic effect.

“We both wanted to showcase cars as rolling art,” says Brutsman. “At the time, there really wasn’t anything like that on TV, and there weren’t many people who appreciated these cars as artwork. Chip was a craftsman. He could draw. The guy can take a pen and a white sheet of paper and turn it into a hot rod. It’s seriously like a magic trick to me.”

Every episode and every build took place in a different shop, so the lineup changed and evolved over time, “but as we were moving around and we kept meeting these talented builders,” says Foose, “I would say to Bud, ‘Do you think we could get this person or that person to work with us full time?’ We started building this A Team that was phenomenal, and we just had a blast. Every build felt like Sunday night at our buddy’s house, and we were all trying to get his car running so he could get to school tomorrow.”

Bryan Fuller was part of the original lineup. He’d already been working at Foose Design for a year when the series got under way.

“Bud came in and said, ‘Alright, we’re gonna do this show called Overhaulin’, and we’re gonna build a car in a week,’” Fuller recalls. “And I’m saying, ‘That’s not gonna work. You know how long it took us to build the last car we did with Chip? So we’re not going to get it done in seven days. It’s not going to happen.’ Then Chip started making phone calls to people, and then those people made phone calls. Next thing you know, there were something like 30 people in the shop, and we got it done. In seven days.”

Fuller maintains that the success of that first season — and every build in every episode thereafter — was the direct result of Foose’s leadership. It was the inspiration that eventually helped set Fuller on the path to opening his own custom bike shop — Atlanta-based Fuller Moto — and hosting Naked Speed on the Velocity Channel.

“Chip’s a natural born leader,” says Fuller. “He taught me what it meant to be a leader. I had just never worked with anybody in my life who was that kind of a personality. What you learn is that great leaders pull their teams. That’s why they call it leading. Because you’re pulling the team.”

Jessi Combs also appeared in the first season of Overhaulin’. Foose and Brutsman brought the crew to WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming, where Combs was a student at the time, and they recruited her and 30 other students to help turn a four-door 1957 Chevy Bel Air into a two-door roadster they rechristened the Speed Air. Later in that same season, Foose invited her to rejoin the team to rebuild a 1967 Nova.

“It was just like working with any other really talented guy in the shop,” says Combs. “He’s as talented and creative — and as humble — as it gets. It was really cool to see him draw and manage a team of that nature and of that size, and be able to pull off exactly what he wanted. There was a lot of fabrication that went into that Bel Air, and it was amazing to see it all come together.”

Combs later hosted the sixth season of Overhaulin’ in 2012. Her numerous other TV ventures have included Xtreme 4x4, The List: 1001 Car Things to Do Before You Die, All Girls Garage, MythBusters and How To Build…Everything. Off-screen, she’s compiled an impressive resume that encompasses design, fabrication, racing, teaching and product sponsorship. A few words of Foose wisdom have stuck with her over the years — including a message about keeping your eye on the big picture and not sweating the small stuff.

“I think we were setting up brake rotors,” she says of one of the Overhaulin’ builds in which she participated. “I said, ‘Chip, there’s not a lot of clearance here.’ He said, ‘You know what that space is, right? It’s clearance. Clearance is clearance. If the parts aren’t touching, then they’re never going to rub against each other.’ We would have something like a sixteenth of an inch of clearance, and he’d say, ‘That’s clearance.’ His message was, ‘Stop creating a story around it. It’s not going to move. It’s fine. Don’t put too much thought into it. This is nominal compared to everything else we have going on.’”

Combs and Fuller are just the tip of the iceberg. There have been many others, either members of the Overhaulin’ crew or employees in Foose’s shop — or both — who’ve taken inspiration from Foose as fuel to pursue ventures of their own. Among them are: Jared Zimmerman, a fabricator who went on to co-host MuscleCar and Car Fix with Lou Santiago; mechanic/machinist Mike Curtis, who specializes in custom wheels through his company, Curtis Speed; Steve Deman, custom painter and owner of Los Angeles-based Kolorkings; and Mitch Lanzini, owner of Lanzini Body Works in Huntington Beach, California.

“I always said Overhaulin’ was a people show,” says Foose. “The people — the ones I was building for and the ones I was building with — were always more important than the cars. The cars were just the catalyst for those people to tell their stories. Whether I’m doing TV or in the shop, I want to enjoy what I’m doing every day. If I’m going into the shop to work, I’m going to find another job. But if I’m going into the shop to have a good time, then I’m happy to be with these people.”

Combs has done more than enough TV since the Overhaulin’ days to recognize what separates the pros from the hacks. “There’s a lot of crappy television out there that teaches you all the wrong ways to build a car,” she says. “Chip brought a grace and beauty to it all, and an element of giving back to the community. Cars aren’t this selfish thing that men need to go to out in the garage and keep all to themselves. He built a community around cars. All of a sudden, the family was involved, and friends were involved. Designing and building became something much larger than a guy and his car. Chip was the one with the ability to introduce that idea, because he’s gifted with so many talents and skills and so much passion that he can share with everyone.”