Automotive

LOS ANGELES – In this land of fantastic plastic people and lush lawns in the desert, Chip Foose builds unreal steel cars.

Inspired mostly by Ford and Chevy hot rods, a pure Foose car rises from the concrete floor of his small shop in Huntington Beach, with a unique body, chassis and interior formed of thousands of hours of meticulous work.

Chip Foose

Chip Foose stands next to his hand-built Impression, which is among his marquee vehicles.

Whatever you call these special cars – the Shock Wave, 0032, Grand Master and Impression among them – they have been marquee vehicles, bringing Mr. Foose considerable attention and awards over the last decade.

The star of TLC's popular Overhaulin' series on cable television, Mr. Foose was the youngest person to be inducted into the Hot Rod Hall of Fame in 1997.

Though only 42, he has already been involved with seven vehicles that have won hot-rodding's prestigious America's Most Beautiful Roadster award. Three of his cars have won the Ridler Award at Detroit's Autorama, and seven have received Goodguys' Street Rod of the Year awards.

He has licensed dozens of products that bear his name, including the Foose '69 Camaro, Foose '71 Challenger and the 2006 Foose Stallion Mustang that he designed for Texas-based Unique Performance.

In short, Mr. Foose – an honors graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena – is probably the most influential young designer-builder in the graying hot-rod business.

But on a recent Monday afternoon, he looked more like a tired California dude on the edge of middle age than a hot-rod god.

Between the TV show – now in its fourth season – and his various projects, Mr. Foose is lucky to catch three hours of sleep a night, usually between 4 and 7 a.m. In addition, he and wife Lynne – a partner in Foose Design – have two children, 6-year-old Brock and 2-year-old Katelynn.

He has been so busy, he says, that he hasn't been able to get into his congested 5,000-square-foot shop as much as he would like, often relying on his five employees to keep projects moving.

"That's my real passion," Mr. Foose said of building cars that sometimes take years to complete. "But right now, it's getting more difficult to do."

The shop is divided into three areas with a small office in front.

Inside one shop was the unfinished frame of what will be Mr. Foose's next Ridler Award contender, a fenderless hot rod that looked in drawings tacked on the wall like a heavily modified '32 Ford Phaeton. Coiled inside the custom frame rails of the car was a nasty Drake Indy racing V-8.

"I think it will be for the '08 or '09 [Autorama] show," said Mr. Foose, who started working in his father's car shop at 7. "We'll detune the engine to have in the neighborhood of 600 horsepower. I call it a bobtail. We still have a ton of work to do on the car. When we're finished, I want it to look like a hot rod based on something Ford built."

A gorgeous copper '54 Chevy hardtop with a chopped cream-colored top and a new Corvette engine and suspension sat on stands in the other shop area. The Chevy is being built for car dealer Wes Rydell, one of the owners of the Grand Master, Mr. Foose's first Ridler Award-winning car.

Mr. Foose said he doesn't know what will happen with the TV show when his contract expires in January. But his long-range plan is to continue doing "development" projects like those with Unique Performance and license them.

The income from those projects should help support the shop and allow Mr. Foose and his staff to build a few special cars a year.

"I have 23 licensing agreements right now," he said. "That's what will grow Foose Design. I don't have a desire to get big. My dream is to enjoy my family, my life. My desire is to stay focused on a small number of retail cars."

Terry Box is the automotive writer for The Dallas Morning News.