Chip Fuz – The Golden Heart of the custom scene

Let’s be honest: automotive culture is going through difficult times. One has only to look at the tuning scene of any country, in principle, and the words of Jeremy Clarkson immediately come to mind, which he uttered, in fact, for quite a long time – more than ten years ago: “We are an endangered species, you and I. We are speed lovers. We are adherents of power, performance and noise”, “You and I – we are being squeezed out, pushed to the side of the road, hunted at every turn.” In this very bleak atmosphere, there are not many people left on the American custom scene who have managed to make engineering their life’s work. I mean, there are talented guys who have built two, three, or maybe even five cars… but in order to regularly build cars, as, say, Starbird or Barris did, there is almost no such thing left. However, so far it is still only almost, and at the time of writing there are several deservedly well-known names in the world, the largest of which is Chip Fuz.

Chip’s father, Sam Foos, was also a very well-known person on the casting scene, as well as the owner of his own workshop. Such a beginning, in fact, does not carry any guarantees, and it often happens that sons and other children are absolutely not interested in the parent’s occupation, after whose inevitable death workshops are closed and custom cars are sold off. Fortunately, the Fuze family is definitely not the case. Chip loved what Sam did from childhood, and from the age of seven he began helping his father in the workshop.

So upon reaching adulthood, Chip already had some skills and, in general, knew exactly what he wanted to do in life. To further develop his skills, in 1982, Comrade Fuz decided to enroll in the ArtCenter College of Design, a very well-known private institution, whose students included, in particular, such people as the famous futurist artist Sid Mead, designer of the C2 and C3 Corvettes (as well as the Boss 302 model Mustang) Lawrence Shinoda, artistic director Half-Life 2 Victor Antonov, Mike Shinoda and Joe Khan from Linkin Park, someone named Zack Snyder and many others. Chip Fuz does not finish his studies immediately – after two years of study, he has to leave college for a while due to financial problems. However, in 1988, Chip resumed his studies, and in 1990 he successfully completed it.

After graduating from college, Fuz gets a job with no one but Boyd Coddington himself, but only for a part-time job – his main business for several years becomes working in the automotive industry. And, perhaps, Chip would have remained a factory designer, but already in 1993, Boyd persuaded Fuz to join him in the workshop full-time. Working for Coddington, Comrade Fuz learns the science of enterprise management, and by 1998 he was already the president of Boyd’s Hot Rods company. But unfortunately, Coddington is plagued by a series of financial setbacks, and suddenly the threat of bankruptcy looms, as a result of which Chip decides to leave and open his own garage.

While the Chip was heard about on the custom stage thanks to cars such as 0023 and Stallion, Fuz became truly famous thanks to television. It’s probably going to sound a little sad, but still, national fame always comes through advertising and the media. Because the people are like a mountain, they don’t go to Mahomet. In general, in 2004, Chip Foos became the central figure in the TV show Overhaulin’ – something like the famous “Pumping Cars” in our country around the same time, but specializing mainly in the restoration of American classics. All in all, this show has been running for about seven years, and we’ve filmed as many as 113 episodes. So you can imagine how many people have seen Chip Fuze and his work.

In addition, information for those who understand – in 2006, the name Foose appeared on car number 24 in NASCAR. And not by some small sponsor on the wing, but by a large decal on the trunk and hood. How? It’s simple: Chip was the person responsible for the car’s color scheme that season. Plus, in the same year 2006, Chip signed a contract for the production of scale models of custom Fuza cars… In general, like George Barris, Chip has done a lot over the years. Although, in comparison with the same Barris, the Chip still acts more cautiously and modestly. And in general, it seems that – apart from rare exceptions – he still tries to stick to his job as a designer and promote his achievements in the automotive environment. So the surname Fuz does not have the pathos and starry halo that surround the surname Barris.

And the last thing that many people love about Fuza on the custom stage is his exceptionally friendly nature. On any automotive forum, you can find a dozen trades about what a wonderful man Chip turned out to be when you met him personally. Someone met Fuz at the airport when Chip was with his wife, and Fuz shook hands, introduced his new friend to his wife, and told her a little behind-the-scenes information about the upcoming car show. Someone saw Chip at the auto show, and while the ad read “Chip Foos: eight to ten,” Foos stayed until half past one, chatting with everyone in line. And those who found themselves in California and went on an excursion to the Foose Design workshop, in turn, say that if Chip is not away, then he will surely come out to meet the guests in person. And anyway, Fuz is ready to talk to anyone who asks him for an autograph or wants to shake his hand.

Automotive intermezzo: The Coolair is a 1954 custom Bel Air built by Fuze in the mid-2000s.

Many noted that Chip Foos treats his fans, his team, and people in general with the same respect as they treat him, or even more. And this atmosphere of mutual respect is definitely present between Fuz and the participants of the custom scene. Even those who don’t like, for example, Fuz’s love of huge disks, or some other aspect inherent in Chip’s cars, still admit that Fuz knows a lot about car design, has the skill and can build a good car. All this, of course, is not from scratch – the chip really can do everything: from sketching and modeling on a computer, to assembly, welding, polishing and painting. From all these facts, perhaps the most prominent figure of modern American car culture has emerged: the real heart of the custom scene for the past twenty years.