OT: R.I.P. Roy, Boyd Loses the Best he had... Options

[Britain Smith]

Just wanted to take a second to honor Roy on American Hotrod (Boyd's Cottington). I just heard about him passing away...must say I will miss him. He was definitely the best that Boyd had...true craftsman. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/welder.gif)

-Britain

[byndbad914]

QUOTE (jasons @ Mar 28 2006, 07:29 AM)

The other guys that impressed me on that show were the family that built the alumatub body, again only an oldtimer could do that.

The "old timer" is Marcel. Here is some fun history/trivia that I have first-hand knowledge of. I worked at Ford Performance Solutions and the owner is Troy Bowen (still a good friend of mine). His father, Chat Bowen, was in the military during WWII - was a POW in Germany at one point and bears the scars of the beatings to this day - and while in Europe, he met Marcel. Long story short - to immigrate to this country back then you had to have a sponsor - Chat sponsored Marcel to come to the US. One english wheel they were using to do the alumitub Chat and Marcel hand built together back in the 50s in Chat's backyard.

Needless to say I was very happy to see Marcel get the recognition that he really deserves, if even for only 5 minutes on the Discover Channel.

Troy still has a car in his garage that Marcel hand built for Chat back in the 60s - front engine/rear transaxle setup with a torque tube and so forth - pretty forward thinking for a couple of dudes in the 60s (though cars like that were already around, but think about the fact that you didn't see this with Porsche until the 80s and the late model Vettes that are so awesome). Car is pretty "60s futuristic" looking, though.

So, if it weren't for Chat Bowen, you wouldn't have Marcel in the US, and Boyd wouldn't have half the recognition he has as Marcel has done a LOT of work for him over the years.

Roy was awesome too - remember that aluminum hood for the f/g vette?!

I like to watch that show to remind me how NOT to treat people. Boyd is a yahoo. You want respect = if the workers are working all night, you better be under the car with grease under your fingernails all night as well. I owned my own business and can assure you when the owner is "in the trenches and doing the shittiest job" and not barking orders the crew will respect you and go the extra mile without having to be asked. BTDT, respect is earned, not demanded. I like Foose for those reasons as well and would have a lot of respect for him based on what I have seen.