Legendary automotive designer Chip Foose is in Australia for five days working with 3M who he is a spokesperson for and attending the Hot Rod Show this weekend at Rosehill, he sat down with EFTM to talk cars, Aussie cars, and how technology is changing the car building game.
Chip Foose has decades of experience in the Automotive industry, starting as a 3 year old watching his father work in his own workshop tinkering with cars and drawing the. Chip had his first real crack at the age of 7, destroying stuff left right and centre but always learning from a man who loved to teach – his Dad.
He’s gone on to work with some of the legends of the hot rod and custom industry like Boyd Coddington to then setting up his own shop – Foose Designs.
Known mainly to Australians through his cable-TV show “Overhaulin'” which ran for many years, he was the man who would take a blank sheet of paper and sketch out a phenomenal design capturing the ideas and thoughts of the cars owner, or Foose’s own ideas.
The show would take deserving participants with cars they could only hope to restore or customise and turn them into a dream car in just a matter of days.
While that show is no longer, Chip still has TV ideas and has several in the pipeline today.
He’s in Australia representing 3M who he is a spokesperson for, travelling around the world talking about their products and when we discussed 3M Chip said : “3M makes everything it takes to build a car except the parts and labour” adding “it’s amazing how many products you use, of 3M’s when you’re building a car”
3M had one muscle car owner at the event, Sascha was his name, he had a blue ’69 Camaro – Chip wandered out, took a look for 5 minutes, then upstairs, in front of a room full of media – took 30 minutes to sketch that very same car.
When asked how he was able to sketch so easily, so fast he simply said “I’ve been drawing since I was 3 years old, so its second nature, I can do a quick sketch like that”
I asked Chip about Aussie cars that stood out to him, he mentioned “you’ve got some beautiful bodies here and they’re different to what we have in the states – what’s interesting to me is they are four doors”
“I look at those and I think – wow – I’d like to take a couple these four doors and turn them into a two door and maybe even play around with the top, and do what I would do to make it into a car the Americans would love”
Here’s six amazing sketches, which Chip did “in an Evening” ahead of his trip to Australia with 3M of some more than recognisable Aussie muscle:
Chip will be out at Rosehill this weekend for the Hot Rod and Custom Auto Expo, so if you’re into custom and classic cars – might be worth a look.
3M Automotive Aftermarket Division’s new Training Centre opens tomorrow in Blacktown.
For my full 15 minute chat with Chip – listen below:
