Chip Foose is the name of an American-born automobile designer, artist, and Tv reality star. He was rose to prominence to become a TV star of the reality television series Overhaulin, which was aired on Velocity’s network. Chip has also gained world fame while working for Hot Rods by Boyd and as the owner of his own automobile design company Foose Design.
Wiki/Bio
Chip was born in Santa Barbara, California USA. His father name Sam Foose was an automobile general specialist and had his own company in Santa Barbara called Project Design. His mother’s name is Terry Loose was a passionate car enthusiast herself, and their similar interest in cars and design made them a close couple. Terry always supported her husband as hard as she could.
Chip owed in his father’s footsteps and support his father while working on cars from when he was seven years old. He had a deep passion for cars but he never neglected his education. So he did his high school study in his hometown. After that, he went to the Art Center College of Design. But he did not continue his study and had to quit his studies as the college was too expensive for young Chip. So decided to earn money and started working for Clenet Coachworks. After working for several years, he earned enough money to finish his education and finally obtain his degree.
Chip Foose Age
When it comes to celebrities and their personal affairs, no doubt, the fans are always curious to know about all the small things. So if you also want to find out more about Chip, you are in the right way and stay with us. In this case, people are want to know how old was Chip Foose? Chip celebrates his birthday on 13th October, and he was born in 1963, which makes his age 58 this year.
Early Career
He started his professional career when he was in college and working for several companies including Asha Corporation. After completing his graduation, he started working at Sternberger Design, and at the same time, he worked part-time for Boyd Coddington. After working for three years at Sternberger, he left and joined Ford after getting a much better offer from J Mays. After few times of serving in Ford, Chip once again decided to leave Ford and joined the Boyd Coddington design team, where he became a full-time member.
Boyd is a company that Coddington created for new fresh ideas in hot rod design. That time, he got the chance to work on such famous projects as the Boydster and Boydster II. During working on those projects, his skills getting improved including designing, fabricating, painting and welding. After several years, the company was shut down in 1998 due to bankruptcy.
On the day of his leaving his working place, his girlfriend told him she was pregnant. So Chip had no chance to wait for a better job opportunity and worked for a couple of years from his garage in Orange along with Steve Greninger who also lost his job when the Boyd shop team disbanded. Their amazing skills and hard work lead them to get an opportunity to get all the members of that team which they all called the Magic Machine.
Rise to Prominence
Chip started his own company, Foose Design, which quickly became known for the complete design and construction of cars, enjoying success in no time. He and his whole team draw attention when they were featured in the TLC documentary Speedbird. In tv series, they show their redesign of the famous Ford Thunderbird model, which he named Speedbird to the audience.
However, he was raised with shines through him even in business, preferring not to take credit for the contributions he’s made to the fabrication of some great cars. For his immense talent, Foose consults for the Big 3 – GM, Chrysler, and Ford. As a result, some automotive analysts have claimed that Ford’s Mustang, Forty Nine, and Sport Trac concepts all have traces of Foose’s signature style. Notably, the award-winning Mercury-powered ‘34 Stallion was also built by Foose for Ron Whiteside. [ref]hotcars.com[/ref]
The Tv Series Overhaulin
Afterward, that led to further collaboration with TLC in the form of a reality TV series Overhaulin, which had huge success over four seasons. The show had a break in 2008 and relaunched on Velocity in 2012. He was able to launch his own car, named Hemisfear, which achieved a price of $340,000 at auction when bought by Roger Burgess, the famous car owner, and collector. Ultimately, Chip sold around 50 cars. This series had a different level of fan base and got warm feedback from the audience and is not only increase his popularity also affected his financial status. This was renewed by the Velocity network and its sister channel Discovery, and in the new format, the series lasted until 2015. Once again, the show was back in production with MotorTrend with new episodes set to launch in late 2019!
Personal Life
It was 1989 when Chip met his girlfriend and future wife Lynne, and she insisted on returning to college since she told Chip she didn’t want to marry somebody without a college education. Later he proposed to Lynne after two years in 1991. Afterward, the couple changed their wedding rings in front of their family members and friends. They have two children, Brock and Katie, but had hard times when Chip was too busy with his work so he couldn’t be at home as often as Lynne would want.
Reportedly, Lynne claimed that she would divorce Chip if he didn’t change his working schedule on Father’s Day in 2006. His father always advised him to slow down with his work projects and to spend more time with the kids. He also tried hard to cut more hours for family weekends, trips to Disneyland, and picnics with hiking. He also tries to involve his son Brock in his work process, sharing the legacy the Fooses have been gaining for decades. Brock got it right and is very committed to his hobbies and interests. Earlier he had his own high school television channel Foothill Television, for which he filmed news blocks and discussed the news with his schoolmates.
Chip Foose Net Worth
When Chip used to work for Boyd Coddington, Foose held the position as president at Hot Rods by Boyd. In 1998, Hot Rods by Boyd suffered a lean patch and this prompted Foose to resign. After that, he started a design company with his wife called Foose Design which has been an overwhelming success. The combination of talent and exposure has handsomely paid off, as Foose is now reportedly worth $18.5 million. However, it would not be wrong to claim that he enjoys a luxurious living who once had to drop out of school due to lack of money.
6 Facts OnChip Foose That Might Surprise You!
- Foose graduated from Art Centre College of Design and attended college for only two years before dropping out due to a lack of finances.
- After dropping from college, he secured a four-year job contract with Clenet Coachwork.
- While working under his father at the family’s company (at age seven) Chip became best of friends with Alex, a popular designer for Ford and Preston who inspired him to pursue art design.
- He moved closer to the limelight when he starred in his first episode of Overhaulin’ that premiered on TLC.
- Chip offered a slot for the Gas Monkey duo to appear in several Overhaulin’ episodes before encouraging Rawlings to pitch his show.
- Hot Rod Hall of Fame honored Chip Foose, its youngest ever award recipient, way back in 1997. He subsequently got inducted into several others such as Grand National Star Show, Circle of Champions, Darryl Starbird Rod, and Custom Car Museum, Detroit Autorama halls of fame, among others.
