Boyd Coddington’s 1989 GMC Sierra Iconic Sport Truck

An Iconic Sport Truck Goes Home

To say that Chris Coddington grew up around custom trucks would be an understatement. In fact, you might recognize his name—even if it’s just his last name.

Chris’ dad, Boyd, was one of the pioneers of modern custom trucks. Boyd gave “The Boyd Look” to lots of C/K trucks as soon as they hit the streets in late 1987 for the 1988 model year. With billet wheels and lowering kits quickly coming onto the scene, it was a match made in heaven.

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Southern California was soon blessed with tons of Boyd-built trucks, with the now-classic combination of lowered stance, billet wheels, roll pan, and color-matched front bumper in full effect. Yup, Chris was growing up during the birth of custom OBS trucks, and he was doing it in Boyd Coddington’s shop of all places!

Custom Is Born

One iconic truck from that new era that made a lasting impact was this ’89 GMC Sierra. This was no S.D.R. (Stop, Drop, and Roll) assembly line build, however, as every modification was hand-crafted in the Hot Rods by Boyd shop for the original owner, Craig Meredith of Newport Beach, California.

Craig wanted a custom tow rig for his various toys, and he was open to whatever Boyd wanted to do. That got Boyd’s wheels turning rather quickly, and he came up with a few ideas that combined subtlety with some of hotrodding’s most traditional modifications.

For one thing, it would become the first of this body style to get a chopped top, which was documented by Steve Stillwell for the February ’89 issue of “Truckin’” magazine. Before it left the shop, it also received a slew of other mods, such as shaved taillights, a sectioned and tucked front bumper, reshaped front fenders, a flush-mounted power antenna, shaved fuel door, custom roll pan, and a shaved tailgate handle.

… it would become the first of this body style to get a chopped top…

Greg Morell, then in-house painter at Hot Rods by Boyd, sprayed the custom gray and pink paint, while Dennis Ricklefs pulled the pinstriping along the graphics.

Since off-the-shelf lowering components for these trucks weren’t yet widely available, a lowered suspension was created for the front by modifying the factory control arms and installing custom-made coil springs. For the rear, an axle flip was fabricated, along with a welded in C-notch.

Wheels, of course, were directly out of Boyd’s machine shop—16-inch, two-piece Boyds Stars with Goodyear tires—and they perfectly complemented the stunning paintjob.

After debuting at SEMA, the truck went to Craig to enjoy, which we can only assume he did until he sold the truck to its new owners.

Home Sweet Home

Fast forward about 30 years to 2022, and Chris gets a phone call from someone asking him to authenticate a Boyd truck for a couple in Arizona. As it turned out, it was the same couple who bought the truck from Craig Meredith all those years prior! They obviously knew what they had, but they wanted a certificate of authenticity so that they could finally pass the truck along to another caretaker.

Chris’ ears perked up upon hearing that the truck would be for sale, and before he knew it, he was on his way from Orange County to Arizona to bring the truck back home to Hot Rods by Boyd!

The truck was still in pristine shape after decades of storage and had amassed just over 10,000 miles since new! Chris wasted no time in taking the truck to its first modern show, Goodguys Del Mar Nationals, where it took home the Best OBS award. We have no doubt that Chris will finally put some more miles on the truck and look forward to seeing it at shows for years to come!