And I remember I’d waste so much paint just making colors, because I loved mixing. I was emotional about what we were doing design-wise.”Īs Foose got older, he became more hands-on at Sam’s shop, as an apprentice to various employees and also doing “lot of sanding for years and years. “He wanted to add some curves to the panels, and I was crying because I didn’t want him to do it. “I was 11, and my father was building a family van, and we were custom painting it,” he explained. My goal was to be as good as him.”īy the age of 14, he was that good, so when Sam had a design idea, he had Chip draw it.Īs a youth, Foose played football, ran track, and did freestyle BMX-wheelies and jumping were his skills-but he was most passionate about design and remembers when he knew. “When he was finished, I would copy it and draw it over and over. “My father was a talented artist himself, and he would draw at home and I would sit next to him and copy whatever he was doing,” Foose recalled. I didn’t know who he was, but I absolutely fell in love with his artwork.”ĭrawing was actually nothing new to Foose-he was already at it by age three. Tremulis was working with Sam, and when Chip saw his designs, “even at that age, I knew I wanted to go to ArtCenter College of Design and design cars for a living. “I like to think I was helping my dad, but I think I destroyed a lot more than I actually helped,” he said.Īge seven was also a big year in Foose’s life, because he met Alex Tremulis, designer of vehicles such as the Tucker. By the age of seven, Chip was already a fixture there. Sam eventually went on to open his own shop, called Project Design. His first memory of the automotive industry was linked to his father, Sam, whose career in the 1960s and early 1970s took him from building high-profile Hollywood studio cars and hovercrafts to a company that did government safety testing and developed safety equipment, including airbags. Chip Foose isn’t writing his autobiography (yet), but if he were, the first line might read, “My career is an extension of my father’s.” That’s because the earliest memories this well-regarded designer and acclaimed builder of custom vehicles has are, of course, car-related.ĭouglas Sam Foose was born in Santa Barbara, California, and had “huge cheeks.” That made his mom instantly begin calling him Chipper or Chip, like a chipmunk it wasn’t until day four that “Douglas” appeared on his birth certificate.
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