We’ll admit to being a little behind the curve on getting you the word on Dean Jeffries: 50 years in hot rods, racing, and film by Tom Cotter, as the positive reviews have been showing up everywhere for the last few weeks. We’re not going to buck the positive trend either.
Jeffries is an interesting and largely underappreciated guy in the history of hot rodding and customizing cars. Take for example the “flying eyeball” made famous by Von Dutch. Jeffries was the first to draw it and actually has the rights to the image but Von Dutch popularized it and it has become part of the mainstream culture with the explosion of the formerly trendy clothing line bearing his name. Long story short, Jeffries has not seen so much as a dime from it.
Author Tom Cotter has written several neat books and this one follows his style pattern perfectly, delivering the right level of information to give you the inside story without getting mired down in such miniscule detail to drag the story to a screeching halt.
Jeffires has a lot of history with George Barris and most of it is not exactly great. It was Jeffries who built the Monkeemobile and it was Barris who took the credit. That’s a wound, among several others, that has yet to heal between the pair and that story is a fascinating one to read in the book.
With his work as a stuntman in the movies, builder of movie cars, and custom painter of hot rods, Indy cars, and whatever else rolled through his shop, he has a cannon of work on par with every one of the household names in hot rodding and customizing history. This book does a great job of bringing not only his story, but also his skills to the limelight where they really belong.
Chronicled in the book is the building of the Mantaray which many consider Jeffries’s seminal work. It’s an asymmetric hot rod that was constructed on the frame and in the same style of an old birdcage Maserati. That car shows the depth of skill and vision that Dean Jeffries possesses.
If you know about Dean Jeffries you’ll love this book for the inside info. If you don’t know about him, this piece will provide a wonderful learning experience for you.
The book is for sale at amazon.com, motorbooks.com, and other book sellers.
