Sunday 5th May 2013

Legendary custom car builder, painter, and Hollywood stuntman Dean Jeffries passed away at the age of 80. Dean Jeffries was a ‘50s cultural icon, contributing to the teen culture of the ‘50s through his paint and pinstriping—first working with George and Sam Barris in Lynwood—where he was born in ‘33, but also through images he created that became mass art for teen book covers, locker doors, and car windows. Dean Jeffries was the subject of many custom paint and pinstripe articles throughout the ‘50s, seeming to be attached to everything that was California Cool culture; from painting “Little Bastard” on the Porsche Spyder James Dean would lose his life in, to repainting over and over Carroll Shelby’s only Cobra prototype to help give the impression Carroll had built a fleet of them. Later he took the car customising to new heights with his seminal Manta Ray, based on a Maserati Grand Prix racecar. Once the world got an eyeful of the Manta Ray, exposing what his custom capabilities were, Jeffries was building elaborate custom vehicles for the car manufacturers, TV and film, including the Monkeemobile for the Monkees TV show, and the Green Hornet’s “Black Beauty” Imperial. Since he built some of the cars used in numerous movies and TV, Jeffries also became a de-facto stuntman. Also during the height of his TV/movie car period he reinterpreted the dune buggy with his Kyote fibreglass kits.