From the book, Hot Rod Garages by Peter Vincent and Motorbooks.
I n 1971, 15-year-old Roy Brizio went to Los Angeles to spend the summer with family friend Dan Woods, who owned a hot rod shop with Jim “Jake” Jacobs. At the time, the shop was busy building show cars, including the "Roach Coach" for Roach Studios and the "Butcher Truck".
Roy helped at the shop that summer and learned a lot about car building in a short period of time. During the school year, Roy spent as much time at his dad’s shop as he could, learning how to weld and fabricate brackets, and how to put hot rods together. Roy got one heck of a hot rod-building education from his dad, the boys in the shop, and his dad’s friends in Los Angeles.
Working on the hot rods led to lots of good contacts, and Roy often got tips on good street rods for sale. In 1973, Roy got a bank loan to buy a ’32 three-window for $1,500 from one of his dad’s friends. He made $60 monthly payments—a good-sized chunk of change at the time. Later, Roy parted with the coupe, using the money to start his own shop. He sold the blown motor first, and later he sold the fenders for $1,000. In 1979, Roy took the body off the chassis and sold it to Boyd Coddington. Roy also owned the C&T Automotive ’32 roadster that Andy bought when his son was 14 years old. In 1975, Roy sold that car to Don Thealan, who turned that car into an Oakland Roadster Show winner for wheel manufacturer John Sironian.
By that time, Roy had his own 2,500-square-foot shop in San Bruno and had hired a part-time fabricator.
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From the book, Hot Rod Garages by Peter Vincent and Motorbooks.
W hen Roy Brizio was just 15 months old, his dad Andy sat him on the cowl of his ’32 coupe for a family photo at the 1957 Oakland Roadster Show. Roy grew up with hot rods around him all the time. His dad worked at Western Tires in San Francisco, and on the weekends Andy Brizio was the starter at the Half Moon Bay drag strip. A few years later, Andy opened Andy’s Wheels & Tires next door to his drag racing pals at Champion Speed Shop.
By the mid-1960s, Andy became interested in the T-bucket hot rods that were so popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. When Dragmasters, a chassis-building company in Carlsbad, California, introduced a torsion bar tube chassis for the T-bucket, Andy Brizio became a Dragmasters dealer for northern California. A year later, Andy began making his own chassis in rectangular tubing with the help of local fabricator Pete Ogden. Andy marketed a T-bucket kit called Andy’s Instant T, which became well known in the hot rod world and appeared in numerous ads and magazine features. Andy drove his Instant T to hot rod events in northern California and joined some cross-country tours with Rod & Custom magazine. He sold the kits overseas, and one of his British customers was rock guitarist Jeff Beck, who later became Roy Brizio’s good friend and regular customer. Jeff Beck built his own Instant T in his garage in the early 1970s, alongside a few ’32 Fords.
Roy rode with his dad to many events in the T-bucket and got very familiar with hot rods at an early age. In 1967, at age 11, he drove his dad’s Instant T at the Pismo Beach roadster event.
In 1971, 15-year-old Roy went to Los Angeles to spend the summer with family friend Dan Woods, who owned a hot rod shop with Jim “Jake” Jacobs. At the time, the shop was busy building show cars, including the Roach Coach for Roach Studios and the Butcher Truck. Roy helped at the shop that summer and learned a lot about car building in a short period of time. During the school year, Roy spent as much time at his dad’s shop as he could, learning how to weld and fabricate brackets, and how to put hot rods together. Roy got one heck of a hot rod-building education from his dad, the boys in the shop, and his dad’s friends in Los Angeles.
In 1972, Andy Brizio and his friend Cub Barnett bought Champion Speed Shop, and they ran both businesses for a few years. The T-bucket trend was strong for about 10 years, and when the orders started to slow down, Andy closed the chassis-building part of the business. He tried to get his son interested in working in the speed shop, but Roy was too interested in hot rods and, most of all, ’32 Fords. Sensing it would be hard to keep a hot rod shop afloat during the 1970s, Andy tried to talk Roy out it. But rather than work the counter at the speed shop, Roy focused on helping his dad’s Instant T customers with repairs and small modifications.
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