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Dean Jeffries was one of Los Angeles car culture's "preeminent automotive sculptors and engineers," says Jalopnik in an obit posted today. It's also on the Jeffries website. He reportedly died on Sunday.
Dean Jeffries, also known as "Deano" began pinstriping cars with the legendary Von Dutch in Lynwood, California, in the early 1950s.Jeffries pinstriping lead to custom painting, and then to custom fabrication. Jeffries started his craft in Lynwood before moving to Sunset Blvd, then to his long-time shop on Cahuenga Blvd in North Hollywood. Jeffries fabricated some of the most innovative custom cars and hot rods of all time. Jeffries painted the infamous words “Little Bastard” on the tail section of actor James Deans Porsche.
Other stars that would visit his shop included Gary Cooper, Steve McQueen, James Garner and Jay Leno. Jeffries first major success was in the 1964 Grand National Roadster Show with his asymmetrically styled Mantaray, which featured a Maserati Grand Prix chassis and a Cobra engine.
Other cars from the Jeffries stable include the “Monkeemobile”, the original Green Hornet's “Black Beauty”, James Bonds’ “MoonBuggy” from Diamonds Are Forever, and the 35 foot long 12 wheel “Landmaster” built for the movie Damnation Alley.
Autoblog summarizes this way:
He leaves behind a legacy in the automotive world that includes a paint job on the very first Shelby Cobra ever made, the Ford used on the cover of the 1963 Beach Boys Little Deuce Coupe album, a custom GTO for The Monkees called The Monkeemobile and even some paint work on James Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder. A signature Jeffries' custom car called the Mantaray was on display at the Peterson [sic] Automotive Museum in LA for a time.
