It was in 1986 or 1987 when I saw The Manta Ray for the first time. I had no idea who had built it and why. During the 1990s when my interest in traditional custom cars was sparked I came across the name of its builder for the first time, Dean Jeffries. So in 2009 on my first trip to the holy land of car culture I was finally able to admire and appreciate some of Dean's work in real, in the shape of The Manta Ray exhibited at the Petersen Museum. In the meantime I had learned more about his builds and the impact he had made on automotive styling and custom car history. Yesterday, as the news of his passing spread over the social media I was struck not only by the thought that he was gone. It was more like, man he wasn't just a legend, he was a living legend. And he had still had his shop in Hollywood and I didn't make it there. Now it's too late. Godspeed, Dean Jeffries.
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