The automotive world has lost a great painter, builder, and creative force. Dean Jeffries, creator of the Mantaray and the Monkeemobile, has passed away at age 80. 

Born on February 25, 1933 in Lynwood, California and raised in nearby Compton, Jeffries came of age in the epicenter of Southern California car culture. Indy 500 winner Troy Ruttman lived across the street, and Dean’s father Edward worked on midgets and roadsters.

As a teenager, Jeffries worked nights in a machine shop in Lynwood, learning painting and striping by day with his friend Kenny Howard and others. (Howard would later become known as Von Dutch.) Working from the shops of George Cerny and George Barris, he painted race cars for Parnelli Jones and A.J. Foyt. In the Indy 500 one year, 21 of the 33 entries wore his paint jobs.

Jeffries painted the number 130 and and the phrase “Little Bastard” on a Porsche 550 Spyder for a young actor friend named James Dean. When Carroll Shelby needed multiple paint jobs on his lone Cobra prototype to create the illusion of a press fleet, he called upon Jeffries to do the work. On credit—at the time, the Texan was broke.

One famous Jeffries custom, and his own personal favorite, was the Mantaray (above), which he built from the remains of an old Maserati Grand Prix racer with wild hand-formed bodywork and a 289 CID Cobra V8. However, his best known work is probably the Monkeemobile, the Pontiac GTO-based custom street rod that co-starred in the hit TV show. His countless movie and television credits include the Green Hornet’s Black Beauty limo (driven by a young Bruce Lee), the Landmaster in Damnation Alley, and the moon buggy in Diamonds are Forever, the James Bond thriller.

Among his many hands-on innovations, it’s said that Jeffries was the first painter to shoot metalflake.  In recent years, Jeffries continued to operate his shop, Dean Jeffries Auto Styling, on Cahuenga Boulevard in the shadow of the Hollywood Freeway. Funeral arrangments have not been announced.