Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- A Utah family transformed a 1989 Jeep YJ into a vibrant beach buggy.
- Their unique Woody Jeep and scooters attract smiles at car shows throughout the state.
- The project strengthens family bonds with weekly gatherings to work on vehicles.
LOGAN — The story of the Phipps men and their car-bonding starts with a hot rod and ends with a smile.
In 1996, Curtis Phipps bought a 1928 Ford Model A Roadster Pickup hot rod. He started taking his son, Bryan Phipps, to car shows. Later, Bryan Phipps' sons, Austin and Sladen Phipps, started coming along. They added a Chevrolet SSR, a 1980 Chevrolet K-10 pickup, a 1999 Plymouth Prowler, a 1993 Jeep rock crawler and a 1958 Chevrolet Impala, showing the collection at car shows about twice a month between May and September.
They were at the Wendover Car Show on Father's Day in 2014, when Curtis Phipps pointed out a 1989 YJ, the square-headlight Wrangler. It was in poor condition. The high school shop teacher who was selling it had built a wooden roof but was concerned it wouldn't hold up when he moved to Washington. The Phippses bought the green Jeep (Bryan Phipps described the color as "ugly") and brought it home, planning to make another rock crawler out of it.
They planned a 4-inch lift on it. They got the rear done first, and when they set it back down, the Jeep's destiny changed. Bryan Phipps looked at it, raised it in the back only, and liked the rake — it reminded him of old beach buggies.
The plan changed right there as he explained his vision to his father and sons. They kept the wood roof, added wood highlights, sand tires and accents, chrome, a custom surfboard rack, and Woody Woodpecker graphics. The ugly green was out, cheery yellow was in — on the Jeep and a matching trailer.
The trailer carries two 1974 Puch scooters, with single-digit mileage. Since a friend of Curtis Phipps' returned from a church mission in Austria and had them shipped home, he has ridden them less than 10 miles each. After the Puchs sat in a garage for years, they sold them to Curtis Phipps, knowing they were going to a good home.
Now, attending shows behind the Woody Jeep, they are seen and not heard.
Just try to look at the setup without smiling.
Brooke Hone, of Willard, saw it driving on the freeway in 2013 and followed it to the 2023 Peach Days Car Show in Brigham City. She said she liked "the vibe of it, the colors of it … I like what they've done with it."
I spent some time watching the car-show crowd react to the Woody Jeep — Women, girls and kids are loving it.
Abby Smith, 17 at the time, said, "I think it's awesome … I think it's very creative … so cool."
"This one definitely caught my attention," she said, adding that she and her friends spent more time looking at the Woody setup than any other cars at the show. And they smiled — just like so many other people at the car show who stopped to look.
Bigger than the impact of strangers' smiles, the Phippses bond over their cars.
Spread out over northern Utah, the guys meet once a week at their Bountiful shop to work on their vehicles. Curtis Phipps is now 94 years old. His son Bryan Phipps passed away in December 2025, but Bryan Phipps' sons, Austin Phipps, 31, and Sladen Phipps, 25, kept up the Tuesday night meetings.
Austin Phipps has started bringing his 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. The cars keep them busy. And together.
If you want to see the happy Jeep and scooters, they'll be at the Cache Valley Cruise-In this weekend, and at Brigham City's Peach Days in September.
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Brian Champagne
