The origins of Mooneyes has been well covered. The iconic hot rod equipment maker is one of the most recognizable brands in the custom car aftermarket, denoted by its cartoonish eyeballs logo and signature yellow cars. Yet this classic American nameplate has also become inexorably Japanese. That part of its history has never been thoroughly explored. That is, until Craft of Speed.
Craft of Speed is a feature length documentary that explores Mooneyes’ full history, with a focus on its second chapter. That’s when a couple of Japanese petrolheads rescued the company after the passing of its founder, Dean Moon. Filmmaker Ming Lai spent four years following Mooneyes, shooting its Santa Fe Springs, California shop, their attempts at setting a Bonneville land speed record, and interviews with Shige Suganuma and Chico Kodama.
Suganuma and Kodama were just a couple of dudes who loved American culture and cars. They moved from Japan to southern California in the 70s to experience it first hand. Suganuma and Moon became friends, but after Moon died the company fell into neglect. Typically, for small businesses like Mooneyes the natural course of action would be for a larger company to swallow it up, milk the branding, and scale up production.
Mooneyes took a different path. After much consideration, Suganuma talked to the Moon family and purchased the company and hired Kodama to run the US headquarters. JNC readers are likely familiar with how Suganuma expanded the company into Japan, with a retail shop in Yokohama, Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom Show, and the All Odds Nationals. It was a brilliant move, allowing the brand to thrive in a deeply fervent car culture, and bringing Japanese cars and motorcycles into the fold.
However, the really magical thing about Suganuma’s purchase of Mooneyes was something we didn’t fully appreciate until seeing Lai’s expert camerawork and storytelling in Craft of Speed. In typical Japanese fashion, Suganuma held in high regard for Mooneyes’ traditions, craftsmanship, and the way things were done.
Today, the company’s most popular products, the iconic Moon Disc wheel covers and Moon Tank reservoirs, are still made in the same cramped, patina’ed Santa Fe Springs, California machine shop where Dean Moon made them over 60 years ago, formed on lathes and English wheels from the 1950s with the same processes passed down through generations.
It would have been easy for a company taking over to scale up operations using modern manufacturing methods. But Suganuma had deep respect for authenticity and legacy and wanted to keep things as they were. Despite the overseas expansion Mooneyes is still a small company. In the late 80s when Suganuma bought the company with the Moon family’s blessing, fear of Japanese businesses was at an all-time high, misinformed critics thought Mooneyes was experiencing a Japanese takeover.
But it was just a couple of car guys who wanted to see a brand they cherished live on. In fact, filmmaker Lai argues, it required an outsider’s perspective to see the uniqueness of Mooneyes and strive to preserve it.
From its opening scenes depicting Mooneyes’ machine shop’s tools as works of art to footage of Chico Kodama’s hand-built saltflat dragster chasing a land speed record at Bonneville, Craft of Speed delves into Mooneyes’ evolution, from Dean Moon’s founding to present day.
“I didn’t know I would spend four years of my life on this project,” Lai told JNC in an interview. Granted, that was partly due to the pandemic, but it took a long time to build trust with his subjects and go over mountains of photos and clips of Mooneyes history.
Lai weaves the story of Mooneyes with the reticent Kodama’s all-consuming drive to claim a Bonneville speed record — building the tube-frame car, scrapping the design, starting over, and many treks to a dry lakebed in the the middle of nowhere. “Filming the Bonneville sequences was definitely the most difficult part. Not only is it technically hard, but it’s physically and financially hard as well,” Lai revealed. “It’s 110 degrees out there and you have to wear full racing suits or long sleeves, because the salt is so white that if you wear shorts, it’ll reflect off the ground and sunburn you from below.”
Lai grew up in southern California’s San Gabriel Valley and was initiated to car culture, like most enthusiasts of a certain generation, via Japanese cars in the 1980s. It was his father-in-law, who had owned a ’32 Ford Roadster, who introduced him to hot rodding. “I’m a film guy, not a car guy,” Lai describes himself as, “But I’m definitely a car enthusiast. This film is like my project car.”
He calls the documentary “a cultural study” but it’s also a love letter to building, creating, and preserving. Lai used the sounds of the machines to compose the music for the film. “Sounds, smells, feeling. The old way, the time-honored way,” Lai said. “It’s the spirit of Mooneyes.
Lai is working on distribution, but far now the best way to see Craft of Speed is at screenings. Craft of Speed has upcoming screenings at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada on September 28, and at the Segerstrom Shelby Event Center in Irvine, California live on November 16. An online screening will also be available November 17-24.
Screenshots and some photos courtesy of Ming Lai/Humanist Films.
Nice to see that there are companies that do not forget the roots, international that they may become, keeping the history and quality alive for the next generations.
First off I sincerly want to Thank Shig and Chico for saving the Iconoc Moon Equipment Company! Ok my story is this: My Dad had passed away in 1961, I was 8 years old then.Older boys in the neighborhood gave me Car magazines. I was Facinated with the Moon Ads I Seen in them Books. Fuel Block, Spun Aluminum Tank, Moon Equipped Eyeball Decals, wow! Later on Jim Nelson and Dode Marten started Dragmaster Chassis. Dean Moon built the Potvin Blown SmallBlock powered,Iconic Yellow Painted Dragster. Later on came Jocko’s Moon Liner again in That Yellow Paint So So Cool in my little boy Brain. Yep Go With Moon! I’m Done. Pardon my Spelling. Thanx!