Ed Roth's Orbitron show car found!!!

[Racerbvd]

How cool is this!!!

http://jalopnik.com/cars/ed-roth/ed-roths-orbitron-found-in-mexico-295010.php

[Joeaksa]

Lots of history there!

[Tobra]

Big Daddy!

That is cool, is it steel or fiberglass?

[pwd72s]

Pretty sure it was fiberglass...many of Roth's crazy creations were. Damn, I almost feel sorry for those of you too young to have been there...

[craigster59]

I have this book at home (great book by the way), and there are pictures of Ed making the plaster molds for the "Orbitron". A lot of good info on his cars and the "early years".

[pwd72s]

Note...no air conditioning pump on the engine. Could you imagine trying to drive that thing on a sunny day? Ahhh, but that wasn't the point of Roth's show cars.

[dad911]

Byron, your picture, and the book cover don't agree.... different flares, sides, etc.... are they supposed to be the same car?

[craigster59]

That's not the "Orbitron" on the cover, I was just putting in a "plug" for the book..

[notfarnow]

Looks right to me:

[kycarguy 935]

Awsum find!

The Orbitron's engine was hidden, unlike most of the other cars that Big Daddy was building at the time.

In the 80's many of the Barris cars would be at the auctions and I wish I would have invested in a few of them. I remember one of the Munster Coaches going for around $11,000 and the barber car for around $9,000 and the toilet car (King of the Throne?)was there and some 4 engines custom.

Those customs bring back many memories.

Thanks for the post.

[Tobra]

Good lord look how young Roth is on that cover. I think the car on that cover is the Beatnik Bandit. Have that Hot Wheel car somewhere

[URY914]

How did he make money with these cars?

Did someone commission him to build them?

Did he hit the show circuit with them?

What gives?

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by URY914

How did he make money with these cars?

Did someone commission him to build them?

Did he hit the show circuit with them?

What gives?

Read the book and find out!....Seriously, it's been awhile since I read the book, but he started out pinstriping and paint and body and went on to fabrication. He and Barris were the "Kings" of Kustom Kars back then. The cars were displayed at car shows around the country (for a fee) and licensed to Mattell 'Hot Wheels" and AMT and Revell as models. It was the glory days of "Kar Kulture". He also made $$ off of "Rat Fink" and other art. A very talented man.

[austin552]

That thing has a glass top and a tv. What was he thinking?

[Dan in Pasadena]

I remember an article relatively late in his life where he said the only big cost in most of his cars were wheels and tires. And he'd usually trade services for those. Near or possibly at the end of his life, he was working for Knott's Berry Farm here in SoCal, painting and maintaining their cars and coaches used on the Old West streets.

I seem to remember that Boyd Coddington also worked for a theme park here in SoCal. Before he built up his original big shop that lead to the wheels manufacutring, etc. he worked for Disneyland. Can anyone concfirm these old memories of mine from articles, books?

Last, anyone know where TV Tommy Ivo's four engine dragster is? Does it still exist? Gawd, there are so many neat old cars I'd like to see. The Green Monster, The Green Hornet car, The Little Red Wagon, The (one of several) Stone, Woods and Cook Fuelie, some of the altered wheel base Dodges of the sixties, and on and on.

[kycarguy 935]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

I seem to remember that Boyd Coddington also worked for a theme park here in SoCal. Before he built up his original big shop that lead to the wheels manufacutring, etc. he worked for Disneyland. Can anyone concfirm these old memories of mine from articles, books?

Here you go Dan.


http://turbo.discovery.com/american-hot-rod/bios/boyd.html

-Demand for a Boyd car is high. Where he once produced one car at a time at home during the day while doing machine work at Disneyland on the graveyard shift, his present shop in La Habra, California has some 26 talented employees working in a 30,000 square-foot facility with in-house body and paint shop.

[kycarguy 935]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Last, anyone know where TV Tommy Ivo's four engine dragster is? Does it still exist? Gawd, there are so many neat old cars I'd like to see. The Green Monster, The Green Hornet car, The Little Red Wagon, The (one of several) Stone, Woods and Cook Fuelie, some of the altered wheel base Dodges of the sixties, and on and on.

It looks like it at the NHRA Museum. Thats in Pomona at the fairgrounds, so your not too far away to go see it. Cool.

http://www.nhra.com/museum/features/feature2.html