And a little side bar of sorts... Not long ago, Mike built a model for Mark... It's a recreation of Mark's Futurian - complete with a fake model car box:
Great write up man, thanks. Somehow on one of those "reality" hot rod shows they were filming at Moon and somehow I got the credit for building their diorama. I helped , but Bill did the majority of it. Just so this does not happen again, I ordered a brass plaque for this one that states : Ed Big Daddy Roth museum Custom built by Mike Scott
Incredible! The things we do for the things (and People) we love never Seises to amaze me. For those of us that met or knew Ed we knew he was as One Off as each of his creations. Enter then people like Bill, Mike and Mark who in their own rights are cast in a Mold of their own. Thank you all for doing and being what and who you are. Well done fellas, what a tribute. One of a kind (maybe 2 of a kind) just like Ed. Rare by all accounts.
Great story. I am not sure what it is I like most about it. I've always liked models, and a well executed diorama. Tells a story in a way no other can.
I like the Roth diorama very much,more ,as the one Roth rod* I total love is <" Out Law" set center.* I didn't like the others all that much anyway. Ed Roth made a big impact on us all { art ,custom n rods wise}. Maybe more so for those of us around in the 1950 n 60. In the mid n late 50s,I was doing car art things,like lot of other teens then. I pinstriped,did airbrush "T"s n names on cars at car shows in the 50s n 60,beside building my own cars. With my art name;"The Bat" out of hell. Enjoyed many indoor shows around Florida.
I had a number of interactions with Roth through the years... First time was while writing an article for the first issue of Hot Rod Deluxe. I was doing a piece on White Wall tires and called Roth for his perspective of construction techniques - then vs. now. I have an audio recording of that phone call somewhere... He was crazy as shit and I didn't understand much of what he said. I remember him screaming "VULCANIZATION" over and over into the phone. And I don't suffer fools. Crazy shit like that typically annoys me. But it was Roth... and I loved it. A couple of years later, he and Dennis called me about building Ratfink.com. I agreed on a discounted price of $1200. I built the site using the Roth House Industry font. At the time, I didn't know Andy Cruz at all... and apparently, I was using a bootlegged version of the House font that Roth had somehow gotten. Andy was pissed and raised hell... Not sure what happened, but I never got paid and the site was up for like a decade. A year or so after that, I ran into Roth at the GNRS... I had my mom with me. Roth hit on her. Made my mom happy... she still had it... and made me smile just cuz...
Just amazing, love him tipping his top hat to the crown admiring his creations. I would give anything I now own to get back the monster teeshirt he did for me at the 1960 Baltimore car show witch starred his Beatnick Bandit!
I'm so sorry to hear of Mike's passing; I have long wanted to meet him. I offer my condolences to hs family and friends. Mark, was Mike the original builder of the first Mysterion clone and weren't you involved in that one? Ryan, everyone on here who are in their seventies built model cars; we all did! I used Ray Farhner's Metalflake to paint my X-Sonic rip-off model which won best paint at the National Revell contest. This photo is the last known photo of Ed and I wearing suits!
I met Mr Roth at a car show in Omaha in the late 70's. I always put a couple of the Ratfink decals on my cars in rememberence of him
I've had the pleasure of meeting Big Daddy Roth a few times. One time my girlfriend (my wife of 23 yrs now) ran into him at an ice cream shop in Manistique, MI. I saw his Fink painted Toyota truck out front and pulled in not even knowing if it was his....He was great!!! He signed all my Roth stuff I got at the St. Ignace carshow from the previous wkend (this was on a Tues or Wed IIRC). Such a cool memory. Then there's the pic I took of him eating a samitch while striping a car....I'll see if I can dig that up.
Yes Mike is the one that started the first Mysterion clone, he had the body and nose roughed in in glass, the chassis built with 2 FE's mounted and the front axle filled and the rear axle assy fabbed up. It was essentially the mysterion, rolling and needing finished bodywork, chrome plating, bubblrtop and upholstery. He was terrified of what the chrome was going to cost and sold it to me. I told him I didn't want to finish it either (just finished the Outlaw and cloning is a pain) I sold it to Shuten with the stipulation that he gave Mike credit for what he had done, there was some mention just once, but later Dave took credit for the whole thing.... pretty crappy in my book...
Models are what got me into the real car side of the hobby. I remember my uncles building these and the fascination I had for the details and chrome, SO MUCH chrome... I struggled with the fiddly bits of the Revell kits, but eventually got to where I was satisfied with my efforts. Unfortunately my skills haven't kept pace with my aging.
Love the dioramas and the stories. What a great way to honor an icon. I know the various creations have strong opinions, but I wonder why the megacycle isn't in there. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/media/albums/ed-roths-mega-cycle-capt-pepis.19299/?page=2
The resin cast bodies for Cap'n Pepis (megacycle) were don by Bill Michaelson. he carved the master for it with very little reference material. Later when I owned the Capn Pepis, Mike came over and measured and scaled the real car and made his own mold and a more accurate body. There was a riff between Billy an Mike over this and it got fairly heated. I believe it was this argument that kept Mike from putting one in the Diorama....
2006 Detroit Autorama, I was pretty honored that they used my Outlaw clone in place of the real car.... that was a great display
Mark, sorry to hear that. It was the first one I saw as a kid (aside from the Golden Fang, before paint), and it resonated!
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