Note: To honor the memory of the late Ed Roth, I am reposting (with a new image gallery) this brief tribute from 2010.
Nine years ago (April 4, 2001), we lost Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. I felt fortunate that two months prior I had a chance to say hi to Ed and get him to autograph a couple of T-shirts at the Chicago World of Wheels car show. Growing up, Ed’s T-Bucket inspired fiberglass creation also had a tremendous influence in my hot rod aesthetic. In tribute, I’ve put together a brief video on that monumental hot rod, including some of the recreations of the Outlaw as well.
(04/25/10 UPDATE) I just learned that the Outlaw body and grille shell moulds are For Sale with exclusive license rights! To my knowledge they really haven’t sold hardly any since the Jimmy C refurbishment of the original moulds was undertaken. And, they were supposed to be in full production in 2002.
I guess the big question is just how many Outlaw clones does the world want? And, if you’re using an Outlaw body and not building a clone it’s just going to be an odd-looking takeoff on a T-Bucket. I’m a huge Outlaw lover and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
April 4, 2014 Update:
I wanted to add a gallery of some of the photos I’ve taken of Ed Roth’s legendary hot rod on display at the Petersen Museum. Enjoy the work of a master.
If you want to see the techniques Ed used to create his unique custom fiberglass bodies or are inspired by Ed’s work to build your own rod body, then check out the DVD on Build a Fiberglass Body at Home.
TBucketPlans.com originated in 2005 as a personal blog extolling the virtues of T-Buckets. In 2009 I blogged about Chester Greenhalgh, the "how to" genius who wrote the legendary, out-of-print “How to Build a T-Bucket Roadster for Under $3000”. That led to a friendship with Chester and our partnership in marketing the updated eBook version of his T-Bucket building bible. The T-Bucket fire burns stronger and stronger.
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I met Ed in the Fall of 1961 in Indianapolis, IN National Drags and Custom Show in town. I gave him a photo of my Car Craft Dream Rod model car and saw him studying it to airbrush a sweatshirt for me. I’d like to believe that I had influenced him to make the Road Agent with the tiny front and winged rear.
I got lucky and found one of the original bodies he made. I think the body will look good without making it a clone. The body has good curves that make whatever u put it on look good. The one I have has been on an altered dragster and a semi clone.
Ed Roths roadster was also one of my favorites. It was this rod that enspired the paint work on the T-Bucket in my book. You’ll notice the similarity of the two cars. My other favorite car of all time was the Rod and Custom ‘Dream Truck’ of the 50s. My current project (a 59 Apache) and the subject of my 3rd book, will emulate this trucks color scheme , white with burgundy scallops.
Nice blog, John!
Chester