Back from L.A. where Mr. Coop and I attended the Saturday unveiling of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's fully restored Orbitron at Galpin Auto Sports in Van Nuys. Unfortunately cameras were verbotten (a public debut is slated for later in the year) so you'll have to take my word for it that the finished product is flat-out spectacular, and the car is just as amazing as it was when Tom Wolfe first wrote about it in The Kandy Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamlined Baby.
New owner Bo Boeckmann spared no expense returning to its 1964 glory, including special one-off reproductions of its ultra-rare cheater slicks. Original painter Larry Watson recreated the blue pearl paint formula and original upholsterer Joe Perez recreated the blue metallic & monkey fur interior just in time for the reveal. Thanks to our buddy Dave Shuten who oversaw the resto, EVERYTHING is spot on -- down to the slotted Astros, the greenline SW gauges, even the insanely rare 1964 GE 11" portable TV for the console. Hot damn. Not bad for a car that was a garbage dump outside a Mexican sex shop less than a year ago.
The crowd of hot rod cognoscenti on hand for the festivities included Watson, Perez, Ed Roth's widow Ilene and his four surviving sons, Robert & Susan Williams, Pat Ganahl, intrepid Orbitron finder Michael Lightbourn, and Ed Newton whose 1964 concept rendering was the first spark in what would be the one of the weirdest and wildest car story ever told.
Also had the odd it's-a-small-world experience of running into Steve Uhl, a native of my same small Iowa lobster fishing village who now builds bitchin' choppers in California (see Greasy Kulture #3). Hours of Iowa cowtipping tales were recounted.
Good times, good times. Keep your eyes peeled for the photos and TV coverage when the
Orbitron makes its public debut, sometime in October. Mazooma!
Oh, HELL YES! I love it when someone does it right!
Posted by: Mumblix Grumph | August 29, 2008 at 07:56 AM