Wild Child Posted March 28 Posted March 28 (edited) As a long time Show Rods fan, I have always loved the cool cars built by Ed Roth, George Barris, Dean Jefferies and others. Having built a few Ed Roth cars, and a couple that were in the works, I wanted to come up with a cool way to display them all together in my curio cabinet. I wanted it to be compact, easy to set up and tear down, and easy to transport. This is what I came up with. The store front is a replica of the front showroom area of his mid sixties shop. It is fairly accurate with only a couple upgrades and is based on a couple old black and white partial pics I was able to find. I first drew up plans, then built a bass wood framework which I covered in poster board and applied brick to. I hand made the display windows, framed them with channel material, and added the windows. The roof is hand made and s like the cheap shingles used by Ed, the yellow wood sign backboards were hand cut, and the signs were also hand made. Overall I think it came out pretty nice and serves as the perfect backdrop for his cool customs. The custom cars include the Beatnik Bandit, the Road Agent, the Surfite, the Mail Box trike, Ed's '56 Ford shop truck.,and a customers cool T-Bucket. I also have an Outlaw rod in the works to add in later. The cars are all nicely detailed and feature high gloss paint finishes. The Ford truck also features a highly detailed engine with wires, lines and hoses as well as a cool custom painted and pinstriped dash, and a hand finished wood grain bed. I plan to post the Ford truck at a latter date and fill everyone in on the difficulties associated with doing this build. All in all, I am happy with this multi-car build. Plus, it looks great in my curio! T Edited March 28 by Wild Child Pic problem 15
rrb124@sbcglobal.net Posted March 29 Posted March 29 Super! This display looks like the pics and articles from my days of reading Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines. Thanks for posting.
Mike 1017 Posted March 29 Posted March 29 I LUV everything Ed Roth and Rat Fink. Great looking Diorama.
Wild Child Posted March 29 Author Posted March 29 54 minutes ago, Mike 1017 said: I LUV everything Ed Roth and Rat Fink. Great looking Diorama. Wow, thank you everyone for your positive comments. Many of us have grown up around these cars, both real and toy. Mike, I too love everything related to Ed's cars and the Rat Fink memorabilia. Hope to see more from all the Rat Finks out there, including your cars too!
karbuildr Posted March 29 Posted March 29 Very cool display and excellent builds of Big Daddy's customs. He was one of my car type heroes when I was growing up. Great work.
Wild Child Posted March 30 Author Posted March 30 Thank you guys. I had an inquiry about the Ed Roth figure. The older Road Agent kits included this figure, and I think one of the other older kits may have had another one in it also (perhaps the Surfite). Review the outside boxes for this info.
BIGTRUCK Posted April 1 Posted April 1 I really like your display and nice job on the cars, I love the Big Daddy stuff.
Bainford Posted April 1 Posted April 1 Very cool display. The Roth cars look great posed together in front of his shop. Very nice work.
Wild Child Posted April 6 Author Posted April 6 On 4/1/2025 at 8:21 AM, BIGTRUCK said: I really like your display and nice job on the cars, I love the Big Daddy stuff. Thanks guys, I appreciate all the cool comments. And Ken, I also like the old Ed Roth stuff and often attend car events sporting a vintage looking Rat Fink shirt. Sometimes takes a little explaining to younger folks, but that's alright. ALSO, I finally got around to posting the '56 Ford shop truck separately (in the pickup truck section), and mentioned the pitfalls of doing this kit.
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