In the Thacker/Roth book, Ed relates, "As the royalties from the Outlaw model started rollin' in, I found myself able to get all kinds of tools and fiberglass and junk parts for a new car ... I was spending more time at meetings and car shows and less time at home or working in the garage." This explains buying a finished hot rod from a customer, as he says of Tweedy's purchase, "[Bob] wasn't really into cars, and after he sold Tweedy Pie to me, I don't remember seein' him with a rod." Ed continued, "Top buck for a rod in them days was about $1,500. I made [Bob] a deal he couldn't refuse." Also in the Thacker/Roth book, Ed says, "Bob just kept his ol' Flathead (it was 1962, yer know), but he knew in order to stay on top of things, he'd soon hav'ta get an overhead engine!" See what I mean about a "jerky" timeline?
It wasn't until 1962, however, when Tweedy Pie had the place of honor (main image) on R&C's March cover, blurbed as "Big Daddy Roth's New Rod." This could have been why Roth remembered the year of purchase as 1962. Why it was such a long wait to make the cover will remain a mystery, at least for now.
Beatnik BanditThe Beatnik Bandit, though only his second 'glass car, is hands-down Roth's tour de force styling effort. Though never actually copied, except by Roth himself decades later, it was to the world of hot rodding what the Meyers Manx became to the off-road crowd-a cultural icon ("K" at least in Roth's case). And would you believe it? Both were based on the stylized fender form of early automobiles-absolutely incredible on both counts, although Roth's wouldn't have dropped from a mold as easily as Bruce's. A mold ... what? Yes dear reader, a mold! We'll get to that soon. The Bandit was also Roth's first use of a professional designer to pen the general shape of one of his cars after, of course, attempting to describe to the artist what he had in mind. What he had in mind this time was a modernized version of a tall T coupe. Joe Henning caught a glimpse of Ed's thoughts and put them down on paper. Yeah, that was it, except ... well, Ed being Ed, he just had to "improve" a bit on his own idea and Joe's wild concept rendering. Gone was the sectioned and recessed T radiator residing in a nose, that if you squinted a bit you could just make out its Outlaw heritage, and in its place went '59 Ford grille work. After all, the Outlaw had used a chunk of '59 Chevy grille; it was only fair, right? But moving around dental work pales with what came next-the replacement of Joe's stylized tall T-top with a bubbletop-another first for Roth. And, you know what? It flat-out works! The Large Father, with the help of "Dirty" Doug to sling and grind plaster, made it all come to pass. Doug told Ganahl that Roth later added lime to the plaster to extend its working time (straight casting plaster dries pretty quickly), and then discovered vermiculite, which was lighter and easier to work with. Which car was the first for these "improved" plastering methods, I'm not certain.
Once a bubbletop was decided on, the next step was where to get said bubble. Ron Aguirre and his father, Louie, were good friends of Ed's, and had successfully put a bubble on Ron's '57 Corvette, X-Sonic. Roth is said to have been influenced by both Ron's Vette and the Andy Didia "Bobby Darrin Dream Car" by Clarkaiser. In fact, Joe Henning's first illustration of the Bandit with a bubble shows door-cut lines in the top. Both the Aguirres and Ed first experimented by setting surplus aircraft canopies on their cars-well, in Roth's case an unfinished plaster buck. There was precedent for this, however. Remember that 'glass Sorrell-bodied Bonneville Streetliner mentioned in our Outlaw coverage that had a top created from two F-86 Jet fighter canopies? At least that's what was claimed, but due to the car's near perfect proportions, I tend to doubt it. Such tops proved unsuccessful for both cars; as Ron points out in Ganahl's book, "They were cracked and split and foggy, and they weren't the right shape." Also in Pat's book, he quotes the Bandit's designer, Joe Henning, as saying of Ed's sampling of an aircraft canopy: "He got it from a B-36, I think. It didn't fit. But he said, 'This is what I want to do.' He added the bubble, not me. But I added it to the drawings after the fact." That the "test" canopy was from a B-36, I have my doubts as well, as those were honkin' big bombers-didn't fit, indeed!.