Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s Orbitron, now restored. Photo courtesy Beau Boeckmann.
[Author Tom Cotter has collected hundreds of "barn-find" stories for his previous books, The Cobra in the Barn, The Corvette in the Barn, The Harley in the Barn, The Hemi in the Barn, and The Vincent in the Barn. His latest book, 50 Shades of Rust, presents more remarkable stories of uncovering dusty, rusty old cars. We're going to host Tom for a book signing at noon on October 9 at our tent at Hershey, but until then, check out these three of the 50 assorted stories he's collected.]
Chapter 42 – Otherworldly Orbitron
It was hard to escape Ed “Big Daddy” Roth when I was a kid. To young guys in the 1960s, Roth’s google-eyed character, Rat Fink, was plastered on T-shirts and his monster cars were all the rage for kids of a certain model-kit-building age. Roth, an artist, cartoonist, pinstriper, and custom car designer and builder, was all the rage in the ’60s, and much of model kit manufacturer Revell’s revenues was based on scale versions of Roth’s creations. The man was a brand and industry onto himself, having created the weirdo T-shirt craze that others quickly copied. Some of Roth’s more memorable automotive creations some readers may remember include Tweedy Pie, Mysterion, Beatnik Bandit, Surfite, Outlaw, and the Road Agent.
As a kid, Beau Boeckmann was also a Roth-freak. Now, Boeckmann has taken his interest to another level—he has established a small museum dedicated to Roth vehicles and memorabilia.
Boeckmann, 43, is vice president of Galpin Motors, a Ford dealership in Los Angeles that his father bought in 1946. So he has literally grown up in the car business. And when the news spread that Roth’s Orbitron had been spotted in Mexico after going unseen for decades, Boeckmann was all over it. It was found by El Paso, Texas–based car hunter Michael Lightbourn. Lightbourn frequently travels south of the border in search of significant American cars that migrated to Mexico and stumbled on Orbitron in the city of Juarez, where it was basically a dumpster in the front of a sex and video shop. The shop’s owner was reluctant to sell, but the partly destroyed hot rod had languished in front of that store for years, and Lightbourn convinced the owner to sell. Orbitron had deteriorated badly over the decades; the unique front nose cone that carried the car’s distinguished three-headlight pod was missing, and what remained elsewhere was in poor condition. “Michael [Lightbourn] and I started talking at the 2007 SEMA Show,” Boeckmann says. Lightbourn wanted to keep the car and restore it. “But when I told him my vision for the car, we made a deal. So I got on a plane and flew to El Paso to see the car.”
After being used as a makeshift dumpster in Mexico, Beau Boeckmann bought the Ed “Big Daddy” Roth Orbitron and brought it back to California for a full restoration. Photo courtesy Beau Boeckmann.
Boeckmann saw the car in all its depressing glory. He and Lightbourn then drove to Juarez to see where the car had been parked for all those years. “I was a little bit nervous, because Juarez is known as the most dangerous city in North America,” he says.
Once Boeckmann had the car back in LA, he worked with many of the car’s original contractors to assist in the Orbitron’s restoration. Larry Watson and Bill Carter painted the car when it was new in 1964; they painted the car again during its restoration. Joe Perez originally stitched the Orbitron’s upholstery and was hired by Boeckmann the second time around. “The toughest part of the restoration was finding the original type TV set that sat in the dashboard,” Boeckmann says. “Roth did everything by eye,” he adds, “nothing was measured.
“We didn’t change any of Roth’s techniques during the restoration.” So if it’s still a little out-of-this-world, well, all the better.
This immaculate 1963 split-window Sting Ray coupe was a car Leno had coveted for a long time.
Chapter 45 – Leno’s Voluptuous Vette
Jay Leno has the same reaction to great finds as I do: Nothing gets him more stoked than when he discovers another cool old car or bike. Lucky for me, whenever Leno acquires another barn find, he gets so excited that he calls to tell me about it. Certainly one advantage Leno has is being one of the most visible car collectors in the country, if not the world. The former host of the Tonight Show receives lots of letters from people who want to share stories about their cars. Leno said that he personally reads every letter, usually grabbing a handful from the mailbag on the way to lunch. “So I grabbed an envelope from a guy in Michigan,” he says. “People in Michigan live around cars, so I thought it might be something interesting. The letter said that this man wanted to sell me his 1963 Fuel-Injected Corvette.” Leno almost choked on his sandwich. “I’ve been looking for a fuel-injected Split Window for so long,” he says. “But it had to be the right car.” This was the right car. The 1963 Corvette was the first model Sting Ray, known as second generation, or C-2. It was designed by Larry Shinoda with input from Peter Brock and under the direction of Bill Mitchell. At the time, the distinctive sloped rear roof design was a styling breakthrough. However, the rear window was divided by a roof support, which meant the driver had an obstructed view from the inside rear-view mirror.
But despite Father-of-the-Corvette Zora Duntov’s protests regarding the rear window design, Mitchell insisted that it remain. And it did for just one year. Besides being the first Corvette with hide-away headlights and fully independent suspension, 1963 coupes are especially coveted today for their unique rear window styling.
The details of the split window got juicier—the seller said the Vette had just 991 original miles on the odometer!
The odometer on this Sting Ray only reads 991 original miles. The C-2, or Sting Ray, debuted in 1963, but the split rear window only appeared for one model year.
“The story was that the original owner ordered it, then shipped off to Vietnam,” Leno says. “When he got out of the service, he did something that got him in trouble, and he went to prison for 20 years. While he was in the slammer, his grandmother sold the car to a collector, who then sold it to Russ McLean, Corvette Program Manager,” he says. “Nobody ever put any miles on it.”
Leno explains his Corvette is better that he even hoped for. “It’s equipped exactly like I would have ordered one in 1963,” he says. “It has power brakes, roll-up windows, and a four-speed.”
He had the car inspected by National Corvette Restoration Society (NCRS) members, who confirmed the car’s authenticity. “The car is matching-numbers correct, has the correct air cleaner, the correct master cylinder, everything,” Leno says. Leno admits that with only 991 miles on the car, he won’t drive it much. But he is a car guy, and he drives all his cars. So this car will get a few miles on it from time to time. “It drives like a brand new car,” he says, smiling.
When seven-time NASCAR Champ Dale Earnhardt wasn’t driving around the track in his famous #3 Chevy, he was hauling hay around the farm in this 1967 Ford F-600 dump truck. Photo by Tom Cotter.
Chapter 87 – Earnhardt’s Dumper
Lars Ekberg invited me to his home in North Carolina to show me his great cars, some of which were barn-finds. As we walked from garage to garage, we kept passing a big old Ford dump truck, nasty and neglected. I didn’t pay any attention to it.
As I was about to say thank you and goodbye, Ekberg said to me, “You know, that old truck has an interesting story. It used to belong to Dale Earnhardt, Senior.” I stopped in my tracks. “Can you tell me more?” I asked.
“My buddy Jimmy Sides went to school with Dale,” he said. “They were lifelong friends.” Ekberg explained that Earnhardt had owned the 1967 F-600 truck for a long time and had used it at his nearby farm in Mooresville, North Carolina, to haul around hay for horses. Sides bought it from Dale about 20 years ago to use when feeding his own horses, but parked it in a barn about 15 years ago and never took it out again.
“When Jimmy passed away in 2010, his wife called me up and asked if I wanted the old truck,” Ekberg said. “She gave it to me. The title is still in Dale’s name.” So there the truck continues to sit, last inspected in 2000. Ekberg is undecided what he will do with the old relic. But one thing is for certain—he owns the world’s largest Dale Earnhardt souvenir.
