121. The Pile Up EP9: Odd Rod's I
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Welcome to the pile-up.
Mm-mm.
Mm-mm.
Mm-mm.
Well, I'm your host, M.Dog Nightmare.
I'm the queen of the vans for now.
Somebody's really sassy today.
Very sassy.
Do you want to talk about what we're... should we go right into it?
Or should we just go right into it?
It's Odd Rods.
Oh, yeah.
Odd Rods.
Odd Rods.
Odd Rods.
It's not even a thing you can just Google.
No, you can't because I tried and it's like a brand.
I just want to preface, we're going to have to talk about it at some point, so why not?
Right now, it's, I don't know that it's a true, like, I don't know that it's a genre
with rules.
I feel like you made it up.
Yes, maybe, but there's obviously like some water slide decals like it.
I mean, even just like when I searched, there was some kind of, I couldn't tell
if it was new or old.
There was just like a graphic that looked like a Roth type ad that was like Odd Rods,
it's five cents or something.
Yeah, yeah.
And I don't know.
I don't heavily look into these things.
Look, I'm not like that.
Like sometimes I learn things about bands I like or artists I like.
I enjoy history, but I don't know that I'm obsessive.
And when I enjoy something, I tend to not dig too deep.
Like I met people that would like, I got a bandmate that would talk about Nirvana
all the time.
And I'm like, I guess I forgot that I liked Nirvana so much as a kid.
But no one talked about it after a while.
And then I was in this band and my bandmate would talk about it like he knew all this stuff.
And then one of my shop helpers knew a ton.
And then one of the guys from Young Widows, Nick would talk about it all the time.
He knows a lot about Nirvana.
And I was like, well, I guess it's good to know people that like this enough.
I would have nerded out, but I don't do that.
And so is Odd Rods a true category?
Does it have rules?
I guess we'll make some because I don't make it our own rules.
Yeah.
I'm just not drenched in hot rod literature.
I just have been going to hot rod shows since I was in short pants and I just like them.
And it really eventually, I feel like I caught on to Ed Roth type stuff way late because
my dad's super square.
Like, I remember my dad asking me if I wanted anything from this booth and like, I would
love to wrap pink shirt, but I was too scared to even ask him because he's such a square.
Well, that's sad.
Yeah, it is.
I mean, you frame a house off this guy, you know, the 20th century's greatest opponents
of fun.
So I f him.
I didn't. Wow.
So I know that was.
I know I'm out of him.
I didn't think about.
This kind of stuff again.
I don't know.
I just don't know that there's rules.
So I would think though, I guess I'll make some rules.
Okay.
I'm not making rules to be like, I guess you can challenge him.
That's fine.
I'm good with that, but I want you to know like why I think it's this.
And I heard the phrase and I was like, Oh, that makes so much sense.
Yeah.
But I'm thinking like bubble top type stuff, things that are whimsical, right?
And then that's a generic adjective in a sense, but you know, are we talking of like the origins
of these cars typically are not from a body.
They might have one aspect from a true production car, but they're really hand sculpted fiberglass
or metal bodies.
They are of a sixties and seventies variety.
They're, I mean, they are that period.
So they do have this sort of like anything that's from then, like atomic age stuff and
some, you know, seventies flower influence, not flower, like seventies rock influence,
I guess you should say, because they were, you know, hot rodders weren't hippies.
Yeah.
I didn't see any flower power, but the paint jobs make me think of the colors, make
me think of all that art.
Right.
Yeah.
And some of it turns up on the Vans.
You know, the Vans are totally seventies whimsy.
Again, whimsy is important here.
Right.
All these things are whimsical, adventurous, outside of the box, forward thinking.
Art.
Yeah.
Art, like moving art.
They are statements.
That's why when you said odd rods, I was like, oh, that will, that makes sense.
Well, first of all, my first instinct was you made that up, but I was also like,
but that makes sense.
Yeah.
No, I didn't.
I mean, it predates me for sure.
It's, uh, they're all just out there and exciting and like misshapen, but not.
That sounds, it sounds negative, but like in a way that doesn't make, it doesn't make
sense to the eye, but it does, but it doesn't make sense to the physics.
Yeah.
I guess if you think about it like this, right?
Like if you're a kid and you're like, wow, hot wheels are so wild and then you
like grow up and cars are boring and then you like odd rods are probably where hot wheels
got their wild ideas in the, well, they did, didn't they?
In the early beginnings, weren't they based off of a lot of the cars that even the cars
that we are sharing?
Quite a few are.
Yeah.
Quite a few are without credit.
Might I add you?
Oh, that's lame.
Like the tail dragger is one of Jean's cars.
Oh, I thought they did.
What's that?
Where you share something?
Licensing?
They did collaborations.
No.
Yeah.
That's lame.
Yeah.
It is lame.
Thanks a lot, Hot Wheels.
Yeah.
Jean never got anything out of that, but it is that car.
It's lame.
Yeah.
Didn't I just say that?
Is there an echo?
Must be an echo.
Yeah.
There again, a big corporate entity stealing from an artist.
Yeah.
Jackoffs.
Yeah.
But these to me are what I like about automotive.
We've done the episode where Rose talks about a new car, but I could never give
a fuck about a new car.
Right.
I know that do go off about new cars and I like see their posts and then I'm like, I
just don't think that'll ever be me.
Right.
I just don't think there's ever going to be a day where I'm like, can't wait for
Detroit to stamp out this hot pile of shit.
One of Faye Butler's friends.
It's so soft though.
Dale Adams said there's two design styles in Detroit.
There's the rock style and the shit style and he's like, one, you go pick up a big
rock and you design the car after whatever crawls out from underneath it and the other
one while speaks for itself.
Interesting.
Yeah.
It's pretty funny.
It was a joke.
It's funny, but the crawling out from under a rock really struck home for me because
they are a little bug cars.
You know?
Yeah.
Bug.
I mean, some of them I think are cute, but I don't think I'll ever be like, look at my
bug eyes.
They're not exciting.
They're certainly not exciting like the cars we're going to talk about today.
I know what you're thinking.
The bug eyes, bright, the beetle, all these other stupefuse, the gremlin, you know,
that kind of stuff.
Wow.
Yeah.
Cars have been weird before, but I think in the terms of odd rods, they're not production
cars.
They're not based off production.
No, not at all.
The drivetrains.
Duh.
They're pure ingenuity.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're wild and the paint jobs are wild.
If you're going for America's most beautiful Roadster, AMBR, Amber, if you're going
for that, then sure, some things might be subdued.
They might be subtle.
They might be thought-provoking, interesting, but they're not necessarily loud.
No.
And these cars are all loud.
Yeah, they're very loud.
They're just shouting from the mountain tops.
If they're really cars.
What are they?
Creatures?
I don't know.
They're just heart.
Yeah.
I agree.
We'll talk about all that.
Before we jump in, I know this is kind of a visual episode and obviously this is audio.
I have linked examples of all of these cars in the order that we're going to talk about
them in the show notes.
So if you want to go back and look at some of the shit that we're talking about, if
our words don't do it justice, probably.
Yeah, I'm going to try to describe the cars.
Yeah, I'm going to try to.
You're like a poet.
No.
Well, I mean, but I don't know they're describing physical objects as poetry, maybe, but that's
like writing a catalog.
That's like writing the J.
Peterman catalog.
And I'm going to try my best people, so have mercy on me.
Yeah, I think I'll help because I mean, yeah, you're going to need the visuals.
You should look them up.
They are thought-provoking.
Go ahead, let her rip.
I'm going first.
I think you should.
All right.
You've got a real banger right out of the gate.
I do.
I actually, I really do.
Emily sent me her list.
I didn't want to look at it because I like, she didn't want us to pick the same, but
I thought it would be cool if we did.
But I was kind of behind and I looked at the list and I was like, damn.
So there was, I will tell you when we get to one.
I went and snaked it up.
I snaked it up.
Yeah.
A couple of them.
Yeah.
And this first one is like real cherry pick.
It is a good one.
Yeah.
So this is Red Fox's little red wrecker.
And this is 2Ds and 2Xs and 2Ds on the red.
This is by George Barris.
I think it's 1974.
And it was for Red Fox who was a star of Sanford & Sons.
So it was like in promotion with that.
It was all show and no go.
This is what I think is interesting about these cars is they have these crazy hopped
up motors.
It's not like the motors are like, they're not a hollow.
They put in these really crazy like motor.
What was in this one?
A 392 Chrysler, supercharged, a chrome plated supercharged 392 Chrysler.
I had a hand built metal body and center steering with the right hand power brake plus left
hand hydraulic gas pedal.
So they're doing weird shit even when you're in the cockpit, like as far as driving, as
far as what they think that you should be doing driving.
It was finished with 30 coats of fine sprayed candy red over a sun gleam platinum under base.
So George Barris signed this car, but it turns out and his website lists all the technical
stuff that they did to the car.
And he put built by Barris on the rear fender, but it was actually made by Dean Dick and
Ed Newton.
Dick Dean?
Dick Dean.
Did I say that?
What'd I say?
It was made by Dean's Dick and Ed Newton.
It was made by Dick Dean and Ed Newton.
Barris just gave it a makeover.
So anyway, that's sort of the controversy on this and it used to be blue and it was named
the Turnpike Holler.
And even like...
Which was first?
They made it and then he turned it into a red car.
So it was the Turnpike Holler first?
It was the Turnpike Holler first and it was blue and I have photos of it.
I really don't know that I knew that.
Like I feel like I know some of this, but all of this is very common with George Barris.
Right.
Is he an asshole?
The green Hornet car was built by Dean Jeffries and then he bought it and then said it was
a Barris car.
Okay.
So he has a reputation for doing this kind of stuff.
He does this.
Oh, there's...
Yeah.
It's why people get frustrated with George.
You know, yeah, it pisses people off.
Like the builders.
Yeah, you think?
Yeah.
I mean, geez, it actually is striking in that blue.
I know.
I think I might like the blue better.
Well, what's interesting about the red, and this is a deep red.
Yeah.
This is like in the photo, it's hard to say sometimes with 70s photography because
people will be like, oh, sorry, it wasn't that shade of red at all.
Right.
And it's very dark.
I have seen it in person, but it's not...
I don't remember.
Anyway, it is a beautiful candy red against the blue interior.
There is an impairment where people who, some people see blue and red together and they
have a seizure.
Oh, no.
Is that what they were trying to do to people?
So it's, it can to some extent be a design role to never clash blue and red together
because it can be very hard on some people's eyeballs.
I didn't know I've never heard of that.
Well, one of my mentors taught me that.
Oh, okay.
Jimmy Flaherty told me that.
Well, Baris, what are you doing over there?
Well, but it can be a good compliment.
But in sign painting, you'll see red and green as a frequent match.
Like old stuff will have a red letter and like a very pale green drop shadow.
Super classy.
And this, I think this lands on that.
However, so then imagine Turnpike Haller.
It's a blue interior blue truck with gold leaf or silver leaf.
And I think it's gold leaf.
It is.
It's classy.
It's handsome.
Same wheels.
There is, so this is a monocoque body and that means that it's slab side.
It's the same slab front to back.
So if you look at the front fender, quote unquote, odd shape vehicle here.
Okay.
But if you look at the front fender, it's the same plane.
Like if you laid a board over and then cut wheel openings out of it,
it's the same plane front to back.
Oh, I see what you're saying.
Okay.
You know, you think of what you think of like a 32 Ford, the
fenders are attached to the car.
They're outside of that 36, you know, right?
This is all monocoque.
So like the VW rabbit pickup, like L's truck.
Okay.
That's monocoque.
It's the same thing.
Okay.
It's unusual for trucks.
First of all, should we sort of explain what it looks like to them?
Well, it's, yeah, I was going to get into that, which is that it's
like it's a C cab.
So it's like a monocoque C cab.
And so a C cab is where the, it's an old, it's an early truck design.
And I don't think that there's actually metal stamped C cabs.
A lot of them were wood.
And then I think if there are metal ones, they're hand formed bodies
that are extremely mechanical, they're just flat.
And so this is like a C cab, but it has a trans-am-esque nose with quad
headlights, totaling four, we mean.
And it's got this tiny little 70s car snoot.
It's real tiny compared to the truck.
I mean, the whole truck is like a little tiny.
No windshield posts to speak of.
It's just stainless or chrome trim.
So it's like it has no post, but it has the glass trimmed out.
The interior trims the opening.
No doors, truly.
And it's like you sit on a wedge and it's like a model T
where the steering wheel comes up between your legs.
And then behind you is a blown small block of some make.
It was a Chrysler.
OK. It's a 392.
That's right. You did say that.
And then behind that is the boom for towing, which is also
chromed out now in the inside of the body, protruding protruding
zoomies, wow, sticking out of the body.
Moon style fuel tanks, very sexy.
And then TA style bubble fender flares.
All molded.
It's really it's really a good looking truck.
Yeah, it's a nice looking truck.
I like in the cab is like pushed forward.
Yeah, it's like it's it's it's canted.
It looks like you're going over a cliff.
We'll have more to talk about with that later.
Yeah, OK. So I don't want to yeah. Oh, OK.
All right, you don't want to go too much.
Well, it ties into something that we're going to talk about
in a second, I guess, because I think it's in my first pick.
Let me see.
Well, I do have something interesting to say about the winch
on the back, because it is a to.
Oh, we didn't we forgot to mention to people.
It's a tow truck.
Well, it says Little Red Wrecker, Little Red Wrecker.
Yeah, yeah, which is part of why it needs to become red
because it's for the comedian Red Fox.
So yeah, it's a tow truck.
Like I said, there's the boom for towing.
I did mention that.
So I feel like that's in there.
Oh, you did mention that. OK.
Sorry, I didn't I didn't hear that.
So it's like an open bed too.
Like a tow truck would be like bed rails.
Mm hmm.
It's total banger.
It's in Galpin's collection.
If you go to Galpin, all the sports, it's it's super sick.
I mean, it's got to look that one up.
It's yeah, it's really it's something to see.
Yeah, it's such a well, like well loved, well known in this category.
Which is like, what do you think kind of drama happened
when he put his name on that?
Like, do you think there was like a fistfight or like like a threat
of violence? No, no.
What do you think happened?
What do you think those two other two dudes said?
I'll tell you what they did.
They went that fucking guy.
Do you think they sold him the truck?
No, it was probably someone else that owned it.
Yeah, maybe it got a little dilapidated.
I mean, first of all, OK, no, this would be controversial to say,
but I think Newt is more important than Barris.
I mean, Barris did a lot.
But like so many of these cars that we're going to talk about
are Ed Newton drawn and like Newt was such a huge artist for Ed Roth.
And I just think I think Roth is a bigger name than Barris.
I mean, I know they're both big names, but Newt, you know,
look at all these stories that Newt's tied into and Newt's still alive.
Oh, I don't know. I didn't know that.
Yeah, he's in Ohio. Awesome.
Coop has lunch with him once a year about.
Oh, that's cool. Yeah.
Is he still drawing?
Coop in the Egyptian and Newt would go to lunch.
Is he still designing cars?
I don't know.
I don't either way. It's cool. He's still alive.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Coop likes him quite a bit.
So I don't know. I think they probably just were like.
So Ed Newton was doing his own thing.
They were probably just like, they were probably just like,
George bought it and then they knew what was going to happen next.
They knew that he was going to take all the credit for it.
How crazy is that though to take all the credit for it?
I mean, even Gene said, this is hard to believe,
but like visualizing Gene saying this to me, him going,
well, you know, he's the best self-promoter there ever was.
Oh, George. Yeah, he's relentless.
And Gene, Gene to me is like an unbelievable self-promoter.
And I think George just took it.
Whatever Gene had on 100, George had 110.
I don't know. Well, yeah.
Well, you know, is it narcissistic?
Is it sociopathic?
You know, like when you're to some extent,
anybody that's popular has those tendencies.
So maybe George just had a little bit more. I don't know.
Yeah. I don't know.
Interesting.
You get the taste of the fame. You want it?
You want to keep it?
Well, whatever.
He said he made the little red wrecker.
I mean, I knew who George was before I knew who Gene was.
You know, so I guess.
Yeah, I think me too.
So I guess we should acknowledge that.
I knew who he was before.
I think all of these people.
I think I knew Big Daddy first.
All right. My first pick is Big Daddy's surf fight.
Ed Big Daddy Roth.
Surf fight was in Beach Blanket Bingo.
It was a little surf movie.
I went to a custom drama for a bunch of this.
So custom drama, custom drama.com.
Custom drama, K-U-S-T-O-M-R-A-M-A.
I think that's Rick Hoving, if I'm not mistaken,
is the proprietor and he is a he's a designer himself.
And he has a wonderful archive on custom drama.com
loaded with all kinds of, you know, sick ass car stuff.
Custom classic car.
And so I leaned on custom drama for this
because I know so much stuff is on there.
And it's almost like a Wikipedia for custom cars.
So this says that this was Ed's third asymmetrical show car
penned by his buddy, Ed Newton.
Here comes Ed Newton again.
The build was completed in 64.
Surf fight did not have a bubble top,
but it flirted with the popular surf trend
and it came with an offset surf board holder.
I love that part. I love it.
Yeah. I mean, it looks a lot like a Clark Forklift, which I was going to say,
it does look like a forklift. OK.
But but there's a trike that's at Galpin.
And I had never seen this thing before until I saw it at Galpin.
And I had a Kristen took a photo of me with it.
And I was like, this thing's sick.
But what I thought was unique about it was it has chrome vents
on the side of it from the Clark Forklift I had.
Oh, but they were in nice condition.
And they had these chrome vents on the front.
And I was like, oh, Ed, you slick guy, chrome forklift vents.
So we know Ed looked at a forklift and I mean, mine was yellow.
Yep. And this is yellow.
So, you know, not to say that, like, you know,
but he could have told that to Ed.
He could have been like, I want to canopy like a forklift.
Maybe, maybe not. Maybe he just said a frame canopy,
which that would be it offset grill, cute little like both.
Oh, yeah, the offset grill.
I didn't notice that until you said that.
Yep. That's that's yeah.
The whole thing is asymmetrical, right?
With the surfboard off to the side
and then Ed off to the other side.
If you look also, it's like basically two sets of front dragster tires.
They're like little pizza cutters.
Oh, yeah, the small.
Yeah, they're both tiny.
Small tire racing. Yeah.
I mean, the backs are a little bit taller.
It's got a rubber rake for sure.
But they're basically like front wheels.
They're they might be motorcycle tires.
They're pretty small and they're pretty narrow.
Yeah, they're very narrow, nearing.
It looks fun. It's tiny.
I can't remember if I've seen this one in person.
I mean, they're showing it in the in the ocean.
Yeah, it's not super deep in the ocean,
but it looks like it could go rabble rousing on the beach.
Yeah, I mean, it's cute.
I was it's in the background of Beach Blanket Bingo.
And then it's also in
is it Village of the Giants?
And it's this like movie from the 60s
where a little Ronnie Howard's in it
and these kids get blown up by a grow ray or grow food
that these scientists make and these kids get jerky.
And they're just like, do what we say or we'll step on you
because they're like 16 and it's in that also.
They do it on Mystery Science Theatre.
It makes some TV appearances.
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
That's pretty much it.
I don't know that like, I mean, I have fanfare for it.
I've got a cool postcard.
Actually, I might have lost the postcard in moving,
but I had a cool surfight postcard
that I'd bought online or at a show.
I think I found it at a show,
but it's a genuine article,
Roth promotional postcard for the car.
It's got sort of like a, like the top part of it
is sort of like a snail almost the way it comes out.
And then it goes straight down into where the,
oh yeah, it's super cute.
There's also no, like in this mode, no visible headlight.
And I can't even tell on the front
if there's an open up panel or not.
I don't think there is a headlight.
And maybe you don't need a headlight on the beach.
Well, that's what I think the deal is.
You're just going by the full moon.
Well, yeah, you gotta get home for dark.
Well, that's the surfight.
Wait, I was trying to think of something else to say.
Oh, why don't you go on to your second one?
My next pile of diamonds is the Star Trek Coupe
by Daryl Starbird.
And it was built in 1975.
It looks pretty 1975.
It does.
There was like the Hot Rod World Show Cars guidebook
that would come out.
And there's some from there that I can't remember.
And I'm not going to like,
maybe could have dug that out,
but I wanted to hit some of the high points.
I know I'm talking about myself for a second,
but this car does look very 1975.
It does, yeah.
If you like, follow the Odd Rod thing.
Yeah, it does look 70s.
I mean, yeah, you could call it show car or whatever.
Well, but it's definitely like Odd Rod.
Riddler cars look wild like this at the time too.
If you look at the Riddler winners in the 70s,
they're like this, which is-
Wait, the Riddler as in the movie?
Detroit, Audorama.
Oh, I don't like the Riddler like the-
The top award at the Detroit Audorama.
The mean guy in the Batman?
Batman?
Yeah, the Riddler.
No, he borrowed Jean's car once though.
I think he borrowed the reactor.
Oh.
I think it was the Riddler.
It was Catwoman's car at one point,
but then it was also,
I think the Riddler's car in an episode.
Wow, he stole it, huh?
I'm going to have some bitch.
He's about as bad as that hamburger.
Okay, so it looks, it looks,
I mean, this is the time period.
Go ahead.
Well, it's aerodynamic body, like hair,
like its hair is blown back.
Like it's got a really long nose
and it's just got its hair in the wind,
just straight behind it.
And I feel like it looks like it came from a Corvette body
and I don't know if that's true or not,
if he used that as the basis,
but it's very Corvette-esque looking
as in it has like really exaggerated front wheel wells
and a really exaggerated rear.
It has an airplane type cockpit
and a 500 horsepower supercharged Chevy engine.
And then the top comes up to open the cockpit,
like the whole top comes up and that's how you get in.
So it's almost like a bubble window, but not
because it has, it has a wraparound windshield
and then the whole thing comes up with the roof.
I couldn't find much information on this.
Oh, also it's this really cool blue color
and there's some graphics on the nose
that I can't tell what they are.
And then the nose itself is like this oval,
this very thin oval wrapped in silver,
probably wrapped in chrome and a silver,
what am I talking about?
I'm sure it's wrapped in chrome.
But you can't see any headlights.
I'm sure there's some in there somewhere
and something that I think is really interesting
about this and researching this kind of stuff
because most of this is all very new to me
is the kind of engines that they put in
and the kind of like driving,
like it wasn't like they were putting engines
in that were hollow and just for looks.
They were putting these serious engines in
and having these like serious frames
that could handle the engine.
Rose, do you think that they were driving them?
This engine looks like.
Okay, are you about to diss this engine?
This engine looks like a fold this car in half.
Okay. It's a blown small block
and this car looks like a Pinewood Derby car.
It is so cut down.
Oh, wow, a Pinewood Derby car.
It looks like this is a winning Pinewood Derby shape
but your reference with the hair blown back,
this car has a pompadour.
Like this car slicks its hair back.
Yeah, it does look its hair back for sure.
Like Tim Robinson, this thing is,
this would slick back real nice.
Yeah, it's slick back.
It does, it looks like a butt cut slick back.
Do you have anything else to say?
Cause I'm gonna.
Well, I was going to talk about that it can be seen.
If you want to see it,
you can see it at the Daryl Starboard.
The Daryl Starboard National Rod and Custom Hall of Fame.
On the starboard side of the museum.
In Tulsa, Oklahoma.
So if you're going through there, check it out.
I heard that some people said they went to be there
for an hour and they stayed for three.
I think Daryl just sold the museum.
Oh, well, anyway.
I think that's what Rob Ida told me.
I thought he told me that.
Check it out and see.
He might still be there.
But maybe it's not.
You don't know.
You heard it here first folks.
Again, the pile up or we get the news wrong.
So don't, you know.
I just have, I have two more things to say about them.
I read somewhere that they redid this car.
And so I looked it up and I did see another car
called the Star Trek by Daryl Starboard.
But it was like.
I mean, that's what it says.
Star Trek coupe.
Yeah, but yeah.
So it would have this car, this blue car,
but then it also had this purple car.
And it was like purple and lavender,
purple on the back and then lavender on the front
and kind of like a little Z,
like a little Z graphic separating the two of them.
Very like 80s or 90s.
But it just didn't look, it was similar in some aspects,
but it just didn't look, first of all,
it didn't have the blown engine.
It had like a very polite, just like a,
like what are those called when you just have
like a little cut through in the.
In the hood scoop.
Hood scoop, a hood scoop.
Yeah, it just looked like a very polite little hood scoop.
And then it didn't have like the chromed front.
It just didn't, it didn't have the same proportion.
So I'm going to say.
I would be honest with you.
I would be just as confused
because so many of these cars like will be bought
by somebody else and they'll change it a little bit
and then put George Barris on it.
I mean, whoops, their own name.
Yeah.
You should do it and put George Barris on it.
Can we do that?
Can we get one of these and put George Barris on it
after we fix it?
Yeah, let's save up and just buy somebody's show car
and then put George Barris on it.
Just, you know, really.
That might make some people laugh.
Let's do it to Fuse.
Let's save our pennies, buy a Fuse car
and put George Barris on it.
Like change it just enough.
Yeah.
What's worse, buy somebody's like really just like,
okay, local car and then put George Barris on it.
The last, I do have one more thing to say.
Go ahead.
Daryl was known as the king of the bubble top.
Yeah, that's right.
According to one website.
Yeah, I met his grandson.
I've never met Daryl.
I think he's pretty cool.
But his grandson was pretty nice to me and he was showing me
or talking to me about this bubble top.
They did, it was split down the center
and they put a board so that when they blew the bubble,
it would get split around the board
and it was like a double sided, like a two cockpit.
Oh, it was like, so there was.
Yeah, there were two sides to the bubble.
Two sides to the bubble.
Two acrylic sides.
Looks like two eggs.
Two acrylic sides, yeah.
Wow, that's very cool.
It is cool.
It's super neat.
Daryl's cool.
Daryl's a good friend of Jean's for a long time.
The museum is like, you know, super popular.
Another thing to note about this car
is there's murals on the hood
and there's murals on the side
and like 70s Riddler cars are like that.
Now Riddler cars are like so subdued
and they're so like.
Okay, wait, go back to what a Riddler car is.
It's named after Don Riddler
and he was associated with the show for a long time.
And so it's R-I-D-L-E-R
and it's the Don Riddler or but it's just the Riddler
and it's for cars that have been never shown, right?
There's rules about like how you can show it
to promote the build before.
But like you can't show it assembled
and are you getting trouble
and they'll like disqualify you
or find you or something.
So like when Jean, we were doing a car
it was a Boyd car
and then the people had a death in the family
so they sold it and so Jean got somebody to buy it
and then we were building it for the Riddler.
So then any photos I had up on my Instagram
when it was just this other really basic build
then Jean was like, you have to take those down
so we don't get disqualified.
Jean wanted to win, he'd never won Riddler.
Okay, so it's a car show.
Jean won AMBR, America's Most Beautiful Roaster
back in 64 with Tognati T.
That's cool.
There's all these giant car shows that go around
that have not been to.
Oh.
But you have, so there we go.
They're pretty good.
Pretty good.
They're just pretty good.
You should see the look on my face
when I said that.
Very dear in the headlights.
Wow.
It's very like a Michael Cera, you know,
or Larry David like, pretty.
Pretty good.
Well, we'll talk about that in a bit.
When I know something you've got coming up
and we need to address the topic, so.
Yeah, we do.
Well, there you go.
Next up?
So 70s Riddler cars are like, you know,
like modern Riddler cars, everybody like,
that'll set the pace for the year or something.
AMBR and Riddler and the Sloanaker Award
which is at Grand National Roadster Show
in California, right?
Detroit.
And so there are some people that are like,
well it's East Coast, East Coast Customs and fuck off.
You know, there's a blood war
between the East and West Coast over rap and customs.
So, but this was the style.
And then if you look at that, like custom cars and vans
both like wild paint and murals everywhere.
But think about how far cars moved away from that.
Like if you built a custom car and put murals on it now,
people would be like, what the fuck is wrong with you?
It's true.
It would be so faux pas.
You would be kicked out.
It's too bad.
People would be like,
what part of the 70s did this crawl out of?
Yep, they would say that.
People kinda don't, I say people,
we just mean, I mean, the large percentage of people
at a car show wouldn't show up and wanna see all of these.
God, I wanna see all these.
But these are shown around the country, right?
In like traveling shows.
Well, they were, some of them don't exist.
They were.
But the nice thing is that somebody always builds one.
So it's like, typically you go to a car show,
you'll see at least one what you could call an odd rod.
Yeah.
But not always.
Cause they're pretty obscure.
Well, at least somebody's keeping them going.
Yeah, okay, so are you?
Well, I thought, did you want me to,
do you want me to do the next one?
Well, I have one.
Yeah, you do.
That's why, yeah, I'm waiting for you.
Oh, you're waiting for me?
I'm just patiently waiting for you.
I just wasn't sure if you had anything else to say about it.
Oh, oh, sorry.
No, that was all I had to say.
He was the king of the bottle top.
Well, guess what?
Here comes Steve Scott's uncertain tea.
What?
Yeah, that's right.
The uncertain tea, it is a, it's a model tea,
so to speak, right?
It's based off of a model tea.
But the cab is leaned forward aggressively
and the car has motion sitting still.
The top is also in, it's inflamed, if you will.
It's, it's swollen.
Yeah.
It looks like a cartoon.
This is the ultimate odd rod to me.
Like this is, in my mind, sort of the beginning of it.
I can't verify that.
I don't know.
I'm just talking by feel, but this is an early one.
All right.
Now I was, again, I was at customrama.com, okay?
So I'm going to read some of this.
But the basics, the basic jizma things is that.
The basic jizma?
Yeah.
Okay.
I'll let that slide.
That's from, that's from Melva's phone militia
where the guy pretends to be an old lady.
He always like calls it QVC
or he calls it as Christian radio shows
and he smelled rejection from Abilene, Texas.
And she says, well, the basic jizm of what's going on.
He knows what he's saying, but it's quite funny.
So.
Yeah.
You knew what you were saying.
Yeah.
Well, that'll be another episode,
90s prank phone calls.
So the basic jizma things is that he is in advanced physics
and a classmate draws this wild T and was like,
wow, wouldn't it be cool if you could build a car like that?
And he was like, if you can think of it, you can build it.
And then to prove his own point to himself, apparently.
So he was a physics major?
No, this is in high school.
Oh, okay.
In high school, okay.
And he goes home and he like, he was 17 when he started.
And he just like went home that day
and started trying to build one.
Whoa.
I don't know what that means exactly.
Like, did he start drawing it?
Or I mean, that's fine.
I don't know if I can disagree with this thing.
I just, he did add on to the back of his family's home
to have an extension, like to the back of the garage
to have a room to build it in or something.
Oh, wow.
Well, that's cool.
Yeah, it is cool.
So.
I like how I feel like a lot of these and like this one,
for sure, also, it's so leaned forward.
The windshield is so leaned forward.
It's serious.
Now, I saw, I can't remember if I saw the actual car
or if I saw the, there's like a clone dedication type
tribute build.
Uh-huh.
I can't remember if I saw both
because I think that the car, like,
it disappeared for a long time.
Like, nobody knew where Steve was.
Nobody knew where the car was.
And it was a big deal.
And I think I saw the real deal
and it was at Grand National Roadster Show
and it was amazing.
If I didn't and I saw just the clone,
it was still amazing.
Wow.
It was beautiful.
Yeah.
I kind of think I saw both, but maybe I'm lying.
I don't, I'd have to like look through my pictures
and it would be.
No, it's going to take so, we can't edit that out.
Can't even begin to think where.
It's so long.
Can't think of what year,
but I did see what year it was.
Like I said, if it was a clone, it was sick.
If it was the real deal, it was sick.
And I really mean that.
I mean, this car is a brilliant idea.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And this guy started when he was 17.
Wow.
This is the quote from the article.
Wow, what a wild hot rod.
It's too bad you can't build something like that.
Steve replied, if you can think of something,
you can create it.
As he was saying that,
he knew he had to build something like that
to prove it to himself.
After all, it was an advanced physics class.
Oh, so he was also in the advanced physics class.
Yes, obviously.
And so Steve decided to show that he was right
and began right after school that day,
building a similar car in his parents' one car garage.
So it's pretty wild.
It says, Uncertainty won the Sweepstakes Hot Rod Award
from under George Barris's nose.
There's Georgie Boy again losing that spotlight.
Uh-oh.
You know he didn't like that.
It went on to become a monogram model kit.
Tour nationally, win Sweepstakes,
and every show Steve entered it.
I don't know why it says,
I don't get why it says Sweepstakes.
Are we just talking about competition?
Yeah, what's up?
And receive a lot of magazine ink.
In the 70s, Steve and the car disappeared.
So, I mean, imagine that,
like building a car in the 1970s.
So he started in 1960 when he was seven years old?
Seven, 17 years old.
17, yes.
Mid-March in 1970.
Wow.
Oh.
I'm sorry, 60.
Did I say 70?
Yeah, 1960 to 270.
I'm sorry about that.
I'm really adding to the confusion.
I know.
Yeah, just messing things up.
Yeah, so he, wow.
Okay, but this car's crazier.
It's crazy.
Hang on, there's more because
he learned to weld aluminum.
We're talking about 1960,
so I'm assuming he gas welded it.
But like, the frame is aluminum.
And if you look at the frame,
it's extremely short.
And he used the frame to circulate coolant
for the radiator.
Whoa.
Yeah, like that.
That's so cool.
Seems like such a more modern thing to do.
Yeah, that's brilliant.
It is brilliant.
And then like, okay, so it was talking about
in the article about how he needed to create
everything specially for this car,
but he also felt like in the true style of hot rotting,
he needed to do it all himself.
And that it needed to be art
and the proportions needed to be good.
And there needed to be a sense of style.
So the frame cuts in close to the motor,
spreads out a bit wider like the body does.
And then the transmission is linked right to the rear end.
It's a winner's quick change rear end.
It's a nail head, I think.
If I'm not mistaken, which, I don't know,
whatever, I could be wrong.
Yeah, it's a 57 Buick nail head.
And then the zoomies that come out by the tire,
a lot like Dan Wood's cars.
And I'm pretty sure that this predates,
I don't know, Dan Wood's early builds
would be right around there too.
But that, it's very, it's notably similar,
but like the front axle was a narrowed tube axle.
And then it's got a torsion bar front end.
So there is no spring,
like there's no leaf spring or coil spring.
It's in this yellow cross member inside the frame.
And then it's got a big windup key on the back
for a back bumper.
So it looks like a toy.
Wow.
Yeah, the windup key is super cute.
It's really cool.
That does not cute.
And then it's got Model T headlights.
It's just in a girl's show.
I mean, it's just really, I think it's exceptional.
Yeah. It's so aggressive.
It's beautiful.
Yeah, it's really aggressive.
I mean, it has motion sitting still.
And I think that's everything.
But the super short wheelbase,
like think about if you,
there's this side shot I'm looking at of it.
That's like, you're getting in almost around the tire
to get in the cab.
He also felt like everything needed to be
as simplistic as possible.
Like it is a fully functional hot rod,
but it does have a rack and pinion steering system too.
He said when he found that in the junkyard
on English, like on an MGA is what it came from.
He was, he said he was just grinning all day
when he finally was like,
Oh shit, this is so simple.
I can modify this.
It's brilliant.
And it really is the steering.
Think about this.
The steering shaft,
the rack and pinion is running long ways with the car.
And he's using it to control the drag link
that moves the knuckle.
Look at this.
Look at the rack and pinion.
I don't have that picture.
Look at the rack and pinion running along the frame
and the steering wheel.
I mean, that's really how yours works.
Anyway, your steering shaft hooks up here,
but in a Model T,
you have the steering wheel at your nuts.
So,
Everybody's nuts.
And the steering wheel, like, you know,
it looks like it's melted the way it's like drawn down.
That's how they are.
That's how Model T wheels are.
It does look like it's melted.
Yeah.
I mean, this is really slick.
It's cool just as a chassis alone.
Nice painted parts, some yellow accents,
the orange frame, the chrome leaf spray.
I mean, it's just like, wow, the car's got it.
It is just,
I mean, I don't know.
It's just everything that a hot rod should be.
Yeah.
It is really cool.
Yeah.
A hot rod or an odd rod?
Both.
Well, I mean, yeah, it's both,
but I think it's like,
I think it's the beginning of the odd rod,
but maybe not.
Had he built anything before this?
No, he was 17, I think.
I mean, I don't know.
He surely was doing.
He must have like worked on car.
He surely was doing shot class.
He had a weld or something.
Whoa, yeah.
That's what I think.
I think it was educated.
He just came out of advanced physics
and was like, I'm not gonna be a pencil pusher anymore.
It says that he was a talented photographer and writer
and in 65 he landed his dream job
as associate editor of CarCraft.
Ooh, yeah, that's really cool.
And he had been a freelance photographer
for magazines.
And he showed us stuff to the editor, Dick Day
and he got in.
But yeah, the monogram thing
was that like monogram made a model of it.
Like, wow, he was building it.
They would check in with him.
They sent somebody to his house to check in on the car.
They loved it.
And then they said they'd sell him the molds
if they stopped selling the car.
Cause Ravel wanted to do it too.
So like this thing was like hot
when he was creating it.
Yeah, that's insane.
Isn't that just a while?
Hot creation.
Like landscape to be like, yeah, hi, I'm 17.
I'm building the car.
You should come look at it.
Like nowadays he's, he was like, whatever kid.
Wow.
How long did it take for him to build it?
Do you think?
I don't know.
It probably says that in the article.
But I mean, it was probably pretty fast.
I mean, it says that he made a lot of things twice
and there were a lot of uncertainties.
Here's these photos of the original car.
Oh, whoa.
At Grand National.
Yeah, but isn't it a different color in this photo?
Yeah, well that's, there's more to this story.
Dave Shutton has the quote here as saying,
we finally found the holy grail of show cars.
Very excited to share the news
that we found the long lost original uncertainty.
We will be showing it as found at Grand National Roadster
show in Detroit, Audorama.
See you all there.
Now, this sort of makes me think,
cause this says on January 23, 2024,
the hot ride and custom car community
was electrified by this announcement.
So that means I definitely only saw a tribute car
at Grand National.
Oh, cause it disappeared.
Well, because I, I've, 2024,
I was already living up here.
Yeah.
So that means I saw the tribute,
which is a really, really good looking car.
And wow, does this, the pictures look really good.
Here we go.
Martin and Marion Bennett's uncertainty recreation
of Cambridge, New Zealand.
Bennett was inspired to recreate the vehicle
after he put together a model car kit
of the original Scott show car completed in 2019.
The car made its debut at the 2019 SEMA show.
And the car was built in secret
and photos of it started popping up on Facebook
November 4, 2019, the day before its big debut.
And then Sander from custom Rama asked Steve Scott
about the car and he told us he was elated
because it's gorgeous, very well made tribute car.
So it is, I mean, look at it.
Wow, let's look at how beautiful that paint job is.
Everything, I mean, that's, that's a big deal.
And then the found photos from the Dave Shutton,
the Dave Shutton shared, wow.
Oh my God, the found photos are just car porn,
total hot rod porn.
So I don't know, hot rod, odd rod porn.
Really nice stuff.
So anyway, you know, we've gone pretty in-depth here and-
We went more in-depth than we thought we would.
Yeah, we're-
Cause we both had six each, which clearly-
I thought we were gonna like blaze through this
as a shootout, but there's so much to say
about these cars that you should look them up
because you should look them up and digest this
because we're gonna keep going on it later.
We've got more now to talk about,
but we won't do in this episode, cause it's gone too far.
Yeah. And like, we'll do another one and that-
It's gone too far.
Like, wow, we'll have to do what?
Two each then and three.
We'll see.
There's just so much-
We've only done two each on this one.
There's so much to talk about.
Yeah, there's a lot.
I didn't think there would be that much.
These are all heavy hitters,
but I got bad news for you.
I've only got more heavy hitters.
Yeah, me too.
It was all killer, no filler when it comes to these cars.
That's what we did.
And now I've got time to dig out the show cars book
from the 70s.
Like, there's a, there's a C cab that's like,
I think it's a beer truck
and it's got like all these kegs on the back.
It looks kind of like Little Red Wrecker,
but a little more like a stagecoach.
No, maybe it's the cement mixer.
It's a six wheeler and it's a tiny cement mix.
It's, it's-
Oh, that sounds cute.
It's of the same vein and that's kind of like
in Tales of the Rat Fink,
Ed Roth is like,
after I built my crazy car,
then people started to build some things that were,
and he shows like the telephone booth tee
that's like, looks like a phone booth on a chassis.
And the bathtub car.
Well, you know, somebody's trying.
Somebody's trying.
I saw that on your list.
And then I think, yeah.
And so it shows a couple, it's funny.
It's a funny section,
but it's a, I think of an important criticism
is that it's like,
it should still be a hot rod
and not a fucking movie car.
But like some of those cars were built
to just be on the show circuit
and be like telephone booth tee,
like in bathtub car.
But-
So people were just getting,
they just got real wild.
Yeah, but if you think about it
as an enterprise back then,
you're just like,
I'm just making a car for people to come look at.
Like a weird, a weird piece of art for people.
I like, I missed that that exists.
I was reading,
I can't remember who it was that I've read.
It was one of these guys on the hot rod circuit
that are on the show circuit
that would make their cars smaller
because they could fit more in that,
because they had a small trailer.
And, but they could also,
when they entered the car,
because they were cars,
these were invited cars,
so they got paid.
So even though he had a smaller car,
he could get the same amount as a full-size car.
Yeah, compared to the Pink Panther car.
Yeah, which, you know what?
We didn't talk about that at all
because that's going to be in our movie episode.
Damn right.
Yeah.
So I want to encourage everybody
to click the links in the show notes
and check out and see what these cars look like.
And also, if you have a favorite one
of the ones we went over,
DM car trash and let us know.
And if you have a favorite odd rod
that we didn't talk about,
also let us know about that.
Yeah, do you have, let us know.
What do you think?
What do you like?
We want to know.
We want to hear from you.
Also thanks to all the people who keep writing in
and saying that they like the podcast.
Yeah, that was so awesome.
Last week we had like six people, I think.
Well, and just some,
I just got a random message the other day
and I just was like, wow, that is so nice.
Cause, you know, we don't,
we don't have a high expectation of listenership,
but it's, it's,
I think even more surprising when you're like,
yeah, we've only got a limited number of people listening,
but when they're like listening
and reaching out to say that they like it.
Yeah, that means a lot.
Yeah.
It really means a lot to us.
Yeah, thanks.
Yeah.
So it encourages us to keep going.
You know, it gives us that fuel.
So thanks for all the really nice words.
I really appreciate it.
It's, it definitely lifts the spirits,
but it also encourages us to give you something more
to listen to if you like it.
So.
Yeah.
And I mean, we've got, again, some bangers.
These.
We have a lot of really good ones.
Yeah.
There is some really.
I did a lot of research and then Rose already knows it.
So she didn't need to do research.
I mean, no, I needed to
because my brain was fried from work,
but there's always more to the story.
And like I said, I'm not,
I'm not like about this stuff.
I don't necessarily dig super deep,
but there are rich stories.
Yeah.
It's just that in some ways it can be sort of a repeat
because nowadays we're like,
let's reunite every band.
Let's remake every movie.
And then it's like, let's dig out every guy
that built a wild ass car
and be like, what have you been doing?
Are you okay?
Was it sad to you that the car fell to pieces
and your life is different than it used to be
when you were 17, you know, whatever, like.
Yeah, exactly.
But you know, they're great.
I mean, Dan Woods is somebody we're gonna talk about
and Dan Woods stories on his Instagram
about getting into building his stuff is so cool.
Cause it's to me it is,
cause it's stuff like him,
like I went to work at the shop
to learn how to do this thing.
And like, that's kind of how it was for me,
except I haven't made anything sick.
So I'm not gonna sit here
and like try to associate myself with Dan,
but it's, it relates to me.
Right.
But a lot of this stuff is like that.
I think this guy went from his advanced physics class
to being like, I should do it.
Yeah, that's, it's incredible.
I love it.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
He's like, if you can draw it, you can build it,
which I'm gonna agree with.
I think that's great.
I read on the internet
that if you can see it, you can weld it.
Yeah.
I would imagine, I think that that's probably true too.
I guess so.
Not probably, I think that is true.
I don't know, my question is sometimes.
Yeah.
But yeah.
Well, I mean, you are the welder, I'm not.
So you probably would know better than me.
Yeah.
Anyway, get on with your life,
could do something else.
And thanks for listening.
Yeah, see you next week.
You've been.
You done, been piled up.
Piled up.
Bye.
About this episode
Dive into the whimsical world of Odd Rods as hosts M.Dog Nightmare and a guest explore the unique characteristics and history of these unconventional vehicles. They discuss the origins of Odd Rods, their artistic flair, and the creativity behind their designs, featuring notable examples like Red Fox's Little Red Wrecker and Steve Scott's Uncertain T. The conversation flows through personal anecdotes, industry insights, and the cultural significance of these cars, making it a fascinating listen for anyone interested in automotive art and history.
Original notes
This week the girls dig into "odd rod's" a category of customs that are loud, adventurous, playful, sexy, decadent art. For the first installment we're covering: Redd Foxx's Redd Wrecker, Ed Roth's Surfite, Darryl Starbird's Stark Trek Coupe, Steve Scotts Uncertain-T
Recorded, edited & mixed by Emdognightmare & Queen of the Vans
Production & research Queen of the Vans & Emdognightmare
Find us: Car Krush
Stay updated w/ our newsletter
Hugs, thank you & high fives to Greg Meleney for the killer tunez!
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