Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Orbitron Found! P1

Orbitron © Mr Gasser.com

Date line August 28^th 2007 

“The Ed "Big Daddy" Roth Orbitron was found last week and now has a new owner.

 The car was found in Mexico . It was used in a carnival for several years and then as a trash can in front of an adult book store until just last week.

 The new owner hopes to restore it.

 As agent for this endeavor, I will have updated information to ya all within the next couple of days.

Below is a link to couple of fotos taken of the car in its disarray.

http://s223.photobucket.com/albumsRoth_Orbitron/ (this link has been disabled)

That is all..

Love the Moldy one”

In short Here is the scoop.

Darryl Starbird had purchased the Orbitron back in 1967 from Ed for $ 750.00. Starbird sold or traded it a few years after that but forgot who exactly he sold it to.

The car ended up in the hands of some introverted collector, a Doctor, many years ago in the state of Texas .

The Orbitron was traded by the Doctor to a guy for another project, this guy got into some drug trouble and in turn traded it to his lawyer for his fees. After that the lawyer sold it to another guy down south of the border who then sold it to the carnival owner who was then killed in 1991 because he flaked on a drug deal.

The owner of the Adult Book store was the nephew of the carnival owner and has had the Orbitron since 1991.

The owner of the book store believed that his uncle had actually built the car but the only thing that the uncle had done to the car was to cut off the nose of the vehicle and put a radiator in it to drive it around the carnival grounds. The reason for cutting of the nose was to show all of the chrome work that was hidden.

Several years ago Mark Moriarity placed an ad in a Texas publication because it was rumored the car had been sighted. Mark got a couple of responses one of which said that he had seen the car in 1973 at a show and the nose had already been removed at that time!

So now we are assuming that this modification was done very early in the game.

As a funny side note to the story is that one of the guys who owned it in the 70's got stuck inside the car one day, and that he had to break his way out of the car,thus destroying the bubble top in the process!!

As a matter of fact for those of you that might remember, that the Orbitron was not one of Roth's most popular cars because of this reason. The mill and all of the chrome was pretty much hidden underneath the hood and and the body of the car so therefore the car did not have the impact... that Wow factor that most of the other cars that Roth had put together....
 

Then came Michael Lightbourn who restores cars for the elite down in Mexico and found the Orbitron sitting in front of the bookstore and had been hounding the family for over a year in regard to the sale of the car. The owners of the book store didn't want to sell the car because of sentimental reasons.

Michael convinced the owner of the book store that he was familiar with his uncles car, and if he had sentimental feelings for the car, then why was it that he was allowing people to use it as a trash can? and then convinced the owner of the book store that he could restore the thing back to it's original condition. It was at that time that the nephew finely let the thing go and sold it to the current owner..

Michael said that he had to grease the palms on the Mexican side and the Americans just laughed as he passed through the border because they felt that it wasn't even worth sending back!.

The full story and any and all corrections of the information will be released shortly once it is decided whether the current owner will actually underwrite the restoration or if it will be sold to those who have already made offers.

Yes, this story is true, it is the Orbitron, we have confirmed it, yes that is the original mill, steering wheel, along with the wheels and even the tires. And it even has remnants of the funky carpeting that Ed Roth installed way back when.

As far as the restoration, we are currently working on the team of builders..

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

tha Moldy one
Curator "The Orbitron Project"

by John Detrich (c) 2007

Orbitron Ed Newton

Orbitron Revised Ed Newton

The Orbitron Saga Continues !

Orbitron ©  http://www.sinclairhotrods.com

Date Line January 19, 2008

Howdy Gang,

It has been awhile and I just thought I’d start a new thread to pick up where we left off last August with the first post “Orbitron Found?”

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2513630#post2513630

Here is a link for any of you that want to refer back to the thread.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=204957&showall=1

The Origins:

On August 27^th I was contacted by no other Michael Lightbourn, a well known auto restoration enthusiast and builder out of El Paso TX. He’s the Hero of this story and was the one that found the Orbitron and rescued it from Mexico .

Michael had sent several photographs of the found treasure and wanted input in regard to the restoration and the possibility of putting together a team in order to get the job done.

Michael wanted to remain somewhat anonymous until he decided exactly what he wanted to do with the car but at the same he gave permission to go ahead and send out a short press realize.  

On August 28^th I posted the photos up on photo bucket and sent out the message below via email and my space.

===============================================================

“The Ed "Big Daddy" Roth Orbitron was found last week and now has a new owner.

The car was found in Mexico . It was used in a carnival for several years and then as a trash can in front of an adult book store until just last week.

The new owner hopes to restore it.

As agent for this endeavor, I will have updated information to ya all within the next couple of days.

Below is a link to couple of fotos taken of the car in its disarray.

http://s223.photobucket.com/albumsRoth_Orbitron/ (this link has been disabled)

That is all..

Love the Moldy one”

==============================================================

Within 48 hours the word spread like wildfire and the phones rang off the hook!

Since then a whole lot had not been revealed on the story except for a couple of short but informative blip verts posted on the interweb and published in a few well known trade magazines this along with a barrage of builders and collectors wanting to purchase the vehicle!

You can now read the story titled “The Orbitron Saga” written by Pat Ganahl in the March 2008 issue of Hot Rod magazine! It just hit the streets this last week!

The story doesn’t end there and The Saga Continues!

The Orbitron has changed hands once again and the new owner is no other than Beau Boeckmann President of Galpin Auto Sports, Beau took delivery of the Orbitron last night and it now resides in his shop located in Van Nuys California.  

In the next couple of weeks the Orbitron will be disassembled, the restoration team will be finalized and the tedious task of rebuilding her will be underway!

The Orbitron only took Ed a few months to build but restoring her to spec. is a whole other story.

Just recently I was given a lead to the whereabouts of the nose, there wasn’t a specific location given only that it was seen in-between two towns in the middle of nowhere. This could end up in a wild goose chase and a story in itself  and we are currently looking into it because, finding the nose would make the job of restoring her a lot easier and the marriage would insure her complete originality.

Thanx goes out to:

Our Hero: Michael Lightbourn for finding the Orbitron and who will continue to be part of this saga. With a special thanx to Michael’s family and crew for all of their friendship and hospitality during the past few months.

Beau Boeckmann for taking on the huge responsibility of restoring the Orbitron.

Larry Watson for keeping such good records.

Fritz, Mark and Dave for their input and continued support.

Ryan for the H.A.M.B.

And the Press who I’m sure will be covering this story as we go.

Well that’s it for now, more news as the Orbitron Saga Continues,  

                                by John Detrich

tha Moldy one

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