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" In Africa I had got this fantastic idea for a fiberglas car when I saw a picture of Henry Ford beatin' the trunk of one o' his new '41 Fords with a sledge hammer and it wouldn't dent. Ya could'a knocked me over with a feather. It was also very cheap! It could also be done by people with little or no talent and I had both. It seemed too far out for my brain so I just dismissed it 'til I saw the LIFE article. In '57 I started playin' with "glas". I got some of the gooiest messes ya'd ever wanna see. My pants are always ruined by the end of each day, but in them days I'd have to throw 'em away each day. Shoes was good for about 4 days before I'd throw a coat of black paint on 'em. First I had the frame which was your basic '29 Ford rails and fitted this junk Caddy engine into *junk but ran good). I knew fiberglas existed but couldn't get anyone to help me (except Dirty Doug later on) so I was gonna make me a body outta wood like the Shadoff Special guys'd done. But it was too complicated and besides, wood and me don't jive! So I went to the local lumber yard and got some casting plaster (which is gross 'cause it dries so quick) but it was cheap and better'n wood." |
| "Makin' the buck was no problem. Guys in Detroit was usin' clay since the early 20's but clay was a buck a pound. Forget it! Plaster was a buck for 100 pounds. I used that! Then I covered the plaster with this messy, ooey, gooey stuff. I mean, like, it just ran into this big pile of mush on the asphalt. It was devastating. I couldn't ask anyone for advice 'cause no one knew. But I did it over and over 'til I got it right. When the glas cured, I knocked the plaster out from the backside and that because my "Outlaw" mold. (Robert Williams has that still now). I made two bodies and sole one to some unsuspecting dude down the street. I only made one grille shell thought so tough toodies! I had a few tools in them days. I had some basics like a crescent wrench and a hacksaw and a coupla files. So I wired, with bailing wire, all the stuff I wanted welded and took it to a trailer place down the street where this dude named Clarence Bell welded the stuff together. Then I took it home and filed all the weld marks down and took it to the chrome shop. I gotta give Fritz Voigt, a local mechanic and sidekick of Mickey Thompson, a lotta credit for help in advice and parts. Meanwhile, I sold "Little Jewel" to get money for the chrome for the Outlaw. As I worked on Outlaw I was plannin' a tow rig and trailer. Enter Dick "The Hammer" Cook. Dick could solve any problem with a hammer. Dick had put an Olds Tri-power into a '40 Chevy and I bought it form him. It hauled bananas! It was perfect for a tow car. A little paint and a coupla signs. It was even big enuff (A seday yet!) to sleep in. The nifty part of the '40 was the gear shift. Dick had made the emergency brake handle into a gear selector and when people offered to drive it and they figured out how to start it (another story altogether) they couldn't figure out how to make the thing go. Tough!" |
| " I can remember crusin' down Hollywood Boulevard one day racin' this new '69 Chevy and leavin' 'em behind. At the next stoplight I glanced over to see that it was Ricky Nelson. Whenever I got to the shows it was neat to unhitch the trailer to go street racin'. The only un-stock thing about the exterior was I had my name on the door in small letters. The trailer was a "keep it simple" model courtesy of Ron Aquirre's dad, Louie. It had two tires (one axle) and was the open air variety. Ron built "Xsonic", a bubble topped Corvette with the firest hydraulics courtesy Air Force salvage store. Me and Ron toured the east together in those years. We upset a lotta people with our outrageous cars. Well you can imagine the excitement when I first showed the "Outlaw" (I named it the "Excaliber" at first 'cause I used my mom-in-law's family Revolutionary War sword, but no one could pronounce the name so I changed it to "The Outlaw" in about 1960). All the guys had been aced out with one grand swoop. I had everything chrome plated. I tool trophy after trophy. Guys were throwin' their hands in the air. " |
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| "Another time Ron was crusin' and had two flats in a row so we put tires on his back axle (he had a 4-wheel trailer) and the front axle had no tires. Noooo problem! We boogied to the nearest Sears store for new ones and kept goin'. " "Later on as the show circuit got busier I bought me a '57 S&S bodied Cad hearse that I could sleep in. I had the back all decked out with TV and bed and food and stove. Y'know the real important stuff. Trouble was whenever I'd park somewhere to rest the cops'd swoop down on me and surround me. They'd knock on the back door and take my license and run a "make" on it and hand it back to me. I got so used to it that I'd have the license by the door and hand it to 'em and go back to sleep til they got the jollies and then they'd give it back to me with this kind word of advice. "There's a rest area down the road please to there and rest." There was always a rest area down the road someplace." |
| "Finally, I got wise to why they were snoopin'! My trailers!! They were so wild with big blatant signs and pinstriping in clown colors. So I got me a cherry '60 hearse and painted my trailer black to match and painted "Chapel of Memories" on it and never got bugged by a Smokey Bear again." "I guess the best part of the Outlaw was when Revell Model Company called me and wanted to make a model out of the car. It was trilling to think that Outlaw was chosen to compete with the likes of the AMT "Ala Kart" kit. By the by, that's when Revell tagged me with the "Big Daddy" moniker." "Most of the guys I new had nick names. Kelly never went for it, neither did Watson or Jeffires. I always thought they would have made out better if they did. I didn't know where Von Dutch or Slimbo or even The Baron picked up on their aliases but when Revell started making the Outlaw as a model kit Henry Blankfort called me into his office and said, "Your name needs a boost for the kits." I agreed butnever was sharp enough to pick up on the groovy "nom de plume". I'd always have been called "Big Daddy" at Bell High but Revell figured that I oughta go with the "Dutch" movement and call myself something like "Spider" or "Roach" or something cornball like that. It didn't appeal to me a bit. At about this same time there was this hippy movement in LA where guys'd let their beards grow and recite poetry at this coffee houses. The head stud muffins for these places were dubbed "Big Daddy". |
| Strickly stupid! I never even went to see 'em but Henry decided to replace the "Big Ed" with "Big Daddy". I figured since I had five rug rats at home and since I was big (250 pounds at 6'2") the name fit pretty good. I guess over the years it worked good for me. Theonly other Big Daddy of note is Don Garlits, the drag racer. Lotsa "finksters" get the two of us mised up! Anyway Revell was happy and so was I. Especially when the royalty checks came rolling in." "The Outlaw was the first of a lot of car models to come from Revell. I sold it in 1970 to Jim Brucker for 50 bucks. He was a car collector and I figured if he got it he would make sure it got into the right places. I was right! The Outlaw was refurbished to it's original condition by Harrah's." (Currently the Outlaw is owned by the Petersen Automotive Museum Los Angles California.) |
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