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Road Agent


Landspeed1

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do you happen to have any photos from the frame building process? what was difficult about it? just fiddley or were there flaws to overcome?

interested because this is on my short list along with the tweedy pie and the outlaw. those and the surfite were my favorite roth cars (even though roth just kinda cleaned up the tweedy pie, he bought it from someone already built).

i have been reading and looking at a nice roth book, hot rods by ed big daddy roth, and it has some great anecdotes along with obscure photos. one of my favorite is about the guy who bought the mysterion, actually traded (back) the outlaw and b.bandit i think they were, only to have the mysterion disintegrate from the weight of the twin motors on a frame ed "designed" (he commented something like "ed wasnt much of an engineer in those days". also interesting was the building style used by roth: plaster of paris coated with fibreglass and then the plaster matrix left inside the 'glass. every photo of roth you see in those years he was either coated with white powder (dont get upset: it was dust from plaster he was carving) or at least looked like he had it behind his ears. another great one was how he painted his trailer for hauling his cars on the circuit black with "chapel of memories" lettered on the side, and pulled it with his hearse he slept in (didnt want to part with the $ for a motel). he was always being harrassed by police as he slept at the side of the road in his old trailer painted up in "clown colors" but that stopped when he started using the funeral home motif.

book is heartily recommended and is reasonably priced at amazon.

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I don't have photos of the build process but as I recall i used 2-part epoxy on the frame due to the chrome plating.I used 5-minute epoxy and the extended cure time allowed me to square up the frame and make adjustments as necessary.I too have that book and it is an indeed excellent reference for Roth rods!

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From what I recall, the most difficult part was the very front cross member attaching the frame to the axle has just a slight indentation at the attachment point. I used Regular Testors glue on all the parts after test fitting and let the glue set for a few seconds before attaching the frame pieces to each other. Then as said before it was a matter of lining everything up and letting it all dry till hard before attempting any further construction of the kit. The end result is worth the effort. It is one of my favorite builds! :P

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just curious, could one drill a couple holes in the back of the axle and matching holes in the (presumed) frame front crossmember and strengthen that connection that way? if not i would be afraid with handling or maybe just sitting on the shelf the axle would come unglued from the frame with just superglue holding it.

great car again, really makes me want to go on a roth binge!

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Don V

I have posted photos of my Mysterion that I built after the Road Agent,

It made the Road Agent look easy.

I want to build the Beatnik bandit but am worried about the decals not working well and have not found any after market ones.

Shayne

use a clearcoat enamal over them before using them . Enamal isn't hot like lacqure . This coating will prevent them from crumbling . Do you have a scanner to copy into your Computer ? If so , scan a copy nad keep it . If the worst happens , perhaps you can find someonre to make custom decals for you from the scsn . Thanx..

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