Back when we were in our teens, some friends of ours had a band called Stickman Lincoln, an oddly-instrumented semi-avant pop group, that in our estimation, was the best Sacramento band you've never heard of. And they had an official vehicle: guitarist/violinist Damian Sol's Datsun 810 wagon. Random appendages were added, the bumpers were caution-striped. One door was painted in a rough approximation of a Sacramento County Sheriff's vehicle's livery. But honestly, both in legend and execution, the bullet-hole-and-bondo-ridden 810 can't hold a candle to Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's hand-lettered Honda Civic.

During his self-imposed exile from the custom car world, he drove this Civic while working as a sign-painter at Knott's Berry Farm, as well as on subsequent car-show tours with then up-and-coming Kustom Kulture artist Von Franco. This is the best non-fiberglass car that Roth ever owned by our estimation, and we would happily commute in it if we had a commute. But at this point, it would probably be better left to rest and be admired in our garagelet. What's more, unlike the Druid Princess, it would actually fit in there. Bidding starts this afternoon at 4:30PM PDT with a reserve. Auction # 300006134471.

Related:
LaVella Hits the Brucker Collection Auction [Internal]

Long ago, there was a magical place in Buena Park, California called MovieWorld: Cars of the Stars, owned by a pair of brothers by the name of Brucker. Ed Roth worked there. Von Dutch lived in a bus on the property, and although the museum closed in '79, the Bruckers' stored collection contained some fabulous artifacts of lowbrow art history. Our friend, mentor, and sometime-collaborator Mike LaVella of Gearhead, covered last weekend's auction of the Brucker collection and kicked us down a bit of science as he frantically readied himself for a trip to buy a suit in Hong Kong.

The auction was also held live on eBay, and according to LaVella, "A lot of it was sold to eBay people." Jay Leno (who had a proxy bidder) bought a motor from Howard Hughes' plane that was in the Brucker museum that Dutch striped.

"The guy who bought Von Dutch's pinstriping kit is Ralph Whitworth who is opening up a museum in Winnemucca, Nevada called America's Car Collection. He bought the Road Agent, the Mysterion and the Druid Princess, and bid Von Dutch's paintbox up to $270,000."

According to LaVella, though, "If you went just to buy Williams, it could've been your cleanup day." Compared to to the frenzy whipped up by Roth and Dutch's dead-icon status, Robert Williams' paintings often sold below the expected outlay. Dutch's tools, however, went for mind-boggling prices, often going for ten times their appraised rates. The action was so fast and furious that LaVella lucked out and scored Von Dutch's flip-up address book for a mere 400 bucks (although on eBay it says it sold for $475).

The LA Weekly has a great piece on why this art matters, the Brucker collection, and a fond farewell to Fausto Vitello, a patron of lowbrow art.

Dutch Auction [LA Weekly]

Related:
Fausto Vitello: RIP [Internal]

Ed Roth's Mysterion was widely acknowledged to be a pile of crap; its construction shoddy even by Roth show car standards. But the important thing was the look and with its bubbletop, swiss-cheesed chassis and twin Ford FE mills, the Mysterion had it in spades. Grand Rapids, MI's Dave Shuten inherited the project from notorious Rothophile Mark Moriarty and went to work duping the lost-to-the-winds Mysterion as closely as possible. For this we thank him, our father thanks him and we're sure LaVella thanks him, even if ol' Roth would most likely be perplexed.

Ed Roth Mysterion Clone [Rod & Custom]

Related:
Maserati Chassis, plus Ford Engine, plus Aluminum Body = Mantaray! [Internal]