Words & Photos: Chadly Johnson

Ed Roth built some of the wildest and most influential show cars in history.  Ed’s creations have inspired countless builders over the years, but few as strongly as Minnesota’s own Mark Moriarity.  Mark’s passion for Ed’s show cars led him to purchase Ed’s “Rotar” bubble top show car.  After owning the Rotar, Mark had to have another, so he located and purchased the “Road Agent” and lovingly restored the show piece to equal its early glory years.  This led to owning several more of Roth’s creations.  While being surrounded by, restoring, and showing Ed’s cars Mark was inspired to tackle his own one-off creation… plus, he couldn’t locate or afford any more of Roth cars.  Mark figured if Ed could do it, so could he.  Mark stated one of Ed’s mottos was “Big mess, big success,” and Mark was really good at making a mess… so the “Futurian” build was on.

Mark had the Road Agent at his home at the time he began the Futurian so he was able to reference its chassis.  A similarly styled frame was built out of 2” round mild steel tubing.  A raw 62 Buick aluminum 215ci engine was set in the chassis, and it was made a roller with a set of Radir wheels.  With the engine and wheels giving a crude template for body dimensions, Mark started throwing the body together.  The basis for the body’s shape was a mixture of 60% vermiculite and 40% plaster soaked newspaper.  Once a big enough blob was made, Mark would shave the mixture down with a cheese grater for a general shape, then repeat over and over again.  Mark states that when his buddies would stop by during this phase of construction they would tell him “get ride of it, and don’t show anybody!”  To keep things symmetrical Mark would use cardboard templates to match one side to the other.  Mark had never done anything like this before, but he referenced Roth’s “how to” books on working with plaster to build bodies.

After an itchy mess that would have driven many people to give it up as a bad job, Mark emerged with a satisfactory body shape.  When I asked Mark if he had a drawing to refer to when constructing the body he stated that he can’t draw anything, so most everything happened by accident.  Mark simply sculpted as he went, then stood back and did a lot of staring.  Once satisfied, he laid fiberglass over the carved plaster, allowed it to harden, then knocked the plaster out of the fiberglass to reveal a body.  During the long battle with forming the one-off body, photos of the project were published by Jerry Weisner in Custom Rodder magazine.  Mark stated that difficult and messy as the process was, people now knew about the project as it was printed in a magazine, so he knew he had to keep going.

Now that Mark had a body on a rolling chassis he had many questions, like what to use for taillights, grille, steering wheel, etc.  Then it struck Mark that since he had literally just built a one-off body, it would not seem right to use a bunch of components from pre-existing cars… he would have to build the rest of the components as well.  So Mark got busy hand fabricating nearly all the miscellaneous pieces for the Futurian, resulting in components that are pieces of art, unique in design. 

            When it came it to building one of the most visually critical components, the bubble top, Mark turned to Masterglass out of Lakeville, MN.  Masterglass had assisted Mark when he crafted a new bubble top to replace the cracked one on the Road Agent.  Compressed air was pumped into a plywood mold built by Mark to a heated sheet of 1/4” thick G.E. Acrylite acrylic.  For three attempts the top would almost be fully formed only to deflate due to a sharp point in the mold.  Mark would sand the mold smoother and smoother until the fourth attempt proved successful.  57 Chevy convertible top hydraulics scored at a swap meet open and close the bubble top.

Another massive undertaking was due to the fact that the Futurian is dripping in chrome.  Mark performed all the polishing on the steel components prior to chrome plating himself… mostly, Mark said, because he’s cheap.  If you have ever prepped a piece of metal for chrome plating before you know that the metal has to be so perfect that it already appears chrome plated before you send it off to be chrome plated. Now imagine polishing all the components on the Futurian! The aluminum components such as the Crager-driven blower were sent off for chroming.

When it came to painting the body, Mark handled the paint gun himself right in his own garage, except for laying out the panels. That was handled by friend Dennis McPhail, and the pinstriping was laid down by Mike Iverson.  The interior was also handled in-house, excluding the seats and door panels which were stitched by Bob’s Upholstery.

When Mark first began the Futurian build he took some advice from Ed Roth, which was to build a small car as they require less material, thus less cost, and they are easier to move around.  Comparatively speaking the Futurian is a small car, but I can testify that its cockpit is very comfortable as I had the privilege of sitting inside it.  Mark is always very generous when it comes to allowing people to enjoy his creations and restorations. 

Shortly after its completion the Futurian was loaned out to be displayed at Darryl Starbird’s Museum.  Once it was home again Mark put the Road Agent up for sale, and when Ralph Whitworth came to purchase it for America’s Car Museum, he fell in love with the Futurian and ended up purchasing it as well.  Mark was able to see the Futurian while it was out on tour promoting the construction of the museum and suffered from abandonment and sellers remorse, so a deal was struck allowing Mark to purchase back his hand-built masterpiece.  The Futurian has been on display inside Mark’s living room ever since. Yes, you read correctly: inside his living room, except for 2 years when it was displayed at the Gilmore Museum. 

Mark is an amazing guy, and a gifted builder, fabricator, restorer, and preserver of early show cars.  Every time I get the privilege of stopping by Mark’s home, he has a new project that he is resurrecting, but as far as the Futurian is concerned… Mark is happy to have it home, where it was built and belongs.