Ed "Big Daddy" Roth - Rat Fink Forever
Ed
Roth pushed customizing a giant step further. Though he began like his
peers, buy buying old cars and customizing them for racing or cruising, in
the late 1950s he did something no one else had tried. He started building
cars from scratch. Using simple tools, junk yard parts and the new
inexpensive material called fiberglass, Roth created automobiles in his
garage. The first one was named, appropriately enough, Outlaw. Roth's
creations combined hot rod, custom, and a cartoon space-age element.Roth
financed his creations by selling t-shirts. At drag strips, car shows or
county fairs, Roth sep up booths to airbrush shirts and draw cartoons or
monsters driving cars, including his most popular monster, a rodent named
Rat Fink. His garage/studio evolved into a huge showroom with employees
helping Roth create custom cars, t-shirts, records, and Revell-produced
model cars kits patterned after his creations. 
Article: "Customized: Art Inspired by Hot Rods, Low Riders and American Car Culture"