Sean C. Morgan
It may be just a rat rod, but the Resurgence is definitely a one-of-a-kind looker that turns heads.
The car, which looks like it belongs in an urban “Mad Max” movie, expresses a steampunk elegance mixed with the deep, raw sound of unchained power channeled through eight 5-foot exhaust pipes as it roars up and down Main Street.
Its rear-mounted truck cabin makes the mid-engine rig hard to define and a squirrelly drive.
Does it drive like a car or a truck?
“None of the above,” said Will Garrett, president of Radiator Supply House, which produces Icebox Performance custom vehicle cooling systems.
Its V8 engine sits on the chassis in front of the cabin in which a driver and passenger ride in two fenders from a 1946 Dodge pickup, which serve as seats. Intricately designed body panels manufactured with a plasma cutter are fused with a variety of recycled bits of past technology, adding touches of class.
It’s a classic rat rod, a style of hot rod or custom car that, in most cases, imitates (or exaggerates) the early hot rods of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s.
At full throttle, the rat rod might give some modern cars a run for their money, pressing its human occupants back into the curve of the fenders; but it’s not designed to set lap records or win a drag race.
The steering, with the wheels way out in front of the driver, gets a little loose at highway speeds, Garrett says. Since it has no speedometer, he guesses he’s had it up into the 55- to 60-mph range.
“It’s a rough drive,” Garrett said. “It puts off a lot of heat. It’s so loose. It’s an experience to drive. You’re thinking a hundred yards in front of you. I think a Mack truck would turn nicer than this does. The turning radius is about like a freight train. You’ve got to think about turning it.”
With the turning radius and its low ground clearance, “I (have) to really think about how I’m going to access the gas station,” he said.
Garrett is supposed to get the Resurgence out into the public and show it off, and he’s had it out four or five times, most notably during the Sportsman’s Holiday Cut the Gut, where it attracted attention at every stop. During another outing, last week, visitors to Shea Point couldn’t help taking photos and video of the Resurgence, and they had plenty of questions about the vehicle.
“The first time we took it out, we took it into A&W,” Garrett said. “People actually stopped in the middle of Highway 20 and were taking pictures.”
Where many rat rods sport clumsy hunks of metal, around the Resurgence, forks from Schwinn bicycles are used to mount shocks. Oil coolers are part of the headlight mounts as décor, and the headlight buckets are from a Diamond T truck. Antique military surplus fuel tanks feed the engine. The steering wheel is mounted on an old wrench. The Resurgence uses parts from the Model T, Model A and a 1936 Chevy, and a row of copper tubes inlay the frame, with copper and chrome accents the length of the rig.
Painted on the back of the Resurgence is “Psalm 121,” which concludes with, “The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”
The Resurgence doesn’t belong to Garrett or RSH. They built the cooling system, but they’re just storing the rig for its owner, Gary Fisher of Hood River.
“We had a booth at the Portland Roadster Show 2017,” Garrett said. “Gary Fisher, known as ‘Fish,’ had this car and was invited to be at the roadshow. We just started talking with him. He’s a concrete contractor, one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He was talking. He was having some cooling issues.”
Fisher and the Resurrected Rust Garage built the Resurgence in 23 days during 2015 to compete in the Rat Rod Build-Off organized by Rat Rod magazine, winning the top trophy for the second year in a row. Under the rules, teams must build their rat rods for less than $3,000. Resurrected Rust Garage did it for less than $2,600.
It is built on a 1972 Dodge motor home chassis, a 16.5-foot frame, with a 1935 Autocar cab-over truck, Garrett said. “This cabover, it’s probably the Holy Grail of cab-over cabs.”
Back in the day, it would’ve been a work vehicle, Garrett said. More common in the Midwest, the Autocab would likely be found on a mining operation or in agriculture.
The engine is a 1950s-era Chrysler small block V8 Firepower, Garrett said. The Resurgence has airbag suspension, allowing it to drop to the ground.
A three-speed automatic transmission is very smooth, he said.
When they met Fisher, “Wes (Collins of RSH) and I started thinking maybe we should sponsor this guy,” Garrett said. “We thought, ‘Get him to SEMA 2018.’ We get one booth spot. We chose this vehicle as ours.”
The Special Equipment Market Association Show is an automotive specialty products trade event drawing more than 70,000 domestic and international buyers and featuring nearly 3,000 newly introduced parts, tools and components. It takes place each November in Las Vegas.
Among its functions, the show provides educational seminars, product demonstrations, special events and networking opportunities.
At SEMA, “it was huge,” Garrett said, and it ended up in a coveted spot under the monorail on Paradise Avenue thanks to the Icebox Performance business card – a $2 bill – and SEMA Vice President Tom Gattuso.
Garrett found himself seated at a meal with the executive, who asked him how, among the thousands of booths, Garrett would get people to remember him. Garrett asked Gattuso to autograph one of the bills stamped with the Icebox logo, something that’s become something of a hit in the industry.
Garrett said Gattuso told him he’s never been asked for an autograph or signed one on a $2 bill. That’s something he doesn’t think Gattuso will forget. When they were looking for their place to park the Resurgence, staff members called Gattuso at RSH’s request. He remembered, and the Resurgence ended up in the top spot at the Renaissance Hotel.
On the way home from SEMA, Garrett said, Fisher was thinking about storing the rig. He has a couple of other builds taking up space. He knew RSH had a warehouse, and asked Garrett to store it. All he asked was that Garrett get it out into the public.
Garrett said Fisher is interested in a buyer, someone who really wants it. He is looking for cash to take care of the guys who helped him build it and a charity.
Next up, the Resurgence heads Benefit for the Basin, a benefit for Klamath Falls youth, Sept. 20-21 and will be on display next to Dave Kendig’s Kendig-it-Design team.