Jason King’s “COVID project,” once a rusty bucket on a large rural farm, now appears to have risen from the dead in a sci-fi movie.
The striking 1947 Bedford pickup truck, or “rat rod” truck, nicknamed “LOKJAW,” makes it difficult for Mr. King to get anywhere quickly.
“Dude, everywhere we go, everyone wants to chat,” King said.
Car enthusiast Calliope has just joined thousands of fellow revheads at Queensland’s biggest motor show, Rockynats.
The annual Easter long weekend car festival takes place in Rockhampton, central Queensland.
King said he rescued the truck from a “car graveyard” and brought it back to life during the COVID pandemic.
“We are only the second owner. We got the truck at the old Raglan station… it was there in their (old car) graveyard,” he said.
“The family said, ‘You can have it as long as you do something with it and don’t sell it.'”
‘It looks like a medicine bag’
King made the truck wider and longer, and said he wanted it to stand out once he was finished.
“Yeah, something different. There was no plan, we just made it up as we went along,” he said.
“Queen bed in the back, legal four-seater bench in the front and almost 2,000 rivets holding it together on the outside and 600 rivets on the inside.”
He said LOKJAW was a show that intrigued fans at car festivals across the country.
“Well, we get a lot of different descriptions of it,” he said.
“But I think it looks like the old medicine man’s medicine bag and his cart selling medicines.”
The Kings of Rockynats
While LOKJAW turned heads in the fourth installment of Rockynats, winning the Top Ratter award for the second year in a row, King said his son, Shannon, was the one who came up with the nickname for the remains of the restored farmhouse.
“Lockjaw is a symptom of tetanus and tetanus is contracted by rust and is a rusty car,” he said.
King said this year’s Rockynats were very special for his New Zealand family, with four generations involved.
“I think it was instilled in me by my dad next door,” he said.
“We all get involved in everything…sometimes too much.”
Rockynats organizers say this year’s event was the largest yet, with more than 1,600 participants in cars and bikes, a 15 percent growth compared to 2023.
King said his family would return next year with their star-studded beast.
“It’s a good event to take a look at all the other cars and see what everyone else is dreaming about.”
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