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Once a rust bucket on a vast rural farm, Jason King's "COVID project" now looks like it has risen from the dead in a sci-fi movie.
The head-turning 1947 Bedford truck, or "rat rod" van – nicknamed "LOKJAW" – makes it hard for Mr King to go anywhere quickly.
"Mate, everywhere we go, everyone wants to have a chat," Mr King said.
The Calliope car enthusiast has just joined thousands of fellow revheads at Queensland's biggest auto show, Rockynats.
The annual Easter long weekend motoring festival is held in Rockhampton, central Queensland.
Mr King said he rescued the truck from a "car graveyard" and brought it back to life during the COVID pandemic.
"We're only the second owner. We got the truck from the Old Station at Raglan … it was sitting there in their [old car] graveyard," he said.
"The family said 'you can have it as long as you go and do something with it and you don't sell it on.'"
'Looks like a medicine bag'
Mr King made the truck wider and longer, and said he wanted it to stand out once he finished.
"Yeah, something different. There was no plan – we just made it up as we went," he said.
"Queen size bed in the back, legal four-seater bench seat across the front and nearly 2,000 rivets holding it together on the outside and 600 rivets on the inside."
He said LOKJAW was a showstopper that intrigued fans at car festivals around the country.
"Well, we get lots of different descriptions of it," he said.
"But I reckon it looks like a medicine bag from the old medicine man and his wagon going around, peddling medicine."
The Kings of Rockynats
While LOKJAW turned heads at the fourth instalment of Rockynats, winning the Top Ratter Award for the second year in a row, Mr King said his son, Shannon, was the one to come-up with the nickname for the restored farm wreck.
"Lockjaw is a symptom of tetanus and you get tetanus from rust and it's a rusty car," he said.
Mr King said this year's Rockynats was extra special for his family from New Zealand, with four generations involved.
"I think it was bred into me from my old man next door here," he said.
"We all get involved in it all … a little bit too much sometimes."
Rockynats organisers say this year's event was the biggest yet – with more than 1,600 car and bike entrants – a 15 per cent growth compared to 2023.
Mr King said his family would be back again next year with his star-studded beast.
"It's a good event to have a look at all the other cars and see what everyone else is dreaming up."
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