Rust, power and art: Driving the 700-hp Icon 48 Derelict

If you watch enough garage-centric reality TV, you get the idea that building a custom car is a labor-intensive yet ultimately straightforward process: bolt on a stack of new parts, maybe fabricate a custom piece here and there, slap on a coat of paint and you’re overhauled. Jonathan Ward’s Icon facility in Los Angeles would seem ripe for the Gas Monkey Garage treatment, trafficking as it does in beautifully wrought high-dollar 4x4s and vintage American metal.

But then you take a closer look at one of his cars and realize the fundamental incompatibility between this place and made-for-TV wrenching. If television-friendly garages are Bob Ross, dashing out happy trees once a week, then Ward is Rodin, patiently chiseling away the marble until his vision takes shape.

And that can take a while.

He points to the center console in his latest creation, the 48 Derelict. “The owner wanted a console with cupholders inside and a USB port, upholstered to match the interior,” Ward says. “That console took 90 hours to design and build.” Ninety hours. Just the console. And there are details like that all over the car, the latest Icon to redefine the barn-find, patinaed sleeper genre.

Icon is probably best known for its Land Cruisers and early Broncos, both of which fetch six-figure prices and command a lengthy waiting list. With those trucks, Ward’s created a niche that any custom shop would love to cultivate — repeatable, high-end products. But he’s a creative guy, thus the appeal of the Derelict series: each car is unique, presenting its own set of riddles to solve. And Ward enjoys the riddles.