GILPIN COUNTY - When Damien Webster was eight years old, his mother Susan arranged for him to work in a bicycle shop for two days.

That introduction to mechanics led to an internship beginning in junior high at Boulder Bike Works, where half his day was spent studying in school and the other half wrenching on motorcycles.

He would spend the next 10 years working there.

In 2000, Webster purchased a home on Feldspar Road where he still lives today. Supporting himself drilling water wells, he never lost his interest in motorcycles or automobiles and trucks.

In his spare time, for over a decade Webster participated in drift racing, drag racing, and off-road desert racing in eastern Colorado.

He named his group of five the Crazy Insane Racing Team. Pitted against 12 or 15 other entrants, both his men’s and women’s teams would always finish in the top three, winning well over half of their races.

His girlfriend, Sabrina Diane Prisser, was a staunch supporter, always there at his side during the events. They had planned to be married until she passed on, after which the racing lost some of its appeal without his number one fan cheering him on.

He began creating rat rods to take his mind off his loss, if just temporarily, for minutes at a time.

A rat rod could be thought of as a hot rod, only “rattier.” In many ways the antithesis of a hot rod, builders of rat rods don’t use original parts or devote their efforts to cherry restorations with polished chrome accessories and perfect paint jobs.

On the contrary, the desired finish of a rat rod is patinaed and the rustier the better. With no blueprint to follow, each rat rod is unique, fabricated to reflect the creator’s personal tastes.

Instead of sitting in a showroom or being hauled around to different car shows, a rat rod is meant to be a daily driver. Any scratches or dents incurred only add character. Webster has now built three of them.

One of his influences on his one-of-a-kind works of automotive art was deceased Nederland metal sculptor Marion Reynolds, who might have employed a trowel as the bill of a bird in his pieces. Webster recalls that “We spoke the same language.”

In Webster’s latest creation, he began with the chassis of a 1993 Toyota Extended Cab Pick Up truck with a 3.0-liter V6 engine. To give it a classic look, he rescued a dilapidated 1929 Ford Model A body from Uncle Charlie’s Ranch, and attached it to the chassis.

It was missing the roof, floor, and hood. The doors had to be welded together. Webster paid Charlie scrap price for parts he used to accentuate his rat rod.

Those parts included timing chains, gears, a cam shaft, connecting rods, valves, wrenches, hand saws, and spark plugs—all of which were welded onto the body in whatever configuration Webster fancied.

A scorpion adorns the top of the engine. The brass longhorn bull skull hood ornament is unmistakable as it approaches you on the road. A human skull with Ouija board letters on its forehead was purchased at a Halloween decorations store to further distinguish his rat rod.

Webster is often spotted tooling around the mountains in his latest customized means of transport. While he confesses that the rat rod was built for his own satisfaction, he also built it to “put smiles on other people’s faces.”

Engaging with car enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts alike who want to know everything about his mechanical masterpiece has brought validation and additional enjoyment to his life.

A chip off the old engine block, Webster’s son Cody shares garage space with him and is working on his own extreme off-road Toyota Tacoma project.