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Jonathan Ward inside one of his Derelict beauties; photography by Dale Berman

Body Builder

by Andrew Myers | Angeleno magazine | February 10, 2012

With populist rage making consumption look perilous and turning conspicuous car brands such as Maybach into roadkill (Mercedes announced its expiration late last year), how’s a deep-pocketed connoisseur to compete in L.A.’s ongoing cool-car competition? Why not cruise the road less traveled and go Derelict?

Van Nuys-based big-wheel car restorer, designer and builder Jonathan Ward creates luxe vehicles inside well-aged metal exteriors. “Concepts are based on any vehicle from the 1930s to the ’60s, then we do a one-off with all modern content,” says Ward. In the mid-aughts, Ward launched ICON, a line of handmade, built-to-order trucks inspired by postwar classics. And if this all sounds familiar, Ward is the same guy who owns TLC, an automotive temple dedicated to all things Toyota Land Cruiser.

But while the innards of Ward’s Derelicts are state-of-the-art, the original carapaces celebrate the un-retouched passing of time. “The goal is to create bespoke daily drivers with vintage wabi-sabi patinas,” explains Ward, whose clients range from sultans to Fortune 500 CEOs.

Projects start at $150,000, take about one year to complete and result in rarified examples of desired imperfection on four wheels. Take Ward’s most recent Derelict: a 1952 Chevy Deluxe coupe found in a Texas barn. Now it has an Art Morrison powder-coated custom chassis, an aluminum fuel-injected Camaro 6.2 LS3 engine, a wild-caught Florida alligator and domestic buffalo interior dyed to match the color on JFK’s Hermès briefcase and a Rolls-Royce Wilton wool carpet.