“Sport’s not really my thing. More into physical stuff like this, and, yeah,” said Nash Salmon in perfect teenage-speak.

Nash has a passion for Rat Rods; the term given to hot rod or custom cars, that in most cases imitates or exaggerates the hot rods of the 1940’s to the early 1960’s.

Unlike hot rods, though, rat rods appear “unfinished”, with the rusted look favoured as a nod to the earlier days of hot-rod culture, which saw cars built according to the owners abilities, the parts they have, and the car’s purpose.

For Nash, the rust on his 1954 Dodge Fargo is all-consuming, but the purpose is for dirt drags and paddock bashing. 

“It was dragged out of a creek, out past Wagga, and it’s been sat on a Rodeo chassis and I’ve put a Slant Six (Chrysler G engine) in it,”

“Yeah, that’s virtually my ute,” Nash Salmon said.

Not happy with its look, Nash decided to chop the roof down 117 millimetres.

“It wasn’t an easy job but got there in the end,” Nash Salmon explained.

The best part is how it sounds when Nash turns the key.

“It’s full of rust but it goes like hell,” Nash Salmon says proudly.

Nash doesn’t know too much about the car’s history, other than its previous owner was from a property out past Urana, and it had a spell on a property in Holbrook named Mulgoa.

The Year Eight Wagga High School student has also been a mechanical Frankenstein in building a motorbike.

“It was a Honda 125 motor that’s been put together with three different bikes,”

“It’s a little rocket, it started from a frame and tank,” Nash Salmon explains.

Complete with faded, “The Road Warrior” custom painted insignia, and barbed wire wrapped around the back pipes, it looks more like a prop from a Mad Max movie set, and that’s exactly the look Nash was going for. 

It’s the opposite of safe, but that’s partly the attraction for a bullet-proof teenager.

What makes Nash Salmon so extraordinary is this boy’s tinkering has crossed over to the realm of men who have years of car maintenance under their belts, and the physical strength to move, weld and create a humming machine.

Junker’s car club, and custom enthusiast, Howard Brown says Nash Salmon’s skill is amazing for someone so young.

“He could well be the youngest rat rodder in Australia, as it’s not something young kids generally do,” Howard Brown said.

“He’s too young to get into our club yet, but as soon as he’s of age, we will welcome him with open arms. He’s amazing,” Mr Brown said. 

Chrysler took over the Fargo brand in the 1920’s, along with the Dodge Brothers brand in 1928, which made light trucks; and Graham Brothers Trucks, which were medium to heavy-duty lines.

The Dodge name was kept because it was so well known and respected, and after the Great Depression, it outstripped the low-selling Fargo line.

By the 1950’s Fargo’s were made mostly in Canada, with the parts shipped and made in Adelaide by T.J. Richards body builders under licence while all mechanicals came from the USA and Canada.

Like all cars, progress saw the brand relegated to a collector’s item, however the car is a work of mechanics and art for anyone with a whiff of petrol in their heads.

Nash Salmon plans to capitalise on his passion by turning it into a career after school, which, for a 14-year-old, is a long way off.