Frightful ride for All Hallows’ Eve
Screemon Deemon rat rod was therapy for owner who loves a good scare
There will be one scary ride parked at the West Kelowna “haunted house” owned by Mark Harris on Halloween. Among the floating ghosts, black cats, coffin carrying a skeleton and other frights will be one evil-looking machine.
Visitors will recoil in fright when they see the rusty-looking 1936 Chevrolet coupe rat rod, what with its spiderweb grille and fender skirts, hood-mounted skull with glowing red eyes, bats, scorpions, dragons and gory graphics depicting figures with bones sticking out of legs and torsos.
The interior features a circular chain for a steering wheel, spiked brass knuckles for a shifter and matching door handles, as well as handcuffs to lock the transmission shifter as a cryptic theft deterrent. Not that anyone in their right mind would steal a car that is unlike any other.
“Screemon Deemon” is the name painted on the driver’s door, which has skeletal hands for openers. Also featured on the door are illustrations of a skull with a big gaping jaw sporting a Royal Coachman’s top hat, just like the one owner Mark ‘Hawkeye’ Harris wears to greet visitors to his crypt on Halloween night.
The graphic on the trunk depicts a rat rod in the clutches of an evil dragon. Hawkeye, with long flowing white hair and moustache, and Darlene, his fiancé, are leaning on the car. The colours purple and gold are reflected in highlights on the body that is clear coated over rust, and in the purple fur carpeting and LED lights that make for a dramatic presentation when night falls.
“I always wanted to build a car from scratch that was unique, and I have a passion for rat rods,” the retired operations superintendent and truck driver says. “It started when I bought a skull with horns and fangs during a visit to a Goth store seven or eight years ago; I got a vision for the car I would build some day.”
After he lost his wife to cancer five years ago, he decided to fill his time by creating a dark-culture car that would be very different from the rest. He had once restored a 1951 Cadillac Coupe de Ville and owns a 1957 Packard, but he liked the look of a 1936 Chevrolet coupe that he saw in a photograph.
He found his car being offered in an estate sale on Vancouver Island that was just a body attached to the frame and a pile of pieces. He trailered the remains of the relic home to West Kelowna in the fall of 2014 to begin the build. Once he conceived the name Screemon Deemon and a friend gave him a Tshirt adorned with a gaping-jawed skull, he had his theme.
“My buddies came over and I showed them the skull and dragon and it all started to come together. They kept egging me on and I used my buddy Doug to bounce ideas off,” Harris says.
He rebuilt the body, welded in new floors, and installed modern power steering, disc brakes and a 383-cubic inch “stroker” Chevrolet V8 engine mated to a fourspeed 700R4 automatic transmission. Then he put his scary ride on the road.
The rusty look of the car was created by spraying a mixture of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide on the bare metal that was then scuffed with Scotch Brite and sprayed with clear-coat lacquer. The fenders are matte black to add an evil look to the ride.
Little wonder the car draws crowds wherever it is shown.
“Kids and old ladies seem to love the car the most,” he says. “One 75-year-old said it gave her goose bumps and she brought her friends to see the car at a show. Kids love the spider on the front, the skeleton heads and all the art work.”
But Halloween is the right night for Hawkeye’s Screemon Deemon to glow.
“I’ve always been a lover of Halloween. I would set up a graveyard with a coffin lined with purple satin and a skeleton in there. I would hang up a skeleton with long white hair and use fishing line to make it come floating over kids who would come to the house,” he says.
Now, his rat rod is the focal point for his Halloween haunt.
“Building the car was therapeutic. It got my mind off things,” he says referring to his wife’s death after they had been together for 33 years.
Mark Harris built his car to travel long distances. A cross-Canada trip with his fiancé tops his bucket list.
“I’ve only been as far as Winnipeg in Canada and I don’t want to go anywhere else because of all the trouble around the world.”
Hawkeye’s scary ride may go on tour next year, so it may be coming to a cemetery near you.
Alyn Edwards is a classic-car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com. Driving.ca