Over the years, we’ve come across plenty of replica cars built by some really talented craftsmen as a tribute to some of the most popular automotive creations. While most of them are crafted out of plain sheet metal, we even saw a Vietnamese carpenter use wood to make beautiful scaled replicas. However this tribute Mercedes-Benz G-Class might be the wackiest of them all; after all, its boxy body was chiseled out of nothing but blocks of ice. Crazy, right? The Ice G-Wagon was built a few years ago by a Russian enthusiast named Vladislac Barashenko who owns a custom car shop called Garage 54. He also runs a YouTube by the same name where he posts videos of his over-the-top automotive projects. Barashenko recently posted a new montage video of the Ice G-Wagon project that squeezes the entire build process into a 15-minute clip.
To build the replica G-Wagon, the folks at Garage 54 used the rolling chassis and running gear out of a UAZ-469 – a very capable off-road vehicle from the Soviet era. The video begins with the dismantling of the SUV’s boxy body, followed by welding a frame around the chassis to hold the ice blocks in place. The project then moves to the most crucial part of the build process for which the modified chassis is rolled outside the garage where a total of 10 tones of ice blocks await it. Since the garage is located in the Russian city of Novosibirsk where temperatures rarely go above 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter months, there’s no shortage of ice.
The blocks of ice are cut into smaller pieces using a chainsaw and mounted onto the chassis one by one. Each piece is carefully smoothened out so that they adhere to each other, while water is injected between them the seams to make the blocks bond together. An actual Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon is also parked right next to it so that the craftsman can use it as a reference to chisel the ice blocks to perfection.
Obviously, it’s a time taking process and a small mistake can potentially undo all the hard work. After several days of painstaking work, the ice G-Wagon finally takes shape, capturing even some really intricate details like the signature grille and the fender marker lights. Finally, strips of color-changing LED lights are attached to the translucent body of the Ice G-Wagon along with fitting it with actual G-Class wheels. The result is pretty amazing. Sadly, the video ends with a message saying the Ice G-Wagen melted in April 2018.
