Legendary Quagmire Chevy Pickup Has New Owner and New Upgrades!
Buying one of the most iconic custom 4x4s ever, and a backcountry-ready Sequoia 4x4.
Legendary Quagmire Has a New Owner
It's always been a dream of mine to own Quagmire. I've built several 4x4 trucks and Jeeps over the years, but Quag was always that iconic truck that was completely unique in the truck world. Mike Neibuhr did an amazing job designing, engineering, and building it.
In the fall of 2020, I had been going through an old photo album and ran across two photos of Quag that I had taken at the 1998 4-Wheel Jamboree in Indianapolis. I remember pushing my one-year-old son, Talon, in a stroller while checking out the trucks and hearing the sweet sound of a big-block Chevy rolling up behind me. I turned to see what it was and to my surprise, it was Quag! I dug into the stroller storage pocket to grab my 35mm camera and snapped two pics of Quag as he rolled past. The handle of my son's stroller is in the bottom left corner of one of the pics. That was the first and last time that I had seen Quag.
After finding those photos, I began scouring the internet for information about what had happened to Quag. I ran across an old "for sale" post from 2015 that had a phone number included. I called the number and luckily, it was still valid. The previous owner told me that Quag had sold, but he still had the number of the buyer. Quag had changed hands a couple of times and had been in a state of disrepair. A gent by the name of Kirby had purchased Quag and brought it back to Wisconsin. He proceeded to get Quag back together and on the road … and off the road.
Kirby and I had been in discussions about Quag off and on from fall 2020 through fall 2021 when I received a text from him saying that he was taking Quag to the Indy Jamboree and putting him up for sale. My wife and I made the four-hour journey to Indy to meet Kirby and see/drive Quag. After driving Quag, it was a done deal. A few weeks later I was pulling a trailer to Wisconsin to bring Quag home.
I've been working on getting Quag back to 100 percent since I brought him home. I feel that I am a steward of a piece of 4x4 history, so I need to make sure that I do it right. Quag has not changed much from the Top Truck Challenge days. The front axle has been built up a bit more, the front tires swapped from Ground Hawgs to Boggers, the TH400 transmission has been built a little stronger with a manual valve body, and the 468 engine has been swapped out to a GM 572.
I have the photo of Ken Brubaker and Quag at Silver Lake on Quags Facebook and Instagram (@quagmyr4x4) pages that I created. I have 19 of the 20 magazines that Quag was featured in as well as the Top Truck Challenge DVD. I'm still looking for the Summer 1999 Fullsize 4x4 magazine with the Silver Lake photo shoot in it as well as the VHS version of the 1998 Top Truck Challenge.
