The Short

Michael “Scrape” Marmurowicz is a metal artist and general “Maker” who for over four decades has always had a passion for hot rodding, motorcycles, racing, campy horror flicks, and rockabilly music. Combine this with the love of welding and metal fabrication and you have Scrape’s Garage. A source for yard art, lamps, bike parts and a variety of oddities.

The Long

Born in the land of Happy Days, Pabst Blue Ribbon, and the occasional cannibal neighbor. Good ‘ol Milwaukee Wisconsin was the backdrop for the son of a forge worker and a home maker to begin his budding career. Forever the artist, I quickly graduated from Crayola’s to Lego’s, moving right on up to Bondo and custom paint work on all of my Revell model car kits.

I couldn’t leave anything alone. All of my bicycles sported chopped up fenders, long forks and in-house custom paint jobs. And when I say in-house I mean in the house! I can still hear my dad screaming down to me in the basement about how I was stinking the place up to high heaven with my rattle can jobs.

But THE defining moment when the custom bug bit hard was when I stretched my Radio Flyer to handle a newspaper route with over 80 customers. From that moment on, any car or motorcycle (or mailbox) was fair game for my tin snips and grinder.

Growing up without a silver spoon sticking out of your backside can actually have its advantages. It forces you to become more resourceful in your abilities as a maker. Unlike those fortunate individuals who just outright buy everything, including tools, I had to dumpster dive to find my gold. Ok, honestly we didn’t live in squalor, and we were far from poor, but I can tell you that those lean years really teach one to think outside the box. I pride myself in still being able to find the correct angle to bend sheet metal on some of the most unusual bucks. Like my truck frame or a concrete bollard. Pan brakes are so damn expensive you know!

That history is what brought me to this whole upcycling thing that’s been so popular lately. Broken race car parts, transmission gears, and input shafts scavenged from my 9 to 5 make for great art and some really unique lamps. And what happened to gladiator spikes? Remember the car that crater face drove in the big drag race in the movie Grease? Well I’m dusting off my machining skills and preparing to launch a line of them for motorcycles. If it’s nostalgic or just plain cool I wanna have a part in it.

So please check out my store. Feel free to contact me with any questions, special requests, or just to say hello. And be sure to visit our Journal and Events pages for great stories on builds and to keep yourself updated on our show schedule so you can stop by the tent and have a look around. The inventory is constantly changing so we just might have that strange niche item you’ve been looking for.

Later,

Scrape