PERPETUAL MOTION AUTOMOTIVE
The ASE Certified Mechanic Behind Perpetual Motion in Wasilla
MEET THE OWNER - MIKE RHODES
Most shops hand your keys to whoever’s open. At Perpetual Motion, the person who built this shop is the same person who set the standard every tech here works to — and he’s spent his whole life under the hood. Meet Mike Rhodes — the ASE certified mechanic in Wasilla who built Perpetual Motion: ASE Master-trained, McPherson-degreed, and one of a very short list of people in Alaska who has restored cars good enough to roll across the lawn at Pebble Beach.
MIKE'S CAREER
Award-Winning Work, Recognized Nationally
Before Mike ever opened the doors in Wasilla, his work was being judged at the highest level in the country. In his earlier career he even earned the Jay Leno Popular Mechanics scholarship.
He has restored some of the very best concours automobiles in the world — cars shown at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where across six showings cars he helped bring to the field earned four trophies.
He’s also taken Best in Show at the Atlanta Concours d’Elegance and at Hershey, along with a chairman’s award and, as he puts it, “a major award at just about every single major car show.”
His first Pebble Beach restoration set the tone: he helped finish a 1941 Mercedes 770K that won Best in Class at Pebble Beach.
That’s not a résumé you expect from a neighborhood repair shop in the Mat-Su Valley. It’s exactly the kind of attention to detail your daily driver gets when you bring it here.
Decades Under the Hood — and the Only Degree of Its Kind
Mike started early. He took his first full-time apprenticeship at thirteen, at a Packard restoration shop in California, learning paint, body, and collision work.
Then his family moved to Ohio, where he landed his first paid mechanic job at fifteen — before he even had a driver’s license — at an import shop working on Saabs, Audis, and Subarus. As he tells it, he “got to learn how to fix stuff mechanically before all the computers were telling mechanics the wrong thing.”
His first ASE certifications came there, in brakes and suspension; he went on to earn ASE Master automobile technician status (a credential that lapsed during the years he spent running Harley-Davidson aftermarket repair shops).
At twenty-eight he enrolled at McPherson College in Kansas and earned a Bachelor’s in Automotive Restoration Technology — the only degree of its kind in the world — alongside a Bachelor’s in Business Administration.
He opened his own shop in Kansas and ran it for four years with six employees, then was recruited by the Evergreen Historic Automobile Collection — one of the largest private collections in the world — where he served as Automobile Portfolio Director for seven years.
Ask Mike what he’s proudest of, and it isn’t the trophies. It’s the restoration degree and being an ASE Certified Master Automobile Technician. Both come down to the same thing: doing the work right, all the way down.
Why He Started Perpetual Motion in Wasilla
In Mike’s own words: “As soon as I stepped off the plane for the very first time in Alaska, I knew I was home.” He’s lived all over — East Coast and West Coast, Northern Michigan down to Florida — and he came to a simple conclusion: the places with the best weather have the worst people, and the places with the worst weather have the best. Alaska, to him, breaks the rule.
Best weather, best views, best people. The drive in, he says, is “like driving through an oil painting.”
It also became obvious fast that the demand for quality diagnostic and repair work here was outrunning what the established shops could deliver.
So on November 1, 2021, he founded Perpetual Motion Automotive — to give the Mat-Su Valley a shop that diagnoses the problem correctly the first time, charges a fair price, and treats people like neighbors. Because here, they are.
"We want to make sure you understand what's wrong, what's needed to fix it, and what it'll cost — before you agree to anything."
Every Car, Fixed Right the First Time
THE STANDARD WE HOLD THE SHOP TO
Quality repairs, done right the first time
Repairs quickly and correctly, not quickly and again next month.
Patient, plain-English explanations
you’ll understand what’s wrong, what it needs, and what it costs before you agree to anything.
Customers treated like family
because the people who walk in are our neighbors, and a lot of them become friends.
NAPA Nationwide Peace of Mind
ASE Master-Trained Owner — Mike earned ASE Master automobile technician status and began his career ASE-certified in brakes and suspension.
NAPA AutoCare Center — a member since 2026, backed by the nationwide NAPA Peace of Mind Warranty (24 Month / 24,000 Mile).
Mat-Su Locally Owned — founded and run right here in Wasilla, serving Palmer and the wider Mat-Su Valley. - Financing available through Synchrony Car Care — so a needed repair doesn’t have to wait.
We work on domestic and foreign vehicles, old and new — from pre-1996 OBD1 systems to today’s OBD2 electronics — with the right scanners and tools to diagnose them correctly.
Warranty terms, coverage, and eligibility are set by the NAPA AutoCare program. Ask us for full details on what's covered for your specific repair.