Projo Cars Blog

IN a couple of months, when the last of the mountain snow melts away, Steve Heller, an industrial sculptor, furniture maker and winner of the second Collectible Car of the Year contest on nytimes.com, will begin work on his one big project of the year, according to The New York Times.

"I buy stuff; I have no idea what I'm going to do with it," Mr. Heller said recently in his workshop, which was filled with boxes of car parts, power tools and a thin fog of dust. He has a quiet, easygoing charm punctuated by moments of enthusiasm. He considered a box of old taillights: "If you listen to it closely," he said, "they'll tell you what to do."

Four years ago, the parts told him to build a custom car out of a 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis sedan and body panels from 11 different classic cars, in particular a 1957 De Soto. "I needed a new car, but I can't have anything regular," he said, noting that his Cadillac hot rod is 50 years old.

With the help of a friend who had moved to Florida and found the state overrun with large Mercury sedans, Mr. Heller was able to buy a Grand Marquis with low mileage for $6,600. "They're old guys' cars," he explained. The first thing he did was pry off the lights and bumpers. Then he stripped the body panels, leaving only the front doors and the roof. And he went to work.

When Mr. Heller shops for old cars, he cuts off the sheet metal and sells the rest. "I'm not interested in the mechanical parts," he said. If the metal is rusted, he'll sandblast it. If it's dented, he'll pound it even. He keeps a stocked inventory at all times. The De Soto panels had been lying around for a while.

With plenty of help from his assistant, Mike Karpf, Mr. Heller assembled the car outside the workshop, painting it himself inside a tent. Bugs flew into the paint and got stuck, and the two would have to pick them out with tweezers.

He calls his creation the Marquis de Soto. It is the automotive equivalent of a pit bull mix. In this case, the De Soto is the dominant breed, though the car has retained the positive traits of the newer Mercury: air-conditioning and predictable handling. It even passes the state inspection.

In 2005, Mr. Heller took the Marquis de Soto before it was painted to the huge Lead East custom car show in New Jersey and won a Best Custom award.

 Tags  artist Custom

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