It is neither a Mercury Grand Marquis nor a DeSoto, but perhaps it could be considered a kind of royalty. Furniture maker Steve Heller wanted to build a car of his own design, and possessed of a love of Fifties car details, he swiped the things he liked and built what he calls the "Marquis de Soto." It can also be called the New York Times Collectible Car of the Year.

The Marquis is based on a 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis. The Marquis' wings have been poached from the rear of a 1957 DeSoto, along with 1959 Cadillac taillights, the front fenders and lights from a 1958 Lincoln, 1955 Cadillac bumpers, a 1965 Buick Skylark hood, chrome from a 1957 Buick, and a grille glommed built from two 1957 Corvette pieces.

Heller spent 20 years collecting all the parts – he makes furniture using vintage car doodads – and spent four months building the car in back of his furniture shop. We dig it... but we dig it even more when it was just wearing primer.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/24/marquis-desoto-wins-ny-times-collectible-car-of-the-year-awar/










































http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/24/marquis-desoto-wins-ny-times-collectible-car-of-the-year-awar/

It is neither a Mercury Grand Marquis nor a DeSoto, but perhaps it could be considered a kind of royalty. Furniture maker Steve Heller wanted to build a car of his own design, and possessed of a love of Fifties car details, he swiped the things he liked and built what he calls the "Marquis de Soto." It can also be called the New York Times Collectible Car of the Year.

The Marquis is based on a 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis. The Marquis' wings have been poached from the rear of a 1957 DeSoto, along with 1959 Cadillac taillights, the front fenders and lights from a 1958 Lincoln, 1955 Cadillac bumpers, a 1965 Buick Skylark hood, chrome from a 1957 Buick, and a grille glommed built from two 1957 Corvette pieces.

Heller spent 20 years collecting all the parts – he makes furniture using vintage car doodads – and spent four months building the car in back of his furniture shop. We dig it... but we dig it even more when it was just wearing primer. It has The Riddler written all over it. For more on the Marquis DeSoto, you can watch a great Heller-narrated slideshow or check out the gallery of photos below. Hat tip to Avinash



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/automobiles/collectibles/22MARQUIS.html

February 22, 2009
Collecting
Mercury? De Soto? Call It a Winner
By RICHARD S. CHANG
BOICEVILLE, N.Y.

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.

In the past, he has fabricated a 23-foot-high dinosaur out of tire chains and wrenches; made a rocket ship out of the barrel mixer of a cement truck, the side panels of an old Buick and treads from a bulldozer; built a soapbox derby car that resembles a Top Fuel dragster and spits fire; and customized a 1959 Cadillac hot rod with double-layeredfenders and painted-on flames, which pulls a smile out of Mr. Heller’s bearded face when he mentions it.

“Cadillac guys don’t like flames,” he said.

Here in the northern Catskills, a good two hours north of New York City, there are only “seven good months” of outdoor working weather, said Mr. Heller, who owns Fabulous Furniture on Route 28. In a workshop several paces behind the store, Mr. Heller, 63, creates one-of-a-kind furniture out of wood that he logs, transports, mills, cuts and finishes himself. He also creates sculptures out of found metal, predominantly based on three themes: farm animals, totem poles and rocket ships, which are built out of the headlamps and taillights of cars from the 1950s and ’60s. It is these mechanical wonders, scattered about the premises, that make the storefront so remarkable on the rural highway.

But once a year, Mr. Heller embarks on something much grander, though the project is often not clear to him until he begins — a system he has come to trust.

“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.

Oddly enough, Mr. Heller had to deconstruct his own Deconstructivist style and construct something more reliable.

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.

“I’ve never taken an art class,” Mr. Heller said. “I have a B.A. in psychology. I never realized this is what I wanted to do.”

He had held down an office job in San Francisco and “wore a suit and tie” before being laid off. In 1971 he moved to Woodstock, where his family had a house. Two years later, he opened Fabulous Furniture in nearby Boiceville.

In 1978 there was a fire. Mr. Heller lost lumber and works in progress. “I was just starting to make money,” he said. “It was really bad.”

He paused for moment. “I was a volunteer fireman,” he went on. “One of the other ones told me, ‘Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.’”

He didn’t think so then, he said, but he has changed his mind. After the fire, Mr. Heller borrowed $50,000 from 30 friends and relatives and rebuilt the store and workshop, making it better than before. He improvised a kiln and storage facility from discarded shipping containers and a used U-Haul trailer.

Mr. Heller said that starting from scratch forced him to become more serious about his work.

Today, he lives not far from the store with his wife, Martha Frankel, a writer whose first book, a memoir called “Hats and Eyeglasses,” was released in paperback by Tarcher last week.

He also has two dogs, two nonoperational school buses, two camping trailers and an abundance of of car panels and sculptures, which to some would make his little corner of the Catskills resemble “War of the Worlds” on acid. But to the man behind the madness, it’s what a blessing looks like.

His contest winnings include $5,000. How will he spend it? “Buying the ‘Stargate Atlantis’ action figures,” he said, adding that he intends to build a small Jumper spacecraft like those on the show. He also plans to buy more car parts. For what? “I’m not sure yet — probably more rocket ships and cars.”


http://digg.com/autos/NY_Times_Video_Mercury_De_Soto_Call_This_Custom_a_Winner