Denny Heapy from Brainerd Mn is quite the car builder, He worked with the Alexander brothers and Jon Kosmoski back in the day. He also built concept cars in Detroit for years working for Ken Yanez of Special Projects. When he set out to build a 1 off show rod to honor his custom car building heroes of the sixties he started out with a 1956 Chev 4 door and after about 6 years he unveiled the Predator at the GSTA rod and custom show in 2015. The car sits on a 56 chev frame shortened 12 inches. much of the body is made up from shapes taken from other cars. The quarters are 58 chev, the decklid is 59 chev, the front is from an early Riviera. All of the trim is hand made by Denny and the workmanship is absolutely off the chart. I am certain that had he debuted at Detroit he would have been in the great 8. While there are some sorta modern aspects to the car for the most part it screams 60's show rod. Below is a pic of Denny with the car, Oh did I mention he built this car in his 70's ??
I can't tell you how honored I was when Denny told me that he wanted me to be the next caretaker of his car. I went and picked it up yesterday.
Wow, Mark. Another super duper spaceship custom in your stable. Totally wild. At some point, I totally expect you to come up with SUPERCAR and Fireball XL5.
That thing is off the charts custom cool !!!!!!! Where ya gonna keep it ? Restructuring the attic and installing a crane ?
Holy Macaroni! That thing's got more lines than the restroom in an '80s discotheque, but all in good taste! Congrats on another extraordinary custom!
That’s gorgeous. Period. I love the “sports car” styled hot rods from that era. I think I’d drive the wheels off that one if I were as lucky as you. Well done again.
The truck was sold to a guy in Florida. He has called me 5 separate times to tell me how happy he is with it and to tell me how much he loves it. I was honestly surprised that it took so long to sell it as amazing a survivor that it is.....
That car is so cool! I was lucky enough to see it at the GSTA. Hard to capture it in garage or crowded event photos.
A really neat car. I love the general spirit of it. I have to ask, with no disrespect towards it's builder in any way, but will any changes be made to it? It's exactly as it's creator made it, so I could see why leaving it untouched would be the right way to go, but bolt on items like the tires and air cleaner wouldn't really be permanent changes and they do kinda stick out to me. Also curious to know, has it really only traveled 3 1/10 mile since completion?
Mark, that car is such a cool mix of automotive greatness BUT the thing that puts it over the top for me is the paint. I've always had a thing for metallic orange, I LOVE it. Mitch
Mark, am I right in thinking that if Denny wanted you to have the car, you and he must have been friends? In which case, would mean even more.
WOW, beyond words. Created when the builder was in his 70's. I am just plan ole lazy, I thought that I was getting older, and felt welding and grinding was not fun any more. I think I will print off some pictures of this creation to motivate me. I have to get out to the shop, and soon.
Congratulations are in order here @Moriarity...I have seen that here before perhaps in the show coverage... Yes some dream...some dream and execute...There's alot of experience wrapped up in I suspect fully a functioning Showrod/Custom...neato!
Yeah. My original plan was to put bias ply tires on it. You can see them in this pic leaned up against the lathe, a new old stock set of chrome steel slots and 7.75-15 gold line 65 corvette tires. trouble is the car has really short tires on it and it would be necessary to raise the suspension a lot to fit them. So, as much as I hate radial tires (this is the only one of my cars that has em) they are going to have to stay
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