Cool Show, Hot Topic

How many technicians does it take to transform an ordinary Mercedes sport utility vehicle into a handicap-accessible street rod?

Try five — and in seven days, with a $3,000 budget. At least, that's the case when the transformation occurs on The Discovery Channel's hit program Monster Garage. Headed by Jesse James, a custom motorcycle builder and designer and owner of West Coast Choppers in Long Beach, Calif., the crew included Warren Chalker, a welder and engineer with Lancaster, Calif.-based standing-device manufacturer Prime Engineering; Scott Deacon, president of La Canada, Calif.-based vehicle-modification company Advanced Mobility; Mike Montenegro, automotive designer and owner of Hesperia, Calif.-based Montenegro Designs; Ray Paprota, a paraplegic NASCAR Craftsmen Truck driver from Birmingham, Ala.; and Ed Sandoz, a quadriplegic mechanical engineer from Upton, Mass. Supporting the five main team members with product and design expertise were Stuart Klein, a technical trainer for Mercedes-Benz USA, and Jeff Wallace, regional business development manager for Elyria, Ohio-based Invacare.

The vehicle, which debuted Sept. 29 on Monster Garage, was completely revamped to make it possible for a person in a wheelchair to roll up a ramp into the vehicle and position his or her chair right in the driver's area. The chair was then latched in place.

“Jesse insisted on entering [the vehicle] from the rear and driving while seated in [a] wheelchair: two nontraditional approaches to converting a vehicle for the disabled,” said Ray Paprota in an interview with show producers. “This required dropping the floor below the level of the rear differential and lowering the driver's side frame rail to gain clearance.”

Chalker was the team's welder/fabricator. “I was the only person whose job allowed him to get really, really dirty,” he said. “That was pretty cool.

“The best part of the whole thing was that I was able to tear and cut apart a $50,000 Mercedes SUV that I could never afford. And, winning $3,400 worth of MAC tools,” he continued.

That's right. Because the team stayed within its seven-day, $3,000 limit, each team member went home with a tool chest full of MAC tools.

Invacare heard that Monster Garage was interested in doing this project and was looking for people who had knowledge in that area. The company considered the program's topic a good fit with the company's mission.