ZimmerMotorcars

Zimmer Golden Spirit Parts

Under the fibreglass an original two-door Zimmer is a Ford Mustang and a QuickSilver a Pontiac Fiero, and their mechanical parts are bought as for those cars. The hard ones are what Zimmer made or borrowed: the body, the bright work and the fittings, some of them used on no other car.

The front of a black Golden Spirit: headlamps, amber indicators, chrome trumpet horns, fog lamps and a mesh grille.
Lamps and horns that Zimmer bought in or made, not the Mustang's, on the nose of a black coupé at Erfurt, Germany, in August 2021: two headlamps, amber indicators, trumpet horns and fog lamps; the mascot is silver, where the factory fitted a gold-plated eagle.Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ask what a Zimmer is made of and the answer comes in three parts. First comes the donor: a new Ford Mustang of the 1980s under each original two-door Golden Spirit, and a Pontiac Fiero under each QuickSilver, with their engines, gearboxes (transmissions), suspension and brakes. Then comes Zimmer's own work, the fibreglass panels and the trim built round the donor's cabin. Last come the lamps, horns and fittings it bought in from other makers and suppliers, the parts that gave the revival company's depot most trouble. UPI found the same mix in 1982, down to seats from Germany and a steering wheel from Italy.⁠1​2​3

How Zimmer parts work

On a two-door Golden Spirit the doors, roof and windscreen (windshield) stay the Mustang's, and the body round them is Zimmer's: hand-laid fibreglass from the company's own moulds, with stainless bumpers and side exhausts, teak inserts in the running boards and a great deal of chrome. The rest is borrowed, and not always the same from car to car. The volunteers who ran the revival company's parts depot warned in 2000 that one original car might need different parts from another, and one of them spent more than 20 hours tracing a single fuel cap back to whoever had patented it.

Also, many of the parts put on older ZIMMER®s were "aftermarket" parts and were never used in production of other vehicles.

the parts department, on the revival company's website, about 2000⁠4​5​6
The chrome words Golden Spirit on a tan padded panel above a large crossed-flags V8 badge.
The chrome words Golden Spirit above a crossed-flags V8 badge, on a coupé at Villemanoche, France, in June 2023: the script is Zimmer's, the V8 badge is not a factory part, and the paint over the letters is a later respray.François GOGLINS, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Golden Spirit parts

Much of what a two-door Golden Spirit carried beyond its Mustang came from named makers. Automotive News found Recaro leather seats in 1982 and put the gold-plated eagle alone at $376, and Zimmer's own sheet of May 1984 lists a hand-finished Nardi steering wheel, Mouton (sheepskin) carpet, wire wheels and stainless side exhausts. Some of the lamps came from much humbler cars: by The Autopian's account, Liberace's car wears the front indicators of a Volkswagen Beetle, and the picture in this section shows amber lamps much like them, in chrome housings, on another Golden Spirit.⁠5​7​4​1​8​9

The chrome grille, gold eagle, two headlamps and two fog lamps and four trumpet horns of a yellow Golden Spirit.
Zimmer's own front, at El Segundo, California, in 2018: the chrome grille and eagle, two headlamps in chrome pods, fog lamps, trumpet horns and amber indicators in chrome housings.Daderot, CC0

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QuickSilver parts

Under a QuickSilver the Fiero's engine, gearbox, brakes and most of its suspension stay as they were. Its steering does not: Car and Driver reported in 1987 that Zimmer added power assistance with a rack from a Merkur, which Road & Track's Jack Baruth thought in 2016 was probably a Ford Sierra's, and Zimmer fitted a very stiff rear anti-roll bar and lengthened the steering column and the radiator pipes to suit the longer frame. Its body is Zimmer's fibreglass, except the glass. Where its heavy bumpers came from is disputed: Taiwan, with the chroming done in Florida, by Car and Driver's account, or Korea, by Road & Track's in 2016. The revival company's depot had no QuickSilver parts to offer. "We don't have any quicksilver parts but do have a list of about 30 Quicksilver owners and copies of some old original Quicksilver literature," its website told owners from 2002.⁠3​10​6

The rear of a red QuickSilver with a chrome bumper and twin tail-lamp clusters.
The heavy chrome rear bumper of a red QuickSilver, photographed in April 2012: where Zimmer had its bumpers made is disputed.Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0

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Mechanical parts

Mechanically a two-door Golden Spirit stays the Fox-body Mustang it was made from, apart from the steering and brake parts and the tyres that Zimmer changed for the longer, heavier car, so its engine, gearbox and suspension parts are Ford's; the buyers guide and the specifications give the Mustang's changes by year. No source read names the donor of the original four-doors, the Golden Spirit Sedan. The revival's cars kept their donors' running gear untouched, the later Mustang's or the Lincoln Town Car's, and the company told owners that any Ford or Lincoln-Mercury dealer could service them.⁠2​4​6​11

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What was lost

The original company's moulds and stock did not survive, by the revival company's account: it wrote in about 2000 that the factory's contents had been taken to the dump after the bankruptcy, and that it had made new moulds of its own. No court record read confirms it. For the revival's own cars, no source read says where body or trim parts can be had since its website fell silent in 2016.⁠6​12

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The revival's parts depot

The revival company opened a parts depot for the original cars on 1 September 1998, in the Roanoke area of Virginia and staffed by volunteers; its website said in 2000 that the parts list was added to and reissued every few months. It never claimed to have everything.

It is a long and slow process that so far has resulted in being able to supply about 60% of the parts used to make the original Mustang into a ZIMMER® Golden Spirit.

the revival company's website, its parts page, 2000–07

By 2011 the company's website put the depot's stock at more than 75 per cent of the parts, and called it one volunteer's service, not part of the company. It never had parts for Zimmer vans, coaches or motor homes, nor for the QuickSilver. When the company was sold in 2012, a relative of Art Zimmer who had joined it kept the parts business, Hagerty reported, and in 2013 the website under Heyman Motors sent owners of cars built before 2011 to the club for parts and service. Whether the depot still trades, no source read says.⁠6​13​12

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Clubs

Art Zimmer founded the Zimmer Motor Car Club for owners of the 1980s cars in 1996; membership was free, and his company said it had more than 700 members by 2002. The Golden Spirit Club had several hundred members and an e-mail newsletter in 2014, Hagerty reported. Since 2012 Zimmers have been eligible for judging by the Antique Automobile Club of America, in the class it opened that year for Second Generation collector vehicles.⁠6​13​14

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Sources

Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  1. J. P. Faber, "He produces immaculate autos for the filthy rich", St. Petersburg Times, from United Press International, 17 Oct 1982, the parts the cars were made from; the German seats. Primary
  2. Michael Langberg, "Zimmer has 'Golden Spirit'", Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel, 22 Mar 1981 (Sunday), p. 3F, p. 3F, the Mustang under the body; p. 3F, the Mustang under the body; the new steering and brake parts. Primary
  3. Patrick Bedard, "QuickSilver!", Car and Driver, Apr 1987, vol. 32, pp. 36–40, pp. 36–40, the Fiero under the body; pp. 36–40, the steering, the anti-roll bar, the bumpers and the body. Primary
  4. Kathleen Hamilton, "Zimmer's flashy cars swimming in almost-dry market", Automotive News (Crain Communications), via Internet Archive, 28 Jun 1982, p. 3, p. 3, the Mustang's cabin, the moulds and the trim; p. 3, the Recaro seats, the eagle's cost and the air horns; p. 3, the steering, brakes and tyres for the longer, heavier car. Primary
  5. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Pompano Beach, Florida, "Zimmer Motor Car Features and Specifications", revised May 1984, standard equipment; seats, wheel, carpet, vases, horns and wheels. Primary
  6. Zimmer Neo-Classic Motor Car Co., Syracuse, New York, Zimmer Motor Car Company website (zimmermotorcars.com, 2000–2012), Wayback Machine captures, 3 Mar 2000 to 13 May 2012, the parts depot page, 2000: the parts that differ from car to car, the fuel cap, "aftermarket" parts; the QuickSilver page, 2002–07; the technical help page; the service and warranty pages; history page, captures of 2000–06: the factory's contents and the new moulds; the parts depot pages, 2000–07 and 2011; history page; the club pages. Primary
  7. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Golden Spirit "Road Map" fold-out brochure, c.1985–86, standard appointments. Primary
  8. Zimmer Motor Cars Corp., Pompano Beach, Florida, 1987 press kit (Golden Spirit and QuickSilver), covering letter of 31 Jul 1987; price list of 1 Dec 1986, technical data: the wire wheels. Primary
  9. Jason Torchinsky, "There's Really Only One Person Who Would Have Owned A Zimmer Covered In Candlelabras", The Autopian, 20 Aug 2026, the Volkswagen Beetle front indicators. Reference
  10. Jack Baruth, "First Drive: 1988 Zimmer QuickSilver", Road & Track, via Yahoo Autos, 7 Dec 2016, the steering rack and the bumpers. Reference
  11. Clifford Atiyeh, "Q&A: Art Zimmer explains his lavish, 'neo-classic' car craft", Boston.com (Boston Overdrive blog), 18 Sep 2009, the revival cars' running gear and warranty. Primary
  12. Heyman Motors, LLC, Zimmer Motor Cars website (zimmermotorcars.com, 2013–2016), Wayback Machine captures, 17 Jan 2013 to 16 Mar 2016, the site's last pages, 2016; the contact and club pages, 2013. Primary
  13. Jim Koscs, "All that Glitters is probably Fiberglass", Hagerty, 23 Oct 2014, Zimmer section: the parts business after the sale; Zimmer section and epilogue: the Golden Spirit Club; the AACA class. Reference
  14. Ronald Ahrens, "Standing on their own", with the sidebar "Neoclassic movers and soakers", Automobile, Jan 2016, vol. 30 no. 10, pp. 65–70, the AACA's class of 2012. Reference

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