Flamboyance and shiny bits are everywhere: Polished wire spoke wheels hugged by whitewalls, and massive, gold-plated eagles perched on upright, glittering chrome radiators are but a few of the details.

His Zimmer Golden Spirit four-door and four-door convertible start life as humble Lincolns, and end up as stretched, impressively elegant interpretations of what he calls the "finest neo-classic motor cars ever manufactured." Two-door coupes and convertibles, based on the Ford Mustang GT, are also available (Shaquille O'Neal has one in red).

While interiors remain largely unchanged — as well as the glass, doors, and mirrors — the Zimmer's custom front and rear flanks are all shaped from heavy-duty fiberglass with chrome-plated metal accents, assembled by hand in a garage in Syracuse, N.Y.

The modifications, including the horn trumpets below the round headlamps and exhaust hoses on either side of the V-shaped hood, only add about 400 pounds to the original curb weight of the Mustang or Town Car, "equivalent to about one-and-a-half fat people sitting in the backseat," Zimmer said.

Much how Volkswagen lifted a bankrupt Bugatti back to prominence in the early 1990s, Zimmer resurrected the Zimmer brand (no relation) from extinction in 1996. He built his first Golden Spirit in 1999, 11 years after the first company folded (one of its last great cars was the sleek Quicksilver, a Pontiac Fiero conversion).

Today's Zimmers sell in very limited numbers each year (count your fingers), ranging from $119,900 for the two-door coupe to $189,900 for the four-door convertible. That puts Zimmer in Aston Martin, Maserati, and Bentley territory, all of which are faster and adorned with finer quality cabin materials.

But as experts agree, pimping is in no way easy, and it certainly isn't affordable. And save for a Bugatti Veyron, we can't find a new car that would prompt so many stares, questions, and extreme curiosity on the road.

Boston.com: What's your manufacturing process? Do you take customer cars that come in, or do you buy these cars direct from Ford?

Art Zimmer: We do it both ways. Most of them are brand new cars that we buy from Ford and remanufacture them into Zimmers. But we have had two or three people who wanted a Zimmer and already owned a late model Lincoln Town Car and said, what if I ship you my Lincoln Town Car?

One of the things that we do which is a real plus on the Zimmers, unlike other little niche manufacturers in the past - all of which are out of business - most of them in the past have always made major modifications to a base car, moving the engines around, the drivetrain, transmissions. As you well know, any time you start moving major components around, after two, three years you end up with a rattle trap.

What Zimmer developed was a system where we cut the frame right in front of the radiator, and this is a major key. When you cut the frame in front of the radiator, the only thing you've moved is the front wheels - you've moved them out - and that's what gives it the big, long, elegant Great Gatsby look. And that way the entire major mechanicals - the engine, drivetrain, transmission, all that - stays completely intact with the factory warranty.

BDC: Do you do any modifications to engines?

AZ: No, we don't, for two reasons. One, if you want a souped-up engine, that can be done very easily by your local garage, and when you start souping up engines, there's always problems down the road, and I don't want to be responsible for that. However, with the new 2010 Mustangs, you can get as a standard thing, the 500 horsepower, so that will be an option that people can have.

BDC: Off of the GT500?

AZ: Yeah, but one thing you're forgetting - this is a car to drive and enjoy, it's not a kid's hot-rod toy. Where can you go zero to 120 in 10 seconds and not kill yourself or get a ticket? There's a lot of people who are hung up on the speed, and the big power and stuff like that, but it's totally impractical. This is a car that you can drive up and down the interstate at 80 miles an hour, not 120 miles an hour, all day along, and enjoy it and drive it and not have it as a museum piece to park and look at.

BDC: For the people who are saying, 'Why would I pay $100,000-plus for a Lincoln Town Car?,' what do you say to that?

AZ: Well, look at the picture. You want that look, you want that kind of car, that's the price.

Lou Rawls had two Zimmers, and I was talking to him one day, and he was getting ready to order a third - this was just a couple months before he died - and he said 'I want another Zimmer, because when I drive down the street, I don't wanna have a car driving at me that's like the one I'm driving.' He says, 'in my neighborhood everyone drives Porsches and BMWs, so why would I want a couple of those?'

BDC: What are your annual sales?

AZ: If things keep going as they are, we'll be lucky to build eight or 10 cars this year. We only build them on order. I have nothing in stock. I don't build a car until I have money in the bank.

My production is up and down from year to year. I've actually done as few as five or six cars a year. I've done as many as a dozen. Now back in Zimmer's heyday, back in the 1980s, they were manufacturing almost 300 cars a year. But then that company went bankrupt and closed, and I resurrected the company about 10 years ago.

I don't make a business out of it like the original Zimmer company did, which was part of their problem. They had this big manufacturing plant, they had 125 employees, they had a lot of cars in stock. Their overhead did the same thing to them that it did to General Motors - it killed them.

BDC: Are you related to the other Zimmers?

AZ: No, there's no relation whatsoever.

I did not even know there was a car with my name on it until about 10 years ago. And then, my wife and I saw one and my wife insisted we buy one, and I said, 'well I'm not going to have an expensive toy sitting around,' found out the company was bankrupt and closed, and so I started the company back up again.

BDC: You're also the publisher of the Syracuse New Times. How do you balance all this?

AZ: Oh, it's easy, I have 11 businesses. You're familiar with the Boston Phoenix?

BDC: Yeah, yeah.

AZ: Well, Syracuse New Times is the Boston Phoenix of Syracuse. I've owned hotels, and resort properties in Vermont, and printing companies, and publishing companies, and I owned and operated a maple sugar candy manufacturing business. I used to have a lot of real estate. I had about 100 units, apartments, rental units. So I've been into just about everything.

BDC: Any other businesses you're currently running?

AZ: Yeah, I have a theater company. I have my own theater and I write and produce Broadway-style musical shows. We produce them here in Syracuse at our own theater.

I'm just an entrepreneur. Somebody walks in the door with a good offer, I'll probably be off on another one.

BDC: Do you do test drives in Syracuse?

AZ: You've gotta remember, I only build them on order.

BDC: So you don't have any demonstration models?

AZ: I actually had two that were kind of my own cars I built, and then people wanted to buy them, and I sold them, 'cause, hey, that's the business I'm in.

I had the four-door convertible for about a year, and actually a Saudi prince was sitting here in my office one day, and he just made a deal to buy two cars. And he said, 'Gee, I know I've got to wait four or five months ... don't you have anything I could get right now?' And I said, 'no, I only build them on order.'

He said, 'well, when I came into your office, I saw one parked out in the parking lot.' I said, 'well, that's mine, it's a year old, it's got 20,000 miles on it.' He says, 'what do you want for it?' I said I hadn't really thought about selling it, so I said 'I'm not going to be greedy.'

I threw him a number and he said, 'ship it to me Monday morning.'

BDC: What kind of future models are you considering?

AZ: None. I mean, what else is there, besides those five models?

BDC: What would you do if the Lincoln Town Car went under?

AZ: Well, I'd have to find a new base car and I'm not sure what would be closest to it. The Chrysler 300 might be a candidate, I'm not sure. It depends also if Ford replaced the Town Car with something. I've had some people ask me about either a BMW or a Mercedes, so those could be possibilities.

BDC: So since you don't have your own Zimmer now, what are you driving?

AZ: Because of the newspaper, I frequently need a truck and I frequently need a bus, and so I drive a Chrysler Town & Country minivan because in about one minute I can convert it from a truck to a bus and back.

That's probably not my ultimate favorite car. The Zimmer would be my favorite car.