June 2013 - Allegheny West Magazine

about 10 of his rare and creative two-wheeled creations each year.
Meanwhile, Steele Auto Body, Inc. was earning its own reputation,
and outgrowing its space. In 1995, Bill took out a loan and
expanded into a larger garage he built next door. A detailing and
tire shop, Our Cars Auto Detailing, now operates out of Bill’s
dad’s old shop, and is often the last stop for custom paint jobs
before they roll out onto the street. Two such custom paint jobs
went to North Fayette Township, in the form of their two first ever
D.A.R.E. cars.
With the shop paying the bills and providing a solid return, Bill
allocated money into more ambitious projects, focusing on
engineering and tight designs. That systematic, thought-out
approach culminated in customs earning him his first magazine
cover and awards from regional shows. In 2005, he finished a red
and black bike that utilized a revolutionary front suspension
system. The bike earned him the first ever Grand Master award
from International Show Car Association, and an induction into
the Autorama Hall of Fame. For a time, it went on loan to the
University of Miami in Oxford, Ohio, which displayed it as part of
an art exhibit entitled, “Chopped! Art of the Custom Motorcycle.”
That same year, Bill got invited on ESPN2’s The $100,000 Bike
Build-Off for a televised, custom bike-building contest. He came
away with the Fascinator, a stretched-out, burnt orange creation
that earned him his first Easyriders Bike of the Year award. He
sold it to millionaire racehorse breeder Chad Hart.
After that, Bill found a 1951 Panhead that he restored and
painted using a subdued, red patina matte paint with washes of
black to make it look like it had just rolled out of the 1950s. Chad
called Bill again after seeing the bike on the cover of Cycle
Source Magazine, and convinced Bill to trade him back the
Fascinator for it.
“Chad had said, ‘I was born in ’51, and I had a bike just like that,
but it wasn’t as nice as yours’,” says Bill. “I thought about it, and
figured I’d built the Fascinator on television, and it had been in all
these ads for Velle tires, placed fifth in the AMD World Tour, been
on the cover of Easyriders and I had so many other good times
with that bike.”
He says he was excited to get it back. It’s one his few famous
custom creations he still owns, but not the only one. A few years
after building the Fascinator, he finally got around to scratch
building that hot rod. He’d customized plenty of others along the
way, and continued playing with matte earth tones to varying
effects. He’d painted trucks with a brown patina to look like
fading paint, and a couple of old cars to make them look dinged
TOP TO BOTTOM: Some of Bill’s numerous
trophies; the front end of Bill’s first scratchbuilt
hot rod, Downtown Brown; Bill with two
of his famous creations, the Grand Master
and the Fascinator.