Ken Yanez fell in love with cars at a very early age. Something about them captured his imagination and deeply rooted this love for cars in his soul. As soon as he could, Ken started building scale models of cars, and it seemed there was always one or more of the models underway.
As a young boy he discovered a car customizing shop just down the street from where he lived. It was the Alexander Brothers shop in Detroit, Michigan. Ken could usually be found hanging on the fence at the shop, watching and dreaming.
In 1964 at the age of 14, the Alexander brothers hired Ken and his career began.
His first day of work he was shown a brand new convertible Ford Mustang and was instructed to sand the car “until there are no more shinny parts.” At the end of the day the job was complete, which was astonishing because it was done with the only sheet of sand paper Ken was handed that morning. No one had mentioned to Ken that he would need to replace the sandpaper as it wore out, they only told him to sand the car, and he did (his fingers a little worse for wear). To this day customer satisfaction has continued to be Ken’s number one goal.
By the time the Alexander Brothers Closed there shop in 1968, Ken Yanez had performed nearly every task required in building custom vehicles.
During the next ten years Ken Yanez moved about the industry, earning the reputation as one of the best custom vehicle builders in the world.
Ken Yanez opened Special Projects, a concept vehicle builder, in 1983 with little cash and a crew of five experienced technicians. This year Special Projects and its 50 plus employees will celebrate our company’s 25th anniversary, and its status of the world’s premier show car builder.
Ken continues to lead us all with ingenuity, honesty, and a “do what it takes” attitude that is inspiring to all of us here at Special Projects as he works everyday in both the shop as well as the front office. Ken works beside his employees and feels that his staff is his company’s greatest asset. Special Projects employees are hand picked from our management staff, who takes notice to the special talents and industry of each employee. We have diversified over the last ten years and will continue to support and develop products and properties for the Aerospace, Industrial, Marine and Military markets.
Chosen from over 7,000 Ford Motor Company's suppliers worldwide, Special Projects garnered Gold World Excellence Awards from Ford Motor Company in 1999 and in 2000. These honors are awarded to the 'best suppliers' for excellence in quality, cost, and delivery.
Magazine Covers and Features
Motortrend magazine Cover, June 2007 - Shelby GT500 KR
Road and Track magazine - Ford SVT Lightning Concept
MotorTrend magazine, June 1997- First Supercar of the 21st Century
Car and Driver magazine, February 2007 – Hot Rod Lincoln MKR
Design News magazine, Charged up over the Volt- Chevy Volt
Truck Trend magazine, March/ April 2006- Ford’s Next F-250 Super Chief
Autoweek magazine, February 2002- Pontiac Solstice
Automotive Engineering International magazine, July 2007- Ford HySeries Edge
Car and Driver magazine, February 2002- Return of the Ferrari Slayer- Ford GT40 Concept
Autoweek, January 20th 2003 Maximum Motown- Cadillac Sixteen
Ford World magazine, April 2nd 2007- Shelby GT500 KR
Robb Report, August 2003- Cadillac Sixteen
Playboy, August 2007- Shelby GT500 KR
Autoweek, November 2003- Hot Damn Ford 427 Concept
MotorTrend, August, 1992- Future Cars
MotorTrend, March 1999- 2000 Thunderbird Concept Car
Popular Mechanics, March 1996- The Next Ford Taurus
MotorTrend - October 1999- Hottest T-Bird in 45 years
Autoweek, January 6th 2003- Americas Sexiest Sedan- Ford 427
Autoweek, October 18th 1999- Lincoln Blackwood Luxury Pickup
Quality Commitment
Special Projects continually strives to meet the highest of industry standards for quality and customer expectations through our ISO 9001: 2000 Quality Management System. Special Projects acknowledges that investment in a quality management system enhances the efficiency of the organization, its operation and commercial performance.
ISO 9000 has revolutionized the quality domain. It is the most widely recognized and important quality standard in existence. It controls quality, saves money, customers expect it, and Special Projects uses it.
ISO: 9001 / 2000
QOS or Quality Operating System is an advanced approach to Total Quality Management, one of the milestones in implementing the QS-9000 standard. It has its genesis by virtue of a combined effort of the Ford Motor Company. It is the system through which quality, cost, delivery and other company-critical performance characteristics are managed.
QOS March 1998
As a supplier, achieving the Q1 status would be a milestone in the pursuit of quality. The Q1 mark is considered worldwide as an indication of exceptional quality. Special Projects is proud to fly this flag high in front of our buildings.
Ford Motor Q-1 June 1998
The ISO 14001 and 9001:2000 series is a family of environmental management standards developed by international Organization for Standardization (ISO), one of the world's principal voluntary standards development bodies.
ISO 14001 - Registered
ISO 9001:2000 – Registered
