Marie Alexine Romer… panel beater

Marie Alexine, born and raised in France but ready to move, as she already has done in the past, to Germany, Italy and Switzerland, to learn the craft she loves, faces every new experience with a smile on her lips that sport just a hint of lipstick, always accompanied by “Miura” and that the indispensable “gipsy” spirit required by a girl determined to do what traditional society does not expect from her: learn the very difficult art of restoration of vintage cars.

Marie Alexine Romer in a Mercedes 300 SL during the years of her training, the young Frenchwoman worked on this particular car model in the HK Engineering atelier in Germany.

“My passion for cars comes from my father. He grew up in Canada in the ’70s and ’80s and passed on his love for American cars... but that was just the beginning, soon the others came too. My best encounters have always had to do with the world of collectible cars. The passion that revolves around these machines fascinates me”. She speaks with the conviction of those who know, and also with the humility of those who know they still have a lot to learn “I always knew that my life would gravitate around the world of cars: I started as a mechanic for a private collection, then I discovered panel beating and soon realized that this craft was what I really wanted to do. I’ve always liked restoring things, furniture, houses... everything, but working with metal is a whole different ballgame. It’s a difficult job to learn, with hours upon hours of mistakes after which you simply have to dust yourself off and jump back into the game before you do something acceptable. And acceptable is not enough when you work on a work of art. But the satisfaction you feel when you get the expected result is indescribable.”