I liked the second color combination the best. What a startling innovation it was to have a 50 ft. extension cord for your rear speaker.
wow that magazine must have been pretty biased towards rods if bob hirohata has to write a letter and ask to get his car featured. i like how every letter starts with "dear sir".....different times.
That's pretty cool. Thanks for posting. The second color combination was beautiful but I would have to say the first was my favorite.
Thats crazy!!! I used to laugh at the guys that would write in to the mags to get their car featured....not anymore!!!!!
Kind of a generic answer to Bob's letter,,who was the Editor at that time? I'm sure when he wrote the response he never dreamed how important that custom would become and be remembered as the icon that it is today. HRP
Rodding and Restyling was an east coast publication, and for the most part, the content reflected location. There was probably no intended snub of the Hirohata Merc. It was just a small budget publication that could not afford to send writer/photographers to the west coast to cover even major players like the Hirohata. From the editor's answer, it seems like they were more than willing to print contributions from car owners themselves. I used to love that mag and bought every issue I could find...still have most of them.
vertible59 makes a good point i never considered. being raised in an era where information is available at the click of a ****on through computers and now even cellphones its hard to remember that times were not always like they are now. the world is alot smaller now than in the 1950's. still....a car like that would have been worth taking a greyhound across country to shoot.
Can someone give me a quick heads-up on when/if the Hirohata Merc disappeared for a while? I remember reading about it in a book about 20 years ago that it was lost and there were a few clones out there but the whereabouts of the real one were unknown? Was it found, or am I just confused and it was never lost? Never realized Bob Hirohata was so compe***ive!
After Bob Hirohata died the Hirohata Merc was sold and got really beaten up. After a while, Doug Kinney bought the car for 200 dollars. Doug stored it away in his garage for years. According to Ed Roth the car was then in primer, and had a big dent in the hood. When Dirty Doug's garage owner threatened him with eviction, Doug sold the car. In 1959 or 1960 16 year old Jim McNeil bought the well used custom car off a lot for $500. The Hirohata Merc was then repainted in a lime gold and dark green. Jim has owned the car ever since, it sat un restored for a long time and then he restored it to its original condition a few years ago.
The way I understand it, Jim McNeil bought the car off a So.Cal. used car lot and used it for his daily until it had some sort of major mechanical malfunction. At that point, he stored the car in his home garage. There were rumors of the cars location and condition for many years, until Pat Ganahl befrended Mr. McNeil and offered his help, along with help and resources procured by Rod & Custom Magazine. R&C did a series of articles on the restoration. The whole story of this car from day one, is absolutely fascinating to me and I'm glad that the story has a happy ending.
So John, what magazine you gonna write into? S****ey Devils C.C. "Spending A Nation Into Generational Debt Is Not An Act Of Comp***ion!"
Hey if it get my car as famous as the Hirohata and worth as much I am writing!!!! Old School rods here comes my letter!!!!!
Hey, Bob Hirohata wasn't dead /murdered until 1981-2? where was the car between the time Hirohata sold it in the fifties, and McNeil bought it off the lot? The account of the vehicle being in primer and a big dent in the hood panel don't hold water, given the pictures McNeil has of the vehicle after purchase. Those pictures feature the vehicle in the second, ugly ****in' gold colour combo (not that Seafoam Green ever looked good on any vehicle/kustom, the first colour version), but no primer. S****ey Devils C.C. "Spending A Nation Into Generational Debt Is Not An Act Of Comp***ion!"
I have a copy of Hot Rod from 1952 with a letter to the editor from Larry Shinoda, he was in the service in Korea at the time. And, I may be wrong about this, but I think I remember seeing a letter to the editor from Don Garlits in a late 1950s issue.
i got this book on Rod & Custom in the 50s & it contains the article on Bob Hirohata's trip in the Merc to the Indy 500...its pretty kool...must have been sum trip..i think it was in 53'...
I remember seeing an early issue of Rod & Custom around 1956 that had a letter to the editor with a picture of a nitro burning set of motorized roller skates sent in by some,"nutcase" called,"Von Dutch".I'll see if I can find it.
OKAY I am not laughing anymore!!!! besides I am busy writing letters....Hey Ray the striping on my Chevy you did ten years ago still look great!!!!
Umm, excuse me sir, but what planet did you beam in from? Entire story was in Rod and Custom thanks to Too Tall Gahnal!(sp)-MIKE
From elsewhere on the HAMB: Take your pick, I guess. Seems like there was something about it on "Unsolved Mysteries" back in the day.
He was murdered,execution style while changing oil on his mom's car in there laneway.... as the story goes..... no one has ever been convicted....(I believe)
You're right Jeff, the killer was never caught. The mystery remains unsolved to this day. If I remember correctly, the murder may have been due to the fact Bob had borrowed money from the Mob at various points during his life. Who knows for sure if this was true. I believe the police were investigating this possibility during the murder investigation.
I never knew Hirohata was murdered- that's awful. I saw that car in Oakand about 10 years ago and it was a true thing of beauty. The ZZ top Cadzilla was about 20 feet away and the comparison of the two cars was like a diagram of 'right' and 'wrong'. The other letters are great too- esp. the one with the old 'sports cars vs. hot rods' debate. That argument raged thru pubs on both hot rod and sports car sides for at least 10 years... seems like the rivalry died down in the sixties. It's funny to think that there was such a disparity when in the end they were all just car guys. My theory is that the ******** anti-rod sportscar fans were 'checkbook' types who never worked on their rides and the knucklehead anti-sportscar dudes just didn't see the subtlety in cars that might not have been as fast off the line but handled amazingly and made the most of small displacements. It's great that the HAMB appreciates both sides.
The Jalopy Journal
