Folks Of Interest BOB HIROHATA Interview ~ 1977

So true. Mr. Ganahl "ruined" a lot of us! Lol

 

Sick man! Sick.

 

I cant get enough of this thread.

 

Great read thanks for posting it

 

This has to be one of the best pictures in Kustom history.

 

http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Bob_Hirohata's_1951_Mercury (Great site for ideas)

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=149041


1951 Mercury Club Coupe restyled by Barris Kustoms for Bob Hirohata. Bob bought the car, known as the "Hirohata Merc", after getting out of the Navy in 1952. Before he went in to the service he had a mildly customized 1949 Chevrolet that Barris Kustoms had restyled for him. Bob had always wanted a radical custom car, so after seeing Sam Barris' chopped 1949 Mercury, Bob bought a clean low mileage 1951 Mercury that he found in San Fernando Valley. The car was still fairly new, and since no one had chopped a 1951 Mercury yet, Bob instantly knew that this was going to be his radical custom. Bob drove his new car over to Barris Kustoms, and told George and Sam that he wanted to have it chopped. He also wanted to give the side windows a hardtop appearance just like they had done on Nick Matranga's 1940 Mercury coupe. The rest was up to George and Sam.<sup id="_ref-sraug77_0" class="reference">[1]</sup>

Bob and George discussed some few minor changes to the car. But George had other plans for the car. When Bob picked up the car he could have sworn that it wasn't the same car that he had left 3 months ago. Every square inch of Hirohata's car was modified by Sam, George and Frank Sonzogni. Sam removed the B-pillars, cut off and welded the top of the doors to the roof and turned the Merc into a hardtop. The top was further chopped 4 inches in the front, and 7 in the rear. The stock rear window was reinstalled at a rakish new angle in order to fit the new lines of the roof. This meant that a large new section of the top had to be scratch built to to make it all flow nicely. At the front, a new cut was made just above the beltline on the A-pillar for a new door shape, the drip rails were removed in the process as well. A V-butted windshield was fit, a customizer's trick instead of using the stock two-pice unit. Bob's Mercury was the first chopped 1951 Mercury, and the first hardtopped 1949 -1951 Mercury.<sup id="_ref-hamb_0" class="reference">[2]</sup>

The rear fenders were extended and fit with frenched 1952 Lincoln tailights. For balance, the front fenders were extended 4 inches as well and modified with frenched 1952 Ford headlight rims. The stock chrome was removed from the hood, trunk and sides. The trunk corners were rounded, and the hood was filled, peaked and extended into the grille.<sup id="_ref-hrmmar53_0" class="reference">[3]</sup> The gravel pan was molded-in and reshaped to match the top.<sup id="_ref-hamb_1" class="reference">[2]</sup> The grille was constructed from three 1951 Ford grilles. The grille wrapped around under the frenched headlights. The parking light holders were fabricated from old grille bars welded together and chromed. The lenses were hand-made from clear plastic and frenched.<sup id="_ref-hrmmar53_1" class="reference">[3]</sup>

The factory dips on the doors were filled and the surrounding sheet metal was reshaped to flow with the 1952 Buick Riviera trim spears which were used on the car. The side trim flowed into functional scoops carved into the rear panels to assist in brake cooling. The scoops were punctuated by three teeth from a 1952 Chevrolet grille. New fenderskirts where made to fit flush into the stock Mercury wheel openings. Round rod was used to add the lip on the bottom. Same round rod was used to create the lip on the front fenders.<sup id="_ref-hamb_2" class="reference">[2]</sup>

To give the car a proper stance, Bob's Merc was lowered more in the rear than in the front. Chopped coils were used in the front, while the frame was kicked up in the rear. The springs were de-arched, and two sets of 1 1/2 lowering blocks were used. A new drive tunnel was fabricated in order to accommodate the drive shaft in the lowered body. Sam Barris and Frank Sonzogni did most of the work on the car. Sam did the drivers side, and Frank the passenger side.

The build took 97 days to complete, and according to Bob Hirohata it seemed like it sat untouched for 60 days. As the 1952 Motorama was coming up, Bob thinks George wanted to make a good showing as they really hustled to get the Hirohata Merc and two other cars done in 30 days. In an interview Bob did with Street Rodder in 1977, he said that the seats and door panels were taken to Carson Top Shop for upholstery while the bodywork was still being done.<sup id="_ref-sraug77_1" class="reference">[1]</sup>At Carson Top Shop the seats, headliner and kick panels were upholstered in a white and green Naugahyde rolls and pleats. The trunk was upholstered by Gaylord's Kustom Shop in Lynwood. Gaylord covered the floor with a green carpet, before the sides were lined with pleated and rolled white leatherette. The stock dash was enlivened with custom plastic knobs fabricated by Bob Hirohata himself. The dash knobs gained popularity, and was soon thereafter put into production by Cal Customs. The dashboard was actually the first Dick Jackson ever painted on a car, and it was pinstriped by the legendary Von Dutch. Von Dutch made a striped figure on the dash called "This is the City".

Unlike other custom cars of its time the Hirohata Merc was not painted in a dark metallic lacquer. George Barris painted it in right in the beginning of 1952 in a two tone Sea Foam Green or Ice green as many people call it with Organic Green below the trim spears. Not long after it was completed, the front bumper guards were sectioned two inches to clear the custom grille. Bob added whitewall tires, 1949 Cadillac sombrero hubcaps, and twin Appleton S-552 spotlights. The 1949 Cadillac sombreros was later replaced by sombreros from a 1953 Cadillac.

The Hirohata Merc immediately began appearing in magazines and winning car show trophies all over the country. As he wanted to see the Indianapolis 500, Bob took his award winning custom on a route 66 cross country trip to the 4th annual Indianapolis Custom Show. The trip was chronicled in the Rod & Custom October 1953 story "Kross Kountry In A Kustom - Mile After Mile In My Modified Mercillac". About 8 days before he was supposed to leave, he decided to replace the Flathead with a brand new 1953 Cadillac overhead valve V8 engine.<sup id="_ref-sraug77_2" class="reference">[1]</sup> Dick Lyon of Lyon Engineering did the engine switch in the Mercury. The clutch was taken from a Ford, and the flywheel came from an Oldsmobile. The conversion took 5 days. And Bob completed the conversion by sending the car to Nates Muffler Shop for a set of headers. In Indianapolis the Merc won the big first place trophy. The only trouble Bob had on his 2,500 mile trip was because the car was so low. So on their way home, they took one set of lowering blocks out for the trip.<sup id="_ref-sraug77_3" class="reference">[1]</sup>

As the Merc was Bob's only car, he drove it almost every day. Around 1954, Barris did some minor changes to the bodywork and removed the antennas on the real fenders. George Barris painted the car Avocado Green.<sup id="_ref-mcniel_0" class="reference">[4]</sup>

In Rodding and Re-styling January 1956 there is a letter from Bob Hirohata in the "RODDING and 'Riting" section. In the letter Bob tells how big fan he is of the magazine, and that he would like to see more customs featured. In the letter he tells that he owns a 1951 Mercury restyled by Barris Kustoms of Los Angeles, that is painted in a golden lime mist paint job. So that dates the golden lime mist color back to at least 1955. In the same letter Bob is also saying that the engine is chromed, and that the car has been fit with a two-way radio, portable rear speaker with 50-foot extension cord for beaches and picnics, gold-plated hubcaps, custom upholstery inside trunk, tool case mounted inside with special screwdriver handles made of green plastic to match the knobs on the dashboard. By the time the Hirohata Merc had won a total of 26 trophies at car shows in California, Indiana, and Michigan, and Bob tells that no other single custom in California could match that.<sup id="_ref-0" class="reference">[5]</sup> Overall the Hirohata Merc is supposed to have won 184 trophies.

The Merc was used in the movie Runnin Wild featuring Mamie Van Doren. It was not the only Barris custom used on the set, Fred Rowe's 1951 Mercury was used as well. Bob sold the Hirohata Merc to Robert Waldsmith in 1955. In 1957, Robert was was hit by a car comming from the opposite direction, the whole left side was banged up. Sam Gates fixed the car up after the accident, and painted the body metallic gold with a clear lacquer. He had to paint the whole car because he was not able to match the Avocado green that George Barris mixed up.<sup id="_ref-mcniel_1" class="reference">[4]</sup>

After a while, Doug Kinney bought the car for 200 dollars. The gold lacquer paint had cracked a lot from the sun and everything, so he tried to fill the cracks and repainted it in lime green. 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 to a car dealership. According to a Rodders Journal article, Bob Hirohata was shot and killed execution style on May 14, 1981. The murder was never solved.

In 1959, 16 year old Jim McNiel bought the well used custom car off a lot for $500. He was 16 years old at that time and did some repairs to it and drove the car to high school and everywhere else. The car was put in storage in 1964, when he was married. Jim has owned the car ever since, and began to restore it to its original condition in 1988. The car was painted by Junior Conway.<sup id="_ref-hamb_3" class="reference">[2]</sup>

In 2011 the Hirohata Merc was shown at the Customs Then and Now exhibit at the Grand National Roadster Show. In April 2011 the Hirohata Merc will be shown at the 2011 Custom Motor Show in Elmia, Sweden.

 

Glenmoor Gathering

 

UNDISPUTED

 

Yep...awesome stuff guys !! Thanx for sharin Axle and Rikster !!

"According to a Rodders Journal article, Bob Hirohata was shot and killed execution style on May 14, 1981"

Wow is this true? Anyone know more about what happened to Bob?

Rat

 

Lets start humpday off with a legend.

 

Yummy! Funny, the other day I was thinking about this car and it is probably the only car I know that I would not change a thing.

 

^^ I agree with that,it is perfection inside and out.

 

I drove it almost every day

 

Kind of tough to drive this when its value is as high as it is but .... it is a car and I think it should be driven.There are just so many dumbass drivers around the area where this car lives.It does have gas ,oil and water for a reason though.

 

No kidding.

On a side note, what caps was the car running in this photo? The pic JeffSled posted "undisputed" are obviously 53 Caddy caps with some flippers, but I can't tell if these are the same?

 

Cadillac Sombrero's as the car had originally when it was first finished. This photo comes from the Cross Country article in the 1953 R&C. I think it was after that trip Bob put 1953 Cadillac hubcaps with the fake knock-offs and Barris crests on the car. Perhaps this was in 1954...

 

Jeff you mentioned you might be able to get some pre restoration pics from a friend and scan them. Did this ever happen? Are you allowed to post them?

 

great info, didn't know all that about the car....97 days to complete!! know it's hard to drive it now cause of the value but damn thats like having a hot ass wife and just looking at her in bed

 

Thanx Axle, love this historic stuff. And who doesn't love that sweet Merc! ~sololobo~

 

Thanks Rik. I knew it originally had the 47-52 caddy caps on it, but it almost looked like there was a flipper installed on the cap in that particular photo.

 

Well said !

 

Perfect Stance for this car. ^^^^^

 

Fun fact - that car was so well known it appears in a circa-2001 episode of the anime "You're Under Arrest" - it's purple, but all the other details are right on; the chop, the grille, the trim, the taillights.

 

B.t.b.

 

Funny you should say that. I was going through a Rodder's Journal yesterday from '98 or so and Pat Ganahl had a little blurb in there about the "missing" Hirohata owner being discovered. Ironically, the guy asked Pat "Who was Hirohata?" indicating he didn't really ever know what he had. So, in the mid to late 50's, even the Hirohata was "just another old custom" that was for all respects out of favor and thus relegated to the back row of a used car lot.

 

Well said! And the most famous is not the original owner or the car itself but those tear drop dash knobs.

 

Its still hard for me to personally grasp at the reality that cars like this ended up on used car lots.

 

Cheap ones too... Remember, by the early 60s this was a way out of date car and Kustoms looked nothing like this. Look what happened to some famous show cars, like that Starliner Adonis? That ended up being scrapped.

When this car was 10 years old it was about as desirable then as a, say, 2002 S10 pickup today with 13" Dayton wires, 155-80-13 whitewalls and a sideways license plate frame frenched into the tailgate would be today.

I have a couple of friends in the business (I work for a group of dealerships) who have been doing this for 50+ years... we were talking about this over lunch today. These guys were talking about scrapping old trade-ins because they couldn't sell them for scrap price! And we're talking things like Step Down Hudsons, 49-51 Fords and Mercs, old Woody wagons, etc. This was when the cars were 10-15 years old. Ya know, it's 1964 and someone trades in a 49 Ford wagon with rotting wood, rusty floors, smoking engine... Car ends up scrapped. We end up scrapping most of our 1990s trade-ins these days, they aren't worth wholesaling.

IMO it's a miracle that this car survived.

 

It was Destiny

 

Only just found this one. Great read, thanks for posting Axle.
Also, cool sidenote about the Appletons from the rafters.