BY BOB SOROKANICH

The birth of cool

Masato “Bob” Hirohata was a kid in California in the Forties, one of more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans imprisoned in U.S. camps during World War II. He died in 1981. But his name lives on with one of the most influential custom cars in American hot-rod history: the Hirohata Mercury.

In 1952, after a stint in the U.S. Navy, Hirohata took a ’51 Mercury Club Coupe and a blank check to Barris Kustoms. The Barris brothers massaged and smoothed every panel, chopping the top 4 inches in front, 7 in the back, completely altering the car’s silhouette. They reshaped the body sides and elongated the fenders. The headlights were Ford, the taillights were Lincoln, the chrome trim was Buick. Chevrolet teeth sparkled in the fender vents.

The Hirohata Merc would be a legend for that chopped top alone. An immense amount of sheetmetal surgery turned the factory’s gawky lumps into the long, low, slinky silhouette seen here.

The Barris brothers removed all the heavy-handed factory chrome, leaving the “ice green” bodywork largely unadorned.

HUSEYIN ERTURK

The Hirohata Merc shocked the world at Motorama in 1952. It made Mercury’s sensible family car into the custom canvas of choice. (Hence, James Dean’s ’49 in Rebel Without a Cause.) Shops have spent decades trying to recreate the Hirohata’s graceful roofline alone. Most never got close

Source: This story originally appeared in Volume 3 of Road & Track.