If you were ever interested in Hot Rods or Custom cars, chances are you have seen this car. You might not have known its name or history but the legacy of this car lives on in thousands of custom cars driving our streets today. This is the legendary Bob Hirohata Mercury, arguably the most famous and influential custom car ever. This car will be up for auction at Mecum in January 2022 in Kissimmee, Florida. Thanks to Larry D. for the tip.

Masato “Bob” Hirohata was born in 1931 in LA, which made him just a kid during WWII. Despite his youth and innocence, he and his family, along with hundreds of thousands of other Japanese Americans, were moved into concentration camps, out of fears about their loyalty. Despite enduring that injustice, after the war, Bob’s family ran a successful insurance business (or parking lot business, I found sources claiming one or the other) postwar, which allowed him, after leaving the US Navy in 1952, to have enough money to buy an almost new 1951 Mercury Coupe.

(A stock 1951 Mercury Coupe for comparison)

Now Bob was no stranger to customs. Before he joined the Navy, he had owned a 1949 Chevrolet that was mildly customized by Sam and George Barris at Barris Kustoms in LA. According to his August 1977 Street Rodder interview, Bob had always wanted a radical custom and once he saw Sam Barris’ chopped 1949 Mercury, he went out and found the aforementioned 1951 Mercury Coupe. Bob took the car over the Barris brother’s shop, told them he wanted it chopped, with the side windows modified the way they had done previously on another famous early custom, the Nick Matranga 1940 Mercury Coupe. Bob left the rest of the styling decisions up to the Barris brothers and Frank Sonzogni, a shop worker. Bob and the Barris brothers also agreed that the car would be the showpiece of the shop’s display at the 1952 Motorama.

(The Matranga Merc, inspiration for the side windows and representative of customs of the 1940s)

After three months of waiting, Bob Hirohata got the call and went down to Barris Kustoms to see the finished product. Bob had gotten exactly what he had ordered, a radical custom the likes of which LA had never seen before. He even had trouble believing it was the same car at first. This list of changes was immense. Sam had, as asked, removed the B pillars to make the coupe a  hardtop. To create the desired look, Sam cut off the top of the doors and welded them to the roof. The roof was chopped seven inches in the back and four in the front to create the longer, lower hardtop look, while the rear window was left uncut and was laid at a different angle from stock to make one continuous line with the roof. To achieve this look, Sam Barris had to extend the roof by adding more metal. In typical California fashion, the drip rails were removed and the windshield was changed from the stock two-piece to a V type that was more stylish. The A-pillar was modified to fit the new door and roof design.

With the roofline was lowered, the body of the car was similarly lowered. The stance of the car, hugely important in customizing even today, was brought down using chopped coils in the front and a frame notch in the rear. The springs were de-arched and a set of lowering blocks completed the new ride height. The car was so low that on a subsequent road trip, Bob Hirohata actually had to remove the blocks to prevent the car from bottoming out while driving. The bottom of the car also received a channel for the driveshaft for this reason. The car having been lowered, the Barris’ Brothers also set about lengthening the car and adding their own body modifications. Gone was all the stock trim. The front and rear fenders were lengthened. The grille was replaced with one made from three ’51 Ford grilles combined. The headlights were from a ’52 Ford and were “frenched” aka recessed/molded into the bodywork of the front fender. The rear taillights were similarly replaced, only this time with ’52 Lincoln lights, while the trunk corners were rounded off to better match the more streamlined contours of the customized body.

Other body modifications included having new fender skirts made that had a lip that matched the front fenders. The hood was filled, extended into the grille area, and had the front of the hood “peaked,” which means adding to or creating a ridge from the line from the center of the hood, through to the edge of the grille opening. The grille now came around under the headlights. The rear quarter panels just behind the doors received functional air scoops designed to cool the brakes and fashioned from parts of a ’52 Chevrolet grille. The rear fenders both received Radio Aerial Intensifiers antennas, a fun tech gizmo of the time. To complete the exterior transformation, the car was painted in a two-tone paint scheme. Sea Foam Green was the main body color, which Organic Green used on the bottom, framed by the custom trim. A set of whitewall tires with Cadillac hubcaps, and the obligatory twin Appleton spotlights finished off the car.

(The dash knobs made by Hirohata and the Von Dutch pinstriping faithfully recreated)

The interior was done in green and white Naugahyde with pleats and rolls by the Carson Top Shop while Gaylord’s Kustom Shop did the trunk interior. Bob Hirohata added his own touch in the form of new dial knobs for the dashboard. So popular were these that the knobs were reproduced with Bob’s permission by Carson Top Shop. The dash received pin striping from the legendary Von Dutch. Dick Jackson, a future famous custom car painter, cut his teeth painting the dash and steering column of the Hirohata Mercury. Even the trunk got its own treatment, similar to the interior, with custom gas and oil cans, and still room for a full-sized spare! The fuel filler lid was shaved and filled in, thus the trunk had to be opened to fuel up the car.

From drop-off to delivery, the Hirohata Merc spent just 97 days at the Barris Kustom Shop and the build might have taken even less time. According to Bob, the car sat around for a few months before anything was done with it. With so many legends and artisans working on the car, it is no wonder the car is as famous today as it is. Only a year after it was completed, in 1953, Bob made another change, this time to the power plant. The original flathead Mercury V8 was replaced in favor of a powerful new Cadillac OHV V8. Done in just five days, and a little over a week before a planned massive road trip down Route 66, surprisingly the journey was mostly trouble-free. The only problem came from the aforementioned low ride height and Bob did end up taking out some of the lowering blocks to improve the comfort.

Bob won awards with the car left and right but he didn’t park it in between shows. Amazingly, the award-winning radical custom was Hirohata’s daily driver and only car. It received minor changes in the years after 1953. The trunk antennas were removed, the paint was changed multiple times, at one point Avacado Green, another time Golden Lime Mist. The Merc had a film appearance with Mamie Van Doren in the film Running Wild (1955). At the time Variety magazine simply called the movie “okay”. Bob sold the car in 1955 and it went through a series of owners through the late 1950s. It was laid up in 1964 when the then owner got married and the car disappeared for the next 20 years. The Hirohata Mercury reemerged in 1988 and was restored to its original 1952 appearance. In 2017, the car was added to National Historic Vehicle Register. Now the car is about to embark upon the next chapter in its story in January of 2022 up on the auction block at Mecum.

Bob Hirohata never got to enjoy all the latest interest in the car in the past quarter-century. He was murdered on May, 14th, 1981 while working on his car in his driveway. His murder remains unsolved. Despite his tragic and senseless murder, Bob Hirohata will never truly die. He lives on in his car and in the millions of cars that have been influenced by it. He is forever linked to the most iconic and significant custom car in history. Whoever becomes the newest custodian of this incredible automobile, however rich, will be just that, a temporary caretaker. The car will forever be the Hirohata Mercury and I can think of no more fitting tribute to Masato “Bob” Hirohata than that.

(Huge thanks to Kustomrama for all the detailed information and photos of the car and Bob Hirohata.)