History MILESTONE CUSTOM CARS: Bob Hirohata '51 Mercury

Rik, thanks for another great post and especially that detail shot of the side window frame that stays up when the glass rolls down.

That is exactly what I will be building (attempting to build?) this winter, so that photo is very helpful.

Always cool photos I've never seen before!

 

Thank you all for your nice comments.

I wish I could show you more unpublished photo's of the Hirohata Mercury...

Also intersting is this article about Bob Hirohata creating those wonderful laminated dash knobs from a November '53 Rod & Custom magazine.






And two photo's of the Cross Country trip DeFrenZ mentioned above. These pictures where printed really small in a '53 Rod & Cutom magazine hence theire poor quality.




According to the article Bob had actually raised the rer of the car a bit for the cross country drive, but these photo's show how low the car still is. Must have been real funn to drive it on '53 roads.

 

Great, great post.

 

i prefer the colour it had before restoration,
looked much better in that combo imho, still a great cool car of course...

 

Rikster- This is my all time favorite post....Thank you for sharing this with us and helping me answer some questions i have had about the car.....There were pics posted that i've never seen before that are simply 'priceless'....I cant thank you enough....

Dirty

 

Long live the Hirohata Merc! (And major props to Jim McNiel for bringing it back to its former glory.)

FYI, the Danbury Mint makes an awesome 1:24 replica of this car, a review of which can be found here. The color in the review photo makes the upper body green look too bright/electric, but the model itself looks perfect.

 

I agree!

 

this IS an awesome thread with tons of pictures (kinda what i was tryin to do with my moonglow thread) and i just wanted to post that i saw a similar article on making custom knobs in a Sept. '61 issue of Rodding and re-styling i picked up around the same time as the tech appeared here..not that anyone cares,just thought i'd mention it
creepy

 

Thanks for the education. Bob Hirohata's murder should be reopened in the "Cold Files" show.... Maybe I'll shoot them an email.

 

Here it is at an outdoor car show. Check out some of the other Kustoms in the parking lot.

 

Yes that is an amazing photo' how wonderfull would it be to walk around those cars.

Here is an enlargement of the Hirohata Merc from this picture. A quite amazing photo shoing the car with open hood and trunk. In fact this is the only photo I have seen of the car with open hood. (I like it a lot better closed, but its very intersting to see for sure)

 

Great thread. I have had two trips to the States and have seen the Merc both times. 3 years ago it was at Petersons Museum, part of a Kustoms display and then last year as part of our Route 66 trip we stopped at Darryl Starbirds museum in Oklahoma and it was on display there. Had a chance there to have a real close look at it as we were the only visitors there at the time.

 

Rckt98,

That sound fantastic, but I think you saw the Jack Walker/Doug Thompson built clone of the Hirohata Mercury in the Darryl Starbirds museum. I think the clone is on display at that musuem. The real custom was however in the Peterson mueum. The biggest differnce is teh color on the cars. The restored Barris custom has a much brighter ice green paint job, also the front bumper gards on teh clone are not sectioned like they are on the real car. If you have taken photo's of those cars you might check them out to see the difference.

 

I saw the car up close and personal at the FTB show a few years back. It's even more striking in person. It was just parked out in the park with no ropes or anything to keep you from appreciating the workmanship and beauty as it was shown back in the day. I had thought I heard somewhere that the original people that worked on the car (those that were still alive) came back together again to restore it for the 50th Grand National Roadster show. This car, along with the Matranga Merc, is one of my favorite customs. I talked with Jim at the show and his wife had him take a picture of my arm for their scrapbook as I have the car tattooed on my forearm. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

Anyone close to Canton Ohio has a good chance of seeing this car at the Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles. They are featuring Kustoms this year and this car is scheduled to be there. The show is Sunday September 18. Here is a link http://www.glenmoorgathering.com/2004cars.html(not sure why it says 2004 cars...it is actually 2005 cars)

 

Excellent thread.

Rikster your site is excellent, thanks for posting all the great information and photos.

 

Fantastic photos and story. Read every word and "drooled" at the perfect Merc custom. Were those front parking light chrome pieces made from 51 Ford grille parts? Thanx for posting such a great piece of history.. jim

 

Yes they are made from 51 Grille pieces, the end piewces that wrap around the front fenders on a stock 51 Ford.
Two grilles where needed to make the two parking lights.

 

One more pic of the Hirohata Merc,kinda historic as it shows the restored car at the 50th Anniversary of the Grand National Roadster Show...



Does anybody have some shots of the engine ? Think it would be nice to include some pics of it in here too as the fully dressed and triple carbed '53 Cad powerplant is as nice as the car itself...

 

This is all I have in my album. I know the Rodders Journal article has one or two really nice pictures of it.

Jim and his son pulling the engine out of the merc.




And the perfectly straigh and pollished engine bay.

 

Am I wrong or is that grille made out of a 51 ford center section and the two outboard wraparounds?

 

Correct...

 

Yes,thanks Rik.I actually didn't want to scan the pic but since no one else did post some,here it is.Just as classy as the outside...

 

I saw this car in person in a Detroit Autorama show in 1953 I think when Bob Hirahita drove the car 6000 miles roundtrip from California to Indianapolis and Detroit to be in the Autoramas. There was another chopped 48 Ford that I think was Nick Lopez's that traveled with him and the trip was covered in Rod and Custom I think. Very fond memories and that car far surpassed anything that I had seen in my young life, I was 13 at the time, and this really hooked me on cars.

 

Awesome post Rikster.

Funny that thru the whole thread there is no mention of the Bob Walker clone that was all we had to keep us happy while the original was patiently awaiting its restoration. I'd love to see a side by side comparison to see how close Bob's clone was.

Thanks for all your great posts. Can't wait to see the next one.

Dennis

 

A few more engine photo's

This one is very intersting since you see the underside of the hood, and especially the front portion where it was wrapped under... looks kind of rough now. Also intersting to see is how the grille was mounted to the body.










flawless


And I know TheFrenZ has posted this photo before, but it was kind of blussy and since this is such a great angle... thought I posted a bit clearer version.

 

Well I mentioned the Jack (not Bob) Walker clone once in this post, but here are a few photo's of it with the real one to campaire it with. Its very close. Doug Thompson did a fantastic job on recreating this icon.

Black and white photo's are from teh rear Barris creation







The lip on the fender skirt of the real car seems to be a bit softer and having a larger radious. Alos the scoop opening seems to be a bit smaller on the real car.







Note the difference in hight of the front bumper guards

 

Fantastic Rik !!! Now gimme a hug. Really,this is great,thank you !

There's "somebody" on here who was able to point out differences between the two above at very young age and maybe she,ah,he likes to share the story...

And hotrod1940,you're sure you don't mean Jesse Matranga ? Seriously,thanks for sharing the story !

 

Having always loved the Hirohata Merc and seeing it as the standard by which all Mercs are gauged by, I also find it perplexing. Specially when I look to it with a HAMBer attitude. This was the ultimate pro-built of its time and in stature and fame equal to today's Ridler award winners. Knowing little of the owner [Hirihota] and his life, but obviously he had enough dicretionary income to have it BUILT for him, its amazing that no one ever considers him the ultimate goldchainer of his time. The Hirohata Merc will always be revered by car guys and I wonder which if any of its current goldchain brothers will be so revered say 30 years from now. I've truly enjoyed this thread and don't mean to swerve into a dirt slinginging rut just curious if anyone else has had similar thoughts.

 

Never seen the original but did see the clone at KKOA in Gettesburg a couple of years ago. Like a trip back in time,an ageless custom.