what happened to bob hirohata?

we all know what happens to alot of the old customs that are recovered and restored but what happens to the original owners? any one know what happen to bob hirohata? did he build another custom after the merc and did he see its resurrection?

 

the merc was the only custom he ever owned. after that he got into vettes. he owned an insurance company , i think in LA. it's been a long time since i read this but i think he was shot and killed in a mysterious sort of way.

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=68232
there are some pics of it now

 

I'm sure TRJ mentioned it in the article on the merc a while back. I do also have memories of reading about him being shot, but I could be mixing that up with Joe Nitti.

 

the link kustommetal posted said he was killed execution style and the murder was never solved,crazy shit,also the link outlined the mercury before its resto, where was it before the resto,i mean how did it fall into disrepair? its weird how somthing so classic and genius can fall from grace with a totally strange outcome the murder of Mr hirohata

 

Like it or not customs fell by the wayside in the late 50's. The Merc was bought off a used car lot cheap by the present owner in about 59.

 

According to the Rodders Journal article Bob Hirohata was shot and killed excecution style on May 14, 1981. The murder was never solved.

 

I was just looking through the original post,and was amazed at the pic's. Especially the comparsion between the original and the clone. Being a Merc owner,it's like seeing Elvis. Love that car.

 

jim mcneil bought the car in 59 off a used car lot for $500. they wanted $1000. but the cadillac was blown. it was his first car. he drove it to school, work, and on the first date with his wife. he stopped driving it in about 61 or 62. the whereabouts where widely unknown until the late 80's early 90's when an r&c staffer "discorvered" it. to talk mcneil into restoring it. he got different companys to donate parts, time and labor. some of the original builders actually helped restore the car hersh conway did the paint. they carfully pealed layers of paint off to get to the original green. dupont took the sample back to their main laboratory and made a perfect match.

what not known is who owned the car from about 56 to 59 and how it got on the car lot.

mcneil also looked at the buddy alcorn merc a few years later and considered buying for his wife, but, he passed.

his only explanation for letting the car sit for so long was that it was hard to see out of. he's really a roadster kinda guy.

 

hmmm....summed up perfectly.

 

Try to imagine being 16 or 17 and seeing something like that on a car lot. FUCK! I bet it wasn't even in the front row. Probably stuffed in the back,cause of it's condition. What kinda price would you think it's worth today? 500K,a mil? That would be like seeing the Beatnik Bandit on some lot in the '70's,on four flats,with a make offer sign on it.

 

well it gets better. mcneil wasn't sure if he liked it. he went and got his older brother who was a kustom fan to look at it. the brother went nuts and told him he HAD to buy that car. it wasn't in that bad of shape. it was in the second paint job for the running wild movie from 55.

what kills me is that he passed on the alcorn merc. imagine having two of the original mercs. damn. i would guess the hirohata would bring a mil. if not more if it went up for auction the big guns would come out of the woodwork.

he's been offered actual grocery sacks full off cash for the car...but won't sell. and that was before the restoration.

 

I got to go over to Jim McNeil's (?) house with Pat Ganhal when he was with Rod & Custom--I was donating some electrical supplies to the project---they were really hush-hush about the car at that time,I had to beg to see it. Let me tell you--seeing that car in his garage--knowing almost everyone having NO idea where this car had been for something like 35-40 years--was like looking into a tomb. And seeing the glove box door that Dutch did---UNREAL!!!
Pat told use that Bob Hirohata's family owned a bunch of parking lots in L.A.---he managed them for the family---the rumor was that he got killed in a property war--somehow.

 

I remember Pat's articles of the resto and his mentioning how cobbled the chassis was . Bubblegum and half finished welds and more poor workmanship and damage that I can't remember. Underneath that car was in pretty sorry shape. I also read Bob mentioning in an old interview in Street Rodder that his Merc was a real thrash job that George wanted ready for the Motorama in '52, if I recall correctly. It's among my Top 10 Kustoms, flaws or not..

Jan

 

Back in the late 50's Bob Hirohata placed an ad in one of the Hot Rod Magazine Mart ads. Bob lived In Temple City off the corner of La Rosa Ave & Temple City Bl. The ad had a picture of the car and the price. A photo copy of the ad used to hang on the Fridge in my kitchen. Many gal pals later, I can no longer find the ad.
In one of the Rodders Journals, a guy came forward who said that his bud was the missing owner of the merc during that time and traded it in on a new car. This was an 8yr old car @ the time, fins were in and the swinging sixties was just around the corner.
Bob Hirohata used to cruise this car everywhere, There was alot of Nisei in the Boyle Heights-Ramona Gardens area of Los Angeles at the time. In a book relating to such many Nisei were custom car owners as well as being in car clubs, lake clubs too!

I often heard this story about Bob's death but never any details.
I have seen both cars in person. Jack Walkers Clone while in Kansas City,MO. and Jim Mc Niels retso'd version @ the anti-blessing in Orange. Both versions are truly amazing..
Gret post guys!!!!!!

 

I was talking with two Nisei oldtimers a few weeks ago and Bob Hirohata came up. They smiled and asked if I knew why he was killed...I said I'd heard he was into some criminal stuff and some other gangsters killed him, and I said that I'd heard he was planning to testify in a court case and got shot before he could open his mouth.

They laughed, and told me what they swear is "the real story." This may or may not be true, it's just another angle to a twisted story, but these guys swore by it. Again, just to be clear, I'm not representing this as truth, it's just what these two 75-year-olds told me.

These guys' buddies used to go with Bob to the same whorehouse, once a week they said, 4 buddies (that were really tight with the two guys I was talking to...of course they didn't say THEY ever went) and Hirohata. The two oldtimers said Bob liked to beat on the girls - hard, like, way too hard. Finally, they said, some pimp got tired of his girls being taken out of commission and went and put an end to Bob.

So, now I've heard from different "reliable sources" that Hirohata was killed for criminal activity, because he was going to testify, and because he beat up hookers. Who knows, the truth is probably way less interesting than any of that. The safe money is on "mistaken identity," maybe.

 

I guess this is one for all those who bitch about the guy who won't sell a car because he's "going to restore it someday". Good for Jim McNeil! Almost 40 years later and he got it done!
I can't imagine the will power it took for him to turn down all the offers. I was thinking about this car during the Barrett Jackson auction...My guess would be in the 1 million dollar range too. Nice investment, Jim.

 

My favorite custom car. Barrett jackson numbers would be in the 3 mill range after some of the shit they sold this year .

 

wow just wow. your a lucky guy. thanks for the firsthand info. i know i read somewhere that he owned an insurance company called "hirohata insurance" and that he owned several corvettes over the years and that he owned two corvettes when he died. misinformation maybe? damn magazines.

 

How many fixed up 10-20 year old mini trucks or fast-n-furious Hondas have you driven past that were for sale?

You may not care for them, but they were special to somebody at one time.

That merc was probably the same way at the time.

 

i lived around the corner from mcneil. he told me he took his wife to her prom in that car back in 1964. after that it was parked.

 

There was an article in Rod & Custom detailing some of the restoration work, and showing some of the crude workmanship and damage the car accumulated over the years. In the fifties Barris was not known for good workmanship. Most of his employees were off duty cops and firemen, not professional body men. They could turn out a car that looked good but you didn't want to see what was underneath. You can see it in some of the old 'how to' articles from the fifties, the old grille crudely cut out with a torch another grille surround welded on and smoothed out with lead. Hundreds of pounds of lead went into some cars.

 

Incredible story on a iconic ride. Reminds me of M/T even though that was solved.

 

The guy who killed Mickey Thompson finally went to jail. The police always knew he did it, but didn’t have enough evidence to convict until recently.

-Abone.

 

Seems like recently, but Michael Goodwin was convicted of killing Thompson and his wife in 2009 and lost the final appeal in 2015.

-Abone.

 

Goodwin didn't do it but paid for it; the 2 guys on the bicycles were never found.. Pushing up daisies somewhere I'll bet.

 

I heard essentially the same story from a Japanese friend who knew Hirohata back then.

 

I worked as the technical adviser on a movie in the '80s which featured several vehicles built in the Barris shop. I witnessed first-hand some of the shenanigans that went on. Never felt quite the same about George after that...

 

Nothing like slinging mud at a dead guy....Who wants to bash Henry Ford ?