Selecting 1952 Buick Riviera side spears with customized door skins and fender skirts gave the car a dividing point, and functional brake scoops and rear lowering blocks for a pavement-blending, down-low look all helped to finalize the outside changes. Metal work credit goes to Sam Barris and Frank Sonzogni, with each working on one side of the car to finish it for the event. George Barris then sprayed the body in a tellingly different two- tone green: pastel Ice Green (known as Sea Foam) on top and darker Organic Green below the trim line. Inside, the upholstery was completed by the famed Carson Top Shop, which used white and green Naugahyde to roll and tuck the seats, headliner and kick panels. Custom plastic dash knobs fabricated by Hirohata himself proved so popular that Cal Customs eventually reproduced them, and Von Dutch himself came in to do pinstriping on the Merc, complete with a one-off icon figure on the glovebox he signed and entitled, “This is the City.” Once delivered, Hirohata added whitewall tires, Cadillac sombrero hubcaps and twin Appleton S-552 spotlights. At its public debut late that year, it became the Class Winner at the Petersen-hosted Motorama, garnering feature stories in Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, HOP UP and even on the cover of Motor Trend. Following its success at Motorama, the car became Hirohata’s daily driver. Magazines covered it more, including a Route 66 road trip to the Indy 500 in 1953. George Barris was called on several times to update and make subtle changes to the car. A new ‘53 Cadillac engine and driveline were installed just before the Indianapolis trip (where it won the big car show there), getting the moniker “Mercillac” as a result. Meanwhile, Barris arranged for the car to appear in the teen car film “Runnin’ Wild,” featuring Mamie Van Doren, and Barris also repainted the upper area in Avocado Green for better contrast on-screen. This is how it appeared when Hirohata sold it in late 1955 to Robert Waldsmith. The next decade was a little harder on the car, and by the time it surfaced with owner Doug Kinney, who is said to have paid $200 for it, the body had been repaired and the paint heat-cracked. Kinney reportedly sold the car to a used car dealership for an undisclosed amount, and a 16-year-old Jim McNiel borrowed money from his girlfriend’s father and bought it for a princely $500 in 1959. The custom car craze was now passe, and few were interested in the former star. Knowing exactly what it was from the start, McNiel used it as a daily driver throughout his high school years and was fond enough of it that, when he got married in 1964, he put the car into long-term storage in his home garage. This would be to the chagrin of many hopeful seekers, who looked for the famed car throughout the next 20 years. Two men eventually figured out McNiel still owned the Mercury and saw the car in 1988. At this point, then-editor Pat Ganahl of Rod & Custom magazine talked with McNiel, who decided it needed to be restored to its 1952 appearance at Motorama. Assisted by manufacturers, that effort would take several years and was covered in the magazine. Though he did much of the work himself, part of the Hirohata Merc was restored again for McNiel by the surviving original builders, including painter Herschel “Junior” Conway and original fabricator Frank Sonzogni. After Barris’ original custom colors were matched via computer spectrograph, Ganahl even secured some real lacquer paint through a PPG contact to do it right, and fresh paint was applied by Junior’s House of Color by Conway himself. That effort and its reappearance was very quickly recognized by the hobby. On display at several events after completion in 1996, it was a star at the 2011 “Customs Then and Now” display at the Grand National Roadster Show and was even shipped to the noted Custom Motor Show in Elmia, Sweden, in April of that same year. Refreshed for its invitational entry at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2015, the car retains the 1953 Cadillac 331 CI OHV V-8 engine with three Stromberg carburetors and all the special tricks of the Barris crew, resulting in both First in Class and the Dean Batchelor Most Significant awards at Pebble Beach. Further accolades came in 2017 when the Hirohata Merc was selected to be added to the National Historic Vehicle Register and subsequently went on display for a week in a glass enclosure on the National Mall in Washington D.C. After this, the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles presented it to the public for a time, and the family eventually offered the car privately following Mr. McNiel’s passing. Now, the car’s present owner is choosing to make it a highlight at Kissimmee 2022. There are certainly other custom Mercs to choose from if one is diligent, but the car here does not merely have significance as a representation—it’s the archetype for those builds. Never offered for sale publicly since 1959, and sold only one time since then, the Barris-built Hirohata 1951 Mercury can go into only one garage when the hammer falls. Yes, exclusivity is a benchmark of the custom business, but this is a car that still stands alone by all standards.