STORY BY KEN GROSS • PHOTOS BY DAVID NEWHARDT • VINTAGE PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE McNIEL FAMILY f ever a single car has come to define its genre, this 1951 Mercury hardtop, built by George and Sam Barris, for Los Angeles custom car enthusiast Bob Hirohata, is it. Handcrafted in midcentury by some of the best talent in the business, featured in countless magazines, a scene- stealing Hollywood B-movie star, this stunning car was highly acclaimed in its heyday. But over time, its first owner was murdered in a drive-by shooting, the obsolete custom fell into disrepair and disappeared for a time, then it emerged as the centerpiece of an exhibit at the Oakland Museum and, after a serious re-restoration, it starred at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. How and why did custom cars emerge? When World War II ended in 1945, pent-up demand for new model cars drove America’s automobile industry to convert, in record time, from producing war material into building civilian vehicles. Deprived of their formative years, returning GIs with saved-up combat pay demanded new wheels right away. So did the gas-rationed and war-deprived civilian population. To meet demand quickly, Detroit’s automakers offered what came to be known as “warmed over” 1942 models: prosaic cars with stodgy styling barely changed from prewar counterparts. Nash, Studebaker and Hudson were among the first to offer completely new sheet metal in 1947. GM, Chrysler and Ford followed suit in 1948-49. For enthusiasts who hadn’t the means to purchase a new car, restyling an older model or scratch-building a sports custom was a popular alternative. Customizing, known earlier as restyling, had begun before the war, and a few West Coast shops—like Jimmy Summers and Link Paola in Hollywood, Neil Emory and Clay Jensen, owners of Valley Custom, in the San Fernando Valley, and Harry Westergard in Sacramento—were joined by Gil and Al Ayala in East Los Angeles, and the prolific Barris Brothers, Sam and George, in Lynwood. Even before Robert E. Petersen’s Hot Rod Magazine and its companion Motor Trend featured custom cars, Dan Post’s “Blue Book of Custom Re-Styling” and a pamphlet from Pennsylvania speed merchant Ed Almquist taught budding builders the techniques. The fundamental premise of customizing was simple, although not everyone got it right. Most production cars of the late 1940s, were staid, bulbous and dull. The period’s best auto writer, Ken W. Purdy, called them “... turgid, jelly-bodied clunkers.” MECUM.COM // 63
