This car’s defining feature was its significant roof chop, about 4 inches in front and 7 inches in the rear. The center post, or B-pillar, was eliminated. New curved windows were constructed for a hardtop effect. Earlier, the Barris brothers had similarly “hard-topped” Nick Matranga’s ’39 Mercury coupe, so they’d experimented with this look. Mercury didn’t offer a pillarless coupe in 1951, so Barris’ radical surgery made the roofline appear cleaner and updated the car’s appearance. To break up its slab sides, the Mercury’s original designer, E. T. “Bob” Gregorie, penned a subt le reveal that gent ly dipped partway along the side of the car, reminiscent of the sheerline of a yacht. For a more dramatic accent, Sam Barris extended that reveal and affixed chrome trim spears from a ’53 Buick as a divider to separate the car’s original shades of light and dark green lacquer. A pair of Appleton spotlights, tilted toward the hood, completed the modifications. Pat Ganahl, author of “The American Custom Car,” wrote that “the Hirohata Merc began the era of redesign and ornamentation that would soon get completely out of hand; (but) the Hirohata did it with integrity and some subtlety.” Extensive lowering brought the coupe down to about a 4-inch ground clearance, enhancing its already low silhouet te. Front spindles and coils were modified; rear lowering blocks were fit ted with longer U-bolts to hold them in place; the parallel leaf springs were de-arched; and a C-section was performed in the rear frame rails, to ensure sufficient axle travel. George Barris said the cost of the work was “about $3,500.” That was a lot of money in 1952. To make the Motorama date, the work was completed in just 97 days. Most radical Mercury customs in that era were finished in dark maroon metallic or dark green. With its pale pastel, ice green light-over-dark treatment, the Hirohata coupe stood out from the rest. Bob Hirohata told a Rod & Custom editor he was “shocked” when he got the bill. “I had to sell everything I owned and put my great Aunt in hock to pay for the car, but it was worth it.” A luxurious, green-and-white tuck-and- roll interior by Glen Houser’s Carson Top Shop was complemented with laminated teardrop-shaped knobs in green and white plastic. Hirohata made these himself, and the unique knobs would later be the subject of a magazine “how-to” feature. The trunk was upholstered by Gaylord, another noted Los Angeles trimmer. Renowned pinstriper, Kenneth Howard, better known as “Von Dutch,” discretely striped the dash panel and the glove compartment two years later. For his cross-country trip, Hirohata replaced the stock flathead with a 1953 Cadillac V-8, that was installed in a week by Dick Lyon of Lyon Engineering. The Hirohata Mercury was featured on the covers of Hop Up and Motor Trend in 1953. It became a consistent winner with nearly 200 awards. Although other custom cars had begun to look excessive, even freakish, because car show judging awarded points for every modification, no matter how slight, that’s not the case here. Each element on this Mercury flows together beautifully. Bob Hirohata occasionally drove his seminal custom to his job at the parking lot for the Hirohata Insurance Company that his family owned in “Little Tokyo.” He later of fered the car in a Hot Rod Magazine classified ad in the May 1955 issue. The asking price was $4,900; the selling price was somewhat less. Hirohata was tragically murdered on May 14, 1981, gangland style, in his parents’ driveway in Temple City, California. The case was never solved.
