Neglected, Forgotten and Even Destroyed, some milestone Hot Rods have been restored or re-created, ensuring they mesmerize the next generation of car fans.

In the world of classic cars, vintage hot rods and customs hold a special allure, particularly those that were around and achieved notoriety during hot rodding’s golden age, of the late-1950s through the early 1970s. Some of these cars achieved their status through the way they were created and built, setting the style and standard for others to come, such as the 1951 Mercury Club Coupe, known as the Hirohata Merc, which has a fascinating story. 

Style and performance

Others, such as the chopped 1932 Ford 3-window coupe known as the Doyle Gammell coupe, are recognized for their combination of style and performance that defined an era (in this case the early 1960s), while others made their fame in motorsport competition, such as the early 1940s Willys Gassers, run by Stone Woods & Cook and Big John Mazmanian in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) A-Gas class during the 1960s. And let’s not forget cars that were elevated to iconic status through motion picture, such as John Milner’s 1932 Ford 5-window coupe from American Graffiti, and the 1934 Ford 3-window coupe from the California Kid.

What’s interesting is that despite it being many decades since they were in the spotlight, a good number of these original cars have survived, and for those that didn’t, painstaking recreations ensure that their memory lives on.

In this special for Autosphere on classic cars, we develop into the mystique about some of these iconic cars and how they were found, restored and re-created.

Hirohata Merc

The Hirohata Merc started out as a regular 1951 Mercury Club Coupe owned by Bob Hirohata. Originally converted into a custom by famed brothers Sam and George Barris, it had a severely chopped roof, (four inches in front, seven in the back), and the body was frenched, shaved and decked. The Vee’d windshield and dramatic sloping rear window, result in a style that set the standard for customs and the car was showed at the 1952 International Motorama where it won best in class, and then later, in 1953 was featured in Rod & Custom magazine. Hirohata later replaced the car’s original flathead V-8 with a much more powerful Cadillac OHV engine and even drove the car cross country to Indianapolis, where it won a best of show award. After Hirohata sold it, the famous Merc went through a succession of owners and wound up in the hands of a teenager named Jim McNiel in 1959. McNiel ended up storing the car out of sight for many years and it was thought lost to the annals of time, but was rediscovered, when Rod & Custom Editor Pat Ganahl contacted McNiel and convinced him to embark on a resurrection of the iconic Mercury. This wasn’t easy given that the car had been modified and repainted over the years, but through painstaking research, the car was returned to its early 1950s glory, even using the exact acrylic lacquer finish made possible by electronically duplicating the original lacquer paint and having PPG formulate the exact colour.

The John Milner Coupe

Perhaps the most famous Hot Rod in history, the yellow 1932 Ford 5-window coupe owned by John Milner (Paul LeMat) in American Graffiti, has been replicated by countless enthusiasts, and originally started life simply as a prop for the movie. Nevertheless, with the film set in 1962, every step was taken for the car to resemble a home-built Hot Rod from that era. The car was built with a 327 cubic inch small block Chevy V8, with a rare Man-A-Fre intake manifold, four Rochester 2G carburetors and Sprint car style exhaust headers. Putting power to the pavement is a Borg Warner Super T-10 four-speed gearbox and a 1957 Chevrolet rear axle with 4.11 gears. It also features a chopped roof, channeled grille shell and although a high boy style rod (with no running boards), it does feature bobbed motorcycle stylse fenders, since those were required to comply with regulations at the time. Other period features include dropped (and chromed) front suspension, chrome reverse steelie wheels, Canary Yellow lacquer paint and black tuck ‘n’ roll upholstery. After shooting for the movie ended, the car was put up for sale but found no takers. It was instead used as a promotional tool for several years, and resurfaced in a sequel film, More American Graffiti in 1979. Afterward, it was parked outside for several years and fell into disrepair. An enthusiast named Steve Fitch later acquired it, with the goal of restoring the car to the way it appeared in American Graffiti. Fitch was meticulous in the way he went about resurrecting the old coupe, keeping and reusing as many of the original parts as possible. The car’s 327 Chevy V8 was completely rebuilt, with the cylinders bored 0.60-inch over to clean out the damage to the pistons and the walls. Aside from that and a Crane 30-30 Duntov camshaft, the engine is as it was in the film, complete with the finned valve covers, Man-A-Fre intake and Rochester carburetors. The original lacquer paint finish had held up surprisingly well, considering the car had been left outside, and was subject to a thorough buffing to bring it back to life. Fitch sold the car to Rick Figari in 1986 who still owns it today.

Big John Mazmanian Willys Gasser

In the early-1960s, “Gassers” were some of the hottest and most popular drag race cars in North America. One of the most famous was the Candy-Apple Red 1941 Willys owned by Big John Mazmanian and driven by Robert “Bones” Balogh. It was the first gasser dragster to break the 10-second quarter mile barrier when it ran a 9.77 at 149 mph in 1964! Although the original car was destroyed long ago, the memory of it shone brightly enough that a re-creation was planned, for original driver “Bones” Balogh to run it in a special AA/Gas race at the 2012 NHRA Nationals in Indianapolis. While every effort was taken to recreate the original 1960s era coupe as closely as possible, including its trademark candy paint and red tinted windows, a few alterations had to be made by builder Rocky Pirrone and his team in the name of safety and performance. These included a larger displacement 413 Hemi V8 in place of the original car’s 392; a Turbo 400 Transmission instead of the original Hydra-Matic; plus, a sturdy 9-inch Ford rear end in place of the Oldsmobile unit used on the original car. A modern style roll-cage was also fitted to enable the “new” coupe to comply with NHRA safety regulations. The car was raced for several years, winning its last competition event and in 2022 was displayed at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, where we caught up with it. The Big John Mazmanian Willys coupe recreation is proof that old Hot Rods don’t die, they simply remerge even better than before…