Continued from the Hall of Fame front page featuring the Hirohata Mercury

..........Bob Hirohita made history not only with the car but with a magazine article he wrote about his trip across country. He and a friend drove cross country to attend the Indianapolis Autorama. This was before the interstates and you can imagine the excitement he caused driving through the small towns along the way. After a period of time the car went through a series of owners and wound up on a car lot. A young man by the name of Jim McNeil bought the car drove it as a daily driver for a period of time and then parked it away in his garage. It sat there for many years until he arrived at a point he decided to restore. It made its reappearance on the car show seen and was it as much a sensation as it was years ago.
It was a labor of love for everyone involved in the restoration. The list of modifications to this car is a long one. It has a chopped top 3 inches in the front, 5 inches in the rear, and the rear window was leaned forward to achieve its distinctive style. Frenched headlights, molded grille, restyled grill bar, louvers in front of the rear skirts, and the smoothed side body line. The distinctive window treatment is one of the most recognized feature of any custom car. A cool interior and even the trunk was upholstered. Von Dutch , the famous pinstriper striped the dash and added little people prancing around the glove box door.
Hats off to Jim McNeil for returning to his car to its glory.

Bob Nugent
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