Gene Winfield obit

Gene Winfield, Who Chopped the Tops of More Mercs Than Anyone, Has Died

A true icon of custom cars, Winfield shared his knowledge with others through workshops, passing the flames to the next generation.

He was not on the list. 

California customizer Gene Winfield, who chopped the tops of something like 800 1949 to 1951 Mercury coupes and made them all look way cooler, has passed away at the age of 94.

Winfield was a true artist, who could see a new shape under the skin of a large rolling piece of Detroit iron and bring it out for all to enjoy.

"I started hanging out in his shop when I was three years old," said Chip Foose, whose dad, Sam Foose, was Winfield's shop foreman and painter.

When Winfield moved to Phoenix to establish the AMT model shop, the Fooses came along.

"My earliest memories are watching the guys build stuff, and then, six months later, there'd be a plastic model kit that I got to build - the same cars that they were building (in the AMT model shop), and Hot Wheels was building Hot Wheels of them. I always had Hot Wheels in my pocket and plastic model kits of what Gene and the guys were building."

It was the perfect upbringing for the young car designer.

"He was a ball of energy and 100% passion," Foose said. "He didn't know how to say no to doing anything, because he just wanted to do it."

"Gene Winfield was the definition of a hot rod legend," said John Buck, owner of Rod Shows, which puts on the Grand National Roadster Show. "We were delighted to host him at the 75th Grand National Roadster Show in January and he seemed to truly enjoy interacting with so many friends and fellow car lovers. We are so proud to have inducted Gene into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame (1961) and into the Legends of the Autorama (2007) to honor his incredible legacy and impact on the custom car world. He will be truly missed."

“He was a mechanical genius,” said friend Barry Meguiar. “He was like an industrial complex all his own. He had barns and barns of machines and a lot of them he’d built himself. He kept teaching himself. If he didn’t have a machine he made it. I loved his passion and his passion for training young people. His legacy goes down to how many people he’s trained—it’s got to be in the thousands.”

Up until the last few years of his life you could still sign up for a weekend class in metalshaping and customizing at his shop in Mojave, California.

“We all know Gene Winfield as the brilliant custom car builder and designer that he was, but there was a generosity and concern for the future of the hobby that was always at the front of Gene’s thoughts,” said David Steele, executive director of the American Hot Rod Foundation. “He expressed this by way of his wonderful fabrication master classes where he’d teach younger builders the techniques of chop topping and leading, as well as paint fading and other disciplines that Gene had mastered, and was always promoting this thing he loved to the younger audience.”

Winfield spent the last few years of his life on the road, going from car show to car show, signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans. Out of 94 years on this Earth, Winfield probably spent 80 of them building cool cars and sharing them with others.

“Winfield built his first roadster in Modesto, California, while in high school during World War II and hasn’t stopped since,” reads his biography at winfieldrodandcustom.com. “He opened Windy’s Custom Shop in 1946 and has raced cars on the streets, the dry lakes, and the earliest drag strips of the country.”

Winfield first became known for his paint jobs.

“By 1960 Gene’s work was getting national recognition, most notably for his custom paint jobs,” his bio read. “His eye for shades and hues led to the development of the first fully blended paint job. His canvas was the radically customized ‘56 Mercury dubbed the Jade Idol. It was quickly followed by another custom Mercury called the Solar Scene, a 1950 with electrically operated seats that swiveled out to greet the occupants.”

Later cars included the Strip Star and the Reactor, both of which featured futuristic designs and handmade aluminum bodies.

But it was his particular skill in chopping the tops off ‘49 to ‘51 Mercurys that brought him the most recognition. There was a constant waiting list of customers wanting to get their Mercurys chopped, sectioned, and frenched.

He developed a line of steel and fiberglass parts for Fords and Mercurys that included complete ‘49-‘51 glass bodies. The glass bodies had built-in features like frenched headlights and pre-chopped roofs.

He also did cars for movies and TV. Some of Winfield’s creations were the Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart gadget cars, the Galileo shuttlecraft from the original Star Trek series, a ‘31 Chevy that converted to the then-new 1967 Camaro in under a minute for the Dean Martin Show, and a new Impala split front to rear for a Chevrolet commercial.

The car’s Cycolac bodywork was painted by Gene Winfield.

He did cars for Ironside, Bewitched, Robocop, The Wraith, Magnum Force, Back to the Future II, and on and on.

His longevity was amazing, considering the work he did.

“He always painted in lacquer, even when it became illegal,” Meguiar recalled. “How did he live that long painting in lacquer? And in an enclosed room!”

Winfield’s zeal for work was certainly one of the reasons he lived to be 94.

"He didn't know how to say no," said Foose. "He just wanted to do everything he could, because he was passionate about it. It was definitely inspirational, but extremely contagious, shall we say, because of his excitement about everything."

“The guy wouldn’t stop,” said Meguiar. “His personal mindset wouldn’t let him. Eighteen months ago he probably had 18 project cars on his property that he was going to finish.”

So go cruise around the block in your rod or custom in honor of Gene Winfield. That’s probably how he would have liked to be remembered.

 

Filmography

Revered as "The King of Kustoms", Winfield was featured in the first DVD in a series called The Kings of Kustoms. The documentary series highlights various car customizers, such as VooDoo Larry from Chicago, Illinois, and Alex Gambino of San Jose, California.

 

Film

Year     Film            Vehicle            Notes

1973    Sleeper            Six bubbletop movie cars            Fiberglass body, 1969 VW Beetle chassis and engine

1982    Blade Runner 25 vehicles            Worked with Syd Mead on flying car concept

1984    The Last Starfighter            Starcar            Exists both as physical and computer-generated car

1985            Trancers                      

1987            RoboCop        6000 SUX   

Television

Year     Title            Vehicle            Notes

1965    Get Smart            Sunbeam Tiger            Gadgets on car

1967            Bewitched       Reactor            "Super Car": Turbocharged Chevrolet Turbo-Air 6 engine, front wheel drive, Citroën DS chassis, aluminium body. episode 3.19

1967    Batman            Reactor            Catmobile (episode 110 and 111)

1967    Star Trek            Shuttlecraft Galileo       

1967    Star Trek     Reactor            "Jupiter 8" car from "Bread and Circuses"

1967    The Man from U.N.C.L.E.            Piranha            Chevrolet Turbo-Air 6 engine, plastic body

1968            Mission: Impossible            Reactor            Episode "The Freeze": used in a ploy to make a bank robber believe he's been in suspended animation for 14 years

 

Additional Crew

Solar Crisis (1990)

Solar Crisis

4.1

provider: strip star Corvette

1990

 

Trancers (1984)

Trancers

6.0

futuristic cars: Winfield Special Projects

1984

 

Lance Guest in The Last Starfighter (1984)

The Last Starfighter

6.7

star car built by: Winfield Special Projects

1984

 

Actor

Gene Winfield in Mr. Fantastic & The Wonderful Depot (2015)

Mr. Fantastic & The Wonderful Depot

Mr. Fantastic (credit only)

2015

 

Special Effects

The Photographer (1974)

The Photographer

6.0

special effects

1974