1927–2025: Gene Winfield Built (and Raced) His Automotive Dreams

Many of us, especially as kids, could picture in our mind’s eye all sorts of crazy automotive creations—vehicles worthy of our favorite TV show or superhero, souped-up and kitted-out versions of normal cars that, in stock form, seemed to ask for a more exciting life. Few could bring ideas into reality like hot-rodder Gene Winfield, who passed away at the age of 97 on March 4.

You may not recognize Gene’s photos, but even if you don’t count yourself among the hot-rod faithful, you’ve probably seen one of his creations—especially if you’re a fan of ’80s sci fi. He didn’t just build the Galileo II from Star Trek, and the Reactor driven by Captain Kirk; he built 25 cars for the first Blade Runner movie, including the police car driven by Decker (Harrison Ford), plus the 6000 SUX from Robocop.

Winfield built his first hot rod as a high schooler during WWII. He opened his own shop in 1946. Soon after, he spent time in the U.S armed forces, and it was while stationed at Tokyo, Japan, that he learned welding and hammering techniques. As he told Hagerty contributor Lyn Woodward in 2018: “Before I went to Japan, I was welding and bending, but I didn’t know how to control the metal.”

The first hot rod for which Winfield earned national recognition was Jade Idol, a 1956 Mercury whose bodywork modifications—subtle, compared to what you’d expect from, say, one of the Barris brothers—were outshone by its multi-toned paint job. From 1960 on, Gene became famous for his delicate blending of colors. Today, someone might call the look “ombré,” but hot rodders recognize the technique as The Winfield Fade. His friend Barry McGuire tells Autoweek that Winfield always painted in lacquer—”even when it became illegal. How did he live that long painting in lacquer? And in an enclosed room!”

Alongside his TV and movie cars, Winfield became famous for his chop-top Mercurys (1949–51). In the mid ’80s, Winfield noticed that customers were coming back to him, wanting their Mercurys chopped and sectioned for a second time. Often, by then, the cars needed repair as well, so Winfield developed a line of steel and fiberglass parts, including complete bodies for ’49–51 Mercuries, with roofs already chopped and headlights already frenched.

Gene didn’t just build cars; he raced them, too. In the ’50s, before Jade Idol burst onto the scene in 1960, Winfield had built a 1927 Model T and driven it to 135 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats. He called it The Thing. Here’s a snapshot of it in action, with Gene behind the wheel … in 2013. He was 86 years old.

We managed to catch up with Winfield in 2018, at The Race of Gentlemen (“TROG”) on the beach of Wildwood, New Jersey. He was behind the wheel of another of his creations: a 1932 Ford roadster he had built in the late ’40s. In 1963, the ’32 made the cover of Hot Rod Magazine—one of many covers that Winfield would secure. As told to our Preston Lerner in 2018:

His favorite memory from his racing years was from 1962, when he brought four trophies home from El Mirage in one day—two for record-setting runs and two for fastest times. He had towed a T-rail dragster out to the desert behind his chopped 1950 Mercury, and he raced both cars in various configurations, competing in the lakester, dragster, modified roadster and modified coupe classes.

“I still have a picture of myself holding four trophies that day,” he recalls. “Because of me, they changed the rules the next year so you could only run one body class in a day.”

Gene was the type of guy who just couldn’t stop making things—in his case, hot rods. When we visited his shop, 90 miles north of Hollywood, in 2018, it hummed with activity. Cars were everywhere on the property, inside and outside. Winfield was master of it all:

You’d never guess by watching Winfield maneuver around his shop that his own odometer rolled past 90 last year. He strides proudly through his rusting chaos, his wavy matinee-idol hair perfectly groomed. He introduces his countless metal-shaping tools, most of which he made himself, as if they were old friends at a cocktail party. From the Pullmax, an electric reciprocating machine that shapes and cuts metal, to his many bead rollers and hammers, to an old solid-steel riveter from Lockheed, Winfield still uses them all. “Retirement is when they put you in the ground,” he quips.

Winfield belongs to the same golden age of “kustoms” as the Barris brothers—famous for the Hirohata Merc, built in 1952—and the Alexander Brothers, known for the 1967 Deora, which would become one of the original 16 Hot Wheels, and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. Another famous figure in Winfield’s orbit include Chip Foose, whose father worked as shop foreman and painter in Winfield’s shop.

Gene was inducted into the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame in 1961 and into Legends of the Autorama in 2007. Winfield’s creations won America’s Most Beautiful Roadster three times: 1955, ’63, and ’64. Ironically, the one award that eluded Winfield’s grasp was the Autorama’s top prize: The Ridler. He did, however, win Detroit Autorama Builder of the Year in 2008 and the NHRA’s lifetime achievement award, The Wally.

Gene had a passion for teaching others—specifically, younger people. He taught classes on fabrication and paint fading and laying lead until his last years. We’ve even chatted with some of the kids that he’s taught, in this article: a group of ambitious high schoolers, led by a generous shop teacher who taught them for free, who decided to build their own hot rod and show it at SEMA. Winfield helped them with the nose.

“I like to teach everything I’ve learned in the many, many years I’ve been doing this,” Winfield says. “I want to teach it all because I don’t want it to be a dying art. I want to teach young and old.”

Don’t expect to be seeing Gene’s cars up for auction — according to the caption of a post on his shop’s Instagram from five days ago:

“Genes museum remains untouched where he has stored it and is at no time to be dismantled or intended for sale as per his instructions. Gene wants his museum to remain as a tribute to the hot rod culture and his life. He does not want anyone to make money from his collection or his name. Please continue to pray for Gene. Long Live the King Gene”

It’s unclear exactly what is meant by the museum—presumably, it refers to the property and shop of Winfield’s Rod and Customs. A few things are for sure: The work he leaves behind tells his story, and few people in the car community left behind a more colorful legacy than Gene Winfield.