Auto News 5

Wrong place at the wrong time -- that was Gene Winfield's problem. Sixty years ago, when the custom car was being defined, the big-name builders who got all the ink were guys like the Alexander Brothers in Detroit, Joe Bailon in the Bay Area, and L.A.-based George Barris, the showman who dominated the Southern California magazines that brought hot-rodding to the rest of the country. Meanwhile, Winfield labored in obscurity in the sleepy farm town of Modesto, California, chopping tops and channeling hoods in a chicken coop behind his mother's house.