Gene Winfield Open His Home For a BOMONSTER Tour
Custom car designer Gene Winfield passed away in March of 2025 at age 97. He lived in Mojave, California far from city ordinances restricting paint spray booths, welding fumes and constant grinding and metal working sounds. His property consisted of a few acres of a hundred classic junk cars meant for future customizing, large workshops facing the main road holding multiple custom projects, and a full size outdoor paint booth for his famous multicolor fade paint designs. Hidden among the various dwellings were mobile homes and random buildings - some wood, some metal - all connected together with an indoor walkway that opened from room to room.
Have you ever wondered what the inside of Gene Winfield's home looked like? I did and when I visited him to deliver some art I had created for him, he gave me a tour. He sometimes opened his home to tours during his annual open houses but the line was always long and shuffling room to room with a crowd didn't hold much appeal for me. So when he invited me and a couple of others inside, I jumped at the chance. It was an amazing collection of a man who has spent more years than most racing, building, customizing, eating, breathing and living cars.
There must have been a half dozen rooms filled to edges with auto memorabilia, autographed photos of famous people, guitars with his name on them, Hot Wheels and model kits of Gene's custom cars, Hot rod posters, Large spiral-bound plastic pages with every magazine article written about him, hall of fame, "Best Of" trophies, and the original Star Trek Captain's chair which Gene had fabricated for the TV series. In a word it was a fascinating. Somewhere around room four, I realized it was also his living quarters. In the hallway was a folding airline restroom door that actually opened into his small bathroom! Over his bed was an original BOMONSTER scratchboard rendering I had gifted him years before. All the while he told detailed stories of every car project we noticed, every photo pointed to and every cool artifact anyone slowed own to admire. We ended up in the kitchen and he showed us a young photo of himself framed with actual ice tongs. He said his first job out of school was delivering ice. His favorite part was driving the ice truck all day. It was a special day with a special man and hopefully by writing it down, I'll remember it until I'm 97.
If you're interested in the piece of art I gave Gene which got me in the door of his home, here is a link to a signed litho print featuring his custom "Pacifica" van/truck. scratched by me: "Windy" Litho Print.
The story of how I created the art and showing Gene's progress in his shop is HERE
