1946 Hewson Rocket

Coachcraft, Ltd. was formed by three ex-employees of Howard 'Dutch' Darrin when he sold his California business to Packard on August 1st of 1939. The names of these three individuals were Burt Chalmers, Rudy Stoessel, and Paul Erdos. They established their business at 8671 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California in 1940. They catered to craft a wide variety of vehicles, from common, low-priced vehicles, to rare, luxury cars. The designs they created would have a lasting impact on the automotive community. They were regularly featured in magazines and were highly sought after by the rich and the famous.

In 1945, William Hewson raised capital to form the Hewson Pacific Corp. and planned to produce the 'Hewson Rocket' to be sold for $1,000. Stoessel fabricated the body shape and Erdos welded the aluminum panels together. Hewson's idea was to give the body form a very aerodynamic shape with no projections anywhere - headlights covered with glass, tail-light lenses flush, and no outside door handles.

The mid-engine is a flathead Ford V8 coupled to a three-speed manual transmission and a top speed of 90 mph.

Hewson's capital was depleted by the time the car's body was finished and he did not have the $16,000 owed to Coachcraft. They kept the car in their front showroom until it was auctioned off in 1959 to a used car dealer in Minneapolis for $650.