Among America’s most celebrated—and delightfully unconventional—custom car fabricators, Gene Winfield possessed a singular talent for transforming the familiar into the fantastical, with few projects showcasing his mastery of proportion, color, texture, and theatrics better than “Pacifica.”

In the early 1960s, Ford recognized that leading customizers could serve as persuasive ambassadors for its newest models and assembled an elite group of builders to create dramatic promotional vehicles designed to draw crowds at dealerships, indoor shows, and public events across the country. In a fitting marriage of man and machine, the eccentric Winfield was handed an equally unconventional commission: the all-new Econoline van series. He responded by quickly conceiving the now-mythical Pacifica, a design defined by its intentional rejection of symmetry.

Where most builders pursued visual balance and streamlined harmony, Winfield embraced discord as the truck’s central theme. Two headlights were fitted on the driver’s side and a single lamp on the passenger side; the rear treatment repeated the motif with twin taillamps at left and one at right. The grille, bumper treatments, and license plate surround were likewise intentionally offset, producing a composition that was unmistakably strange, yet remarkably cohesive. Finished in a metallic blue reminiscent of the Pacific Ocean, Pacifica vividly captured the irreverent energy of 1960s California custom culture.

After its tour of Ford’s show circuit, the original Pacifica was sold to Indianapolis racing driver Troy Ruttman and reportedly used by his team as a parts-chaser. Following Ruttman’s fatal accident in a super-modified race in 1969, the truck disappeared and, despite Winfield’s later efforts to trace it down, remains lost to this day.

Unable to recover the original, Winfield eventually built this recreation in 2012. Faithful to the original’s celebrated asymmetrical styling, it benefits from substantially upgraded mechanical specification, including a fuel-injected 5.0-liter Ford Thunderbird V-8, associated transmission and rear axle, Mustang II-style front underpinnings, and air suspension.

Offered today from The Boeckmann Collection, this Pacifica recreation stands as a lasting testament to both the extraordinary custom-car culture of its era and the remarkable vision of Gene Winfield, one of the true legends of American customizing.