Bonus Coupe

In my effort to make progress on my roadster, I’ve decided to sell everything that doesn’t move me closer to getting it on the road. That means every spare part is for sale. Ever since I made that call earlier this summer, the garage has been cleaned out.

In ones and twos and fours, packages are getting wrapped up on the dining room table and being hauled to USPS, UPS, and FedEx. People I know and people I don’t have come by the house to buy the big stuff, and my ads have flooded the H.A.M.B. classifieds and Craigslist alike. The good news? Things have been selling. Money has been coming in and I’ve been able to keep the ball rolling.

Generally speaking, I’m pretty prompt with my shipping. This week, however, life had other plans. I was late to ship out a set of U-bolts and I felt bad about it. And so, as I packed them, I decided to include a little something extra. I have a stack of old magazines that I got at a swap meet that I like to give as gifts or use for art projects. They’re obscure titles from the early-to-mid-1960s, many of them East Coast-based. I pulled one from the box in the hallway closet and prepared to add it to the box.

Instinctually, I had to flip through it one last time. As I did, I realized that it may have well been the first time. Channeled rods! Chevy Gassers! Front-engined dragsters and all sorts of high-performance material.

The magazine was from 1963, so the “Tuff Stuff” feature stopped me in my tracks. Peter Tytla’s five-window is pure 1950s, from its wide whites and hot flathead to the full wheelcovers and the Cadillac taillights. I had thought it was an earlier feature that was being reused, but I noticed the 1963 sticker on the Connecticut plate.

The more I looked, the more I realized I had some things to learn from Tuff Stuff. Selfishly, I decided to keep the magazine, subbing an equally treasure-filled one in its place.

This is Tuff Stuff. It’s a real bonus that I stumbled upon it.

—Joey Ukrop