Hot Rod Cover Cars Take to the Show Field of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance
Hot Rod builder Norm Grabowski came home to see “Lightnin’ Bug,” his 1955 T-bucket hot rod sitting safely in the driveway, yet was alarmed to see a pair of feet sticking out from under it.
The car was already legendary. It had just been featured in the April 1957 edition of LIFE Magazine and was soon to appear in the opening sequence of the upcoming TV series, 77 Sunset Strip. Plenty of people had taken an interest in the car.
But Grabowski didn’t remembered the boyish young man who’d approached him the night he’d parked the car under the bright lights at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, didn’t recall the kid saying he’d like to build one just like it — plenty of kids told him that. And he certainly didn’t remember saying, “Sure, kid; go ahead.”
