Who says a station wagon can't be a hot rod, too?

Even though a 1955 Chevy wagon wasn't cool in 1993, Skip Tubbs brought one home anyway.

It was rusted, had a blown transmission, no interior and was home to a colony of mice. Besides that, it had no gas tank, so Tubbs drove it around the block with an antifreeze bottle filled with gas connected to the fuel pump.

"I bought my diamond in the rough in 1993 right here in Wheeling for $1,600," he said.

Tubbs spotted the car at the House of Rental where his friend's brother had it for sale. "He took half the money down and the rest in payments and gave me the title," Tubbs said. "It was affordable at the time and different, and I always beg to be different."

Tubbs nickel and dimed it over the next few years, just to make it a driver. Then in the fall of 1996, he took the car to his buddy's shop - Bill's Auto Body in Wheeling. He worked on it. Restorations Unlimited in Cary did the restoration - guys Tubbs grew up with, and Tubbs and a friend did the motor. In 2009, Tubbs added the ghost flames and the polished billet wheels and tires.

"I've been a car guy my entire life," Tubbs said. "My dad was a mechanic at a gas station on Clark and Devon, and he used to race cars. I remember him sitting me on a car fender, and I thought it was the coolest thing. I was 7 years old. I think I liked being with my dad though more than anything else."

Tubbs was offered a lot of money for the '55 at Chevy/Vette Fest in 2008, but he couldn't go through with the deal. "It's the first car I've ever completed since my first hot rod at the age of 14."

A hot rod at 14? Tubbs moved to Wheeling in the early '60s, and while heading back to a doctor's appointment on Lawrence Avenue, he looked out the window at a stoplight and saw a 1940 Willys with a price tag of $600 written across the window. "After seeing that car, I forgot how sick I was," Tubbs said. "My dad paid for it, and I paid it off with my paper route money."