If a hot rod was written up in a magazine or shown on the cover of a publication, there’s a good chance you might run across it in the RVM Collection in Madison, Wisconsin.

Richard V. Munz is a real estate developer who has collected classic cars for decades. He has entered his cars in everything from the Great American Race to Speed Weeks at Bonneville. Munz currently owns around 60 cars, most of which are Fords or Mercurys and in those categories the majority are hot rods. He has roadsters, coupes, track roadsters, convertibles, sedans and other body types. There are racing cars, too, and fun machines like a ’36 Ford replica police car.

One of “Dick” Munz’s favorite things is cars that were featured on the cover hot rod magazines or cars that were written up inside the same magazines or cars that were featured on both the cover and the pages of a hot rod magazine.

One such car is a 427-powered, all-steel, three-window coupe built by Hot Rod Hall of Fame member, Tom Pulfer. It has a chassis by Ron Attebury and an outrageous flame job by Rod Powell. This award-winning Ford was a cover car on the June 199 issue of Rod & Custom magazine.

Those who saw the final issue of Rod & Custom in October 2014 probably read the retrospective inside that said only the very first issue, in May 1953, was bannered with the name “Rods and Customs” magazine. The cover car on that issue was a red ’32 Ford, full-fender roadster that is also owned by RVM Classics.

Another of RVM’s cover cars is a gold Ford described as, “one of the most famous ’32 Fords of the ‘50s.” This car was built by Bill Woodard in 1958 and later sold to my friend Neal East. It was a Rod & Custom cover car in 1961 and was also featured in Hot Rod Magazine and Street Rodder.

Another car in the Madison collection that appeared in many magazine articles is a customized 1946 Ford convertible. It’s a true reflection of what customizers like Sam Barris were turning out in the late-‘40s and early-‘50s. It has an original Gaylord tuck-and-roll interior and a vintage Carson top.

A fifth Ford with a magazine history is the black ex-Dick Martin ’32 five-window coupe that was built in 1956 and unchanged for over 50 years. It features a ’53 Olds Rocket V-8 and a La Salle gearbox. It was featured in Car Craft magazine in June 1958.  

(Click on the photo to see gallery with captions)