It all started a few months ago when I overheard my wife, Candy, describing herself to a girlfriend as a "garage widow." Her comment made me finally realize how lucky I am that this sweetheart has, with very little complaint, spent the better part of 30 years playin' second fiddle to my hot rod obsession.
Not only has she cooked, cleaned, and cared for our animals, the house, and me all these years, but she was also right there every time I needed a helping hand out in the garage-well, as long as it didn't include gettin' greasy. Anyway, not long after that day, she told me she wanted to see for herself what was really behind my hot rod infatuation and that she wanted to build a hot rod of her own. To say that I was shocked would be an understatement, but I think I kept my composure and acted nonchalant, all the while dozens of possibilities were dancing in my head. But, to her credit, she'd been paying attention all those years and had made up her own mind as to what she wanted to build, and I think she made the perfect choice-a Total Performance King T track roadster.
Candy said she chose the King T for a few different reasons. First, she said she loved the competition-style look of the track nose because it looks like it's going fast even when it's parked, and it's a roadster versus a closed car, which is her preferred hot rod style. Most importantly, though, is the fact that Total Performance has been around for as long as we've been married-more than 30 years-and she figured a manufacturer with such a history has to build a quality product. However, most importantly, she felt confident she really would be able to successfully assemble it on her own because the Total Performance King T was a complete package with all the fabrication and welding completed at the factory (smart gal). So, without hesitation, for fear she might change her mind about taking on the task, I immediately got on the horn with the folks at Total Performance and got the ball rolling.
In the next few issues, we're going to follow Candy's buildup of the King T to see just how easy it really is for a novice rodder to build a high-quality and extremely affordable crate hot rod at home with basic handtools and little more than a bunch of enthusiasm. I stepped behind the camera and handed things over to her so she could begin walking us through the process of building her very first hot rod.
