Originally posted on July 8, 2018.

Well, Mike is working, working, working.  Partly he is finessing the body panels.  He will have me stop by and help him move either the nose, tail fin or “dog house” back and forth from the mounted position on the car to another building he uses for sanding.  The “dog house” is the part over the engine area just behind the driver’s compartment.  He is also tending to many other details pertaining to car, trailer and tow truck. 

The engine work to be done by Gene Fulton is complete but Mike Kopchik of Rage Fuel Systems has the engine now to finish his work.  We hope to have it back early next week.  Along about that same time we hope to have started the process of getting the exterior of the car looking like something other than metal and putty.  I will save the details on that as a surprise for a future post.  Considering Mike will be leaving in less than 4 weeks these details must be completed soon!

Those that know Mike even casually know that he is constantly moving from one project to another.  It was difficult to write in an earlier post that the streamliner buck became a fixture in the shop for over 10 years.  Some people start projects that do not get completed but not Mike.  There have been times I have wished he would let a project go undone but it is just not in his makeup.  So I got to thinking about what had gotten in the way of the streamliner project getting started and completed earlier.

One project he did for us is this.  My family has always loved the mountains.  Momma and Daddy had planned to retire there had my daddy lived that long.  Mike made a priority of us having the opportunity to enjoy the mountains together.  We had the house “roughed in” and completed it ourselves over approximately 8 years.  As usual, Mike was the master mind and I was the very marginal labor force.

Of course, a contractor built the outside.  Here is a photo of part of the inside that we completed.  To begin with we had no walls, bathrooms, HVAC or plumbing . . . only studs.

Another project sandwiched in was this ’23 modified which he built from scratch.  This is another that had been in Mike’s mind for a while.

There have been many projects for the public.  I only have a few in photos.

He spent quite a while completely rebuilding a ’63 Corvette.  We bought a tow truck with only the cab and Mike constructed the rest.  

The most important things we are helping to build are these.  Meet Charli (front), Cary, Grey and Hudson Privette.  They are the children of our daughter Shannon and her husband Adam.  We are blessed to have them live 10 miles from us and we have the opportunity to be involved in their daily lives. 

The kids have prompted Mike to do some projects like this racing go kart

and the mini bike and go kart in this photo.

It is a busy life.  We are very blessed.  We truly understand that and attempt to give back to others in our community where we see needs we can meet.
Hopefully next week I will have more to report on the streamliner . . .