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.
In my eyes, Total Performance's...
In my eyes, Total Performance's King T Track Roadster is about the neatest hot rod I've ever seen, and I'm really excited about the build. Aside from the fact that I love its styling, the most important part to me is the confidence a pre-engineered kit instills. With Total Performance having done all the engineering and fabrication at the factory, all I'll have to do is the basic assembly, which is pretty straightforward-even for someone like me whose only claim to hot rod-building has been watching 'em go together and acting as a second pair of hands for Jim through the years.
After checking out the King...
After checking out the King T on the Total Performance Web site, I was sold. The idea of getting all of the basic components for a complete car from one source made it easy, especially after witnessing Jim poring over piles of catalogs and spending untold hours at swap meets sourcing parts for his past builds. I figured purchasing the makings of a hot rod from a reputable company like TP would save me not only time and aggravation but ensure all the components are high-quality and actually fit. As you can see here, the King T kit is impressively complete; everything needed is shipped at one time from one source, and all the components supplied are engineered to work together.
Total works with only the...
Total works with only the best suppliers and manufacturers for the components they don't produce themselves; case in point, the awesome track roadster body that's part of the King T kit. Total Performance joined forces with one of the best fiberglass body manufacturers in the country, Superior Glass Works, to sheath its track T chassis. From what I understand, Total had envisioned the whole track T kit concept around the Superior body, as the company is of the opinion that its quality is every bit as good as anything coming from Total Performance itself-saving time, R&D, and the end user some hard-earned cash. I have to say, the body is as well-engineered and well-built as the chassis assembly is. This is gonna be a piece of cake.