Rik’s project got to the point in months that few do in years. The rebuilding and reassembly part. Nobody keeps Guinness records on this but Rik would have to be a contender, because after several weeks of full bore work, he was reassembling his large four-wheeled jigsaw puzzle.Even more remarkably –he knew exactly what he was doing.
Rik stuck to his meticulous, logical game plan and that powered up the productivity to unseen heights in most projects.
Most guys will take a basket case like this 52 Chevy and measure progress in decades-not months but Rik didn’t-he just had fun.
Rik brought that last intangible talent to the project-sunny optimism “Rebuilding it was fun, l had a rough idea what it should look like but l hadn’t stripped all of it down, of course bolts and screws will break so there was a local acre auction and l bought every box of old nuts & bolt for a dollar a go l could get my hands on, had some very funny looks with all my old stuff, but it came in very useful”.
Car projects are supposed to be fun and as soon as they get negative, the productivity lags or stops altogether. Rik understood that from the start so that put him ahead of every wannabecar project guy on the planet. “The only thing that was missing was the brake master cylinder, which l bought a repro along with a few other bits & bobs. every thing from stripping it to painting it, to making the new seat covers (with the help of my very patient wife Lynda) it is still an ongoing project, still got the paint work to finish & polish, kingpins to replace, rear wheel brake cylinder to fix, it’s now decided to leak, well after 57 years its done well”.
As you can see Rik’s attitude powered him through this project along with a large helping of talent in the hands-on department of restoration.
A do it yourself project will inevitably take longer than a professional application and Rik had the time to devote to the 52 Chevy but organization and attitude are two things that separated Rik from the masses.
PT. 4 RIK’S PLANS FOR THE TRUCK
