Finish

One of the toughest decisions you can make when building any car comes just after the mock-up phase. There are really two ways you can go here:

1. Get the car running and driving for a bit to “work out the bugs” and commit to tearing the car down later for final fit and finish.

2. Immediately tear the car down to begin preparations for paint, chrome, etc…

The danger lies with option 1… After spending months or even years on a project, it’s just so tempting to wire, fire, and drive the car in an incomplete state. Your work and dedication needs some reward and a cruise around the block is just the ticket a lot of times. It’s so rewarding, however, that a lot of guys can’t get motivated enough to tear the car back down again for fit and finish – the car remains unfinished and the ultimate dream is never realized.

To get a car so close to roadworthy only to tear it back down again takes real discipline, but the result is almost always… more…. than the alternative. A great example is the ’28/’29 RPU that Binga recently completed (pictured above, but you can see the full reveal here). I don’t know Binga and have never talked to him about his project, but you can judge his discipline just by staring at the pictures of this little truck. The first and most obvious clues come from the bracketry. Notice how clean the front and rear suspension systems are – perfect shock/headlight mounts, detailed joinery, etc… The wiring is invisible, the fuel lines all run clean, and all of the various finishes compliment each other. It’s obvious this car has been through a mock-up and a final assembly simply by the thoughtful details that only time can produce.

It’s unrealistic to expect all cars to go through the same process obviously, but is important to set expectations for yourself. Do you want to end up with a car that is in a constant state of incomplete or do you want a car that can pass as finished? Frankly, I don’t think there is anything wrong with either path…