Acknowledgement
This page is my way of acknowledging and thanking all the wonderful people and companies that helped me throughout this build. Some I've only met through the Internet and others are close friends and family.
- Lawrence Fryk - my brother-in-law who has taught me everything I know about machining and who willingly let me run amok in his shop (Metro Machine Works) pestering him on how to do the impossible. He is one of the most generous persons I know and respect.
- Ben Hreys - my nephew who has helped me throughout the build and lent me some of his tools and welder for the past 2 years without complaining. He gave me great discounts at the parts store where he worked and spent many an hour at the wreckers with me collecting those much sought after parts.
- Chuck Blanchard - my father who helped me whenever he was able especially when there was that long lost part sitting at the wreckers that I needed a hand to take home.
- Mark Gilbert - my late best friend who taught me the correct way to rebuild an engine and has offered his mechanical expertise and guidance whenever I needed it. I wish that I could of helped him more before he died.
- Grape Ape - who I've never met but has provided valuable guidance on engine theory and rebuilding through his emails and newsgroup postings.
- Ron Kolba - My good friend who has shown me the right way to do bodywork and paint and has diplomatically let me make mistakes doing it my way first so that I can realize that his advice is pretty damn good! But I'm catching on now!
- Don Williams now of Hot Rod and Cool Cars who gave me advice and guidance on what is required for safety inspections before I started and during the front suspension build.
- Calgary Pick Your Parts (now called Pick n Pull) for having a wonderful selection of cars (2000) and the policy to let people roam through their super clean yard at will. I've spent hundreds of hours looking for just the right parts.
- Bucks Auto Recyclers for having a self serve wrecking yard.
- Mark and the guys at Duratec Metal Forming who did some metal bending, tig welding and plasma cutting for me. Mark has a 50s Plymouth Custom that should be hitting the street pretty quick. It looked like it would be a race between Mark and myself to see who would be on the street first but the front suspension really slowly me down.
- Princess Auto and The House of Tools - both competitors have had great monthly sales for the past two years allowing me to buy all the tools that I needed for dirt cheap prices.
- The guys (Trent, Derek, Nick, Jason, Lawrence, Matt, Jeff, George, etc..) at the Southwest Auto Parts Source store who routinely help me out and let me return the parts that don't work out the way I planned.
- Rod and Custom magazine and Custom Rodder magazine who inspire me to do the things that I do.
- The guys who regularly monitor and contribute to the alt.autos.rod-n-custom and rec.autos.rod-n-custom newsgroups such as Jim Forbes, Grape Ape, Al Sproule, Bob May, go300mph, lifespeed, John Kunkel, Rufus T. Firefly, Talladega Greg, Bob Lyle, Whole Lotta Tom and many more.
- Lastly for the Internet and the free distribution of information that has allowed me to research many many aspects of my car's build.