Face it: some of us just can’t leave well enough alone. When “good enough” is rarely (if ever) good enough and when “decent effort” is unacceptable in light of best effort, rest assured that you’re afflicted. The unshakable roots of perfectionism have a way of plunging hard into the depths of your psyche, leaving you all but powerless against the unrelenting desire— no, need—to make whatever you are working on absolutely flawless.
If you suffer from perfectionism, you know the drill. A “quick project” gets completely blown apart mid-stream because you just can’t be satisfied with a half-hearted, less-than-your-best effort. Time stands still. Budget be damned. But at some point, you are finally able to rest easy in knowing that you did it right.
Such is the familiar case with recently retired former maintenance manager Mick Bodigon. No stranger to RPM, Mick has a stable of wild Chevys, including a blown 1966 Nova that graced our pages back in April 2014. It doesn’t take a trained eye long to study Bodigon’s work in order to make the diagnosis: the man is a perfectionist.
Don’t take our word for it, though. Consider his most recent build, this nitroused, big-cube street/strip 210 ’55 Chevy. “I bought the car locally in December 2014. It had been torn down in the mid-’90s but never put back together. I bought it as a roller that I could build as one more hot rod while I was still working,” he said.
“So what? Big deal,” you scoff. “Sounds pretty normal to me.”
Wait for it. “When I got it, it had already been treated to new quarters, rockers, and tail panels and the rest of the car was rust-free. The rolling chassis had been minitubbed and caged already,” he said. “However, the work wasn’t up to my standards, so I cut it all out, and with the help of friends John Ammer and Fred Royer, redid it all,” he said.
There it is. The first few weeks of owning the car, the chassis was completely redone. Components from Fatman Fabrications were used to get the nose down in the weeds, while QA1 shocks smooth the way for the Weld 15×4 wheels with Hoosier tires up front…. Read more of this article. Just click on the digital feature below this introduction.
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