Traveling Builder (Mark Dougherty) visits the UK

[Martin]

Mark just headed back to the US after an 8 day stint here in the UK. I can't speak highly enough of him. He handles a barrage of silly questions, and just sets about setting me up to be successful in the build. Tells me what to do, and while I am doing that, he gets the next thing to do all lined up and ready to go. No time wasted looking for parts/tools etc, or even thinking about how to do it.

The number of times Mark said "this isn't going to fit quite right, so we'll just do this instead" and away we went was astounding. The trick for me was to just go with the flow and always be moving forward - which we did every single day. I'm still exhausted from the 8 day "sprint" we did on the car.

Highlights of the week would have to be:
1) Having my wife in the garage do the wiring while I did something else.
2) Mark understanding my wife's quirks.
3) My wife getting properly involved for the first time in the build.

Mark was brilliant with my kids as well - he has the patience of a saint. He even witnessed my first moment when my 8 year old girl came out to the garage to ask if she could "call her boyfriend on his mobile". My heart stopped, Mark laughed, gave me the rivet gun and told me to get going again. I'm not sure the UK knew what to think when this big American guy walked into their store and was friendly and chatty (It's not the way people are in the UK).

A few missing parts, a few wrong parts, but we made great progress. Lots more to do, and it looks even better than I was hoping.

A few of my favourite photos - sorry, I was so busy assembling stuff I forgot to take many.

http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u568/Martin_Stutchbury/RHD%20Factory%20Five/Traveling%20Builder%20May%202014/IMG_0893_zps44d66af3.jpg (http://s1322.photobucket.com/user/Martin_Stutchbury/media/RHD%20Factory%20Five/Traveling%20Builder%20May%202014/IMG_0893_zps44d66af3.jpg.html)

http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u568/Martin_Stutchbury/RHD%20Factory%20Five/Traveling%20Builder%20May%202014/IMG_0822_zpsd68b6090.jpg (http://s1322.photobucket.com/user/Martin_Stutchbury/media/RHD%20Factory%20Five/Traveling%20Builder%20May%202014/IMG_0822_zpsd68b6090.jpg.html)

http://i1322.photobucket.com/albums/u568/Martin_Stutchbury/RHD%20Factory%20Five/Traveling%20Builder%20May%202014/IMG_0823_zps8d42ac66.jpg (http://s1322.photobucket.com/user/Martin_Stutchbury/media/RHD%20Factory%20Five/Traveling%20Builder%20May%202014/IMG_0823_zps8d42ac66.jpg.html)

I lost count of how many times we had to invoke the 2 foot rule, but that is my own doing.

The rest of the album can be seen here.
http://s1322.photobucket.com/user/Martin_Stutchbury/library/RHD%20Factory%20Five/Traveling%20Builder%20May%202014

Looking forward to the next visit - probably the next time I get to work on the car next!

Martin

[David Hodgkins]

Martin, excellent write-up!

Mark is a legend in our community, with a heart as big as he is. Glad he got you jump-started in the progress department.

Great job, and keep us up to date on your continued progress!

:)

[68GT500MAN]

The "Traveling Builder" has gone international! Thanks for the post and we all look forward to more as your build continues.

Doug

[Olli]

Mark is a great guy!

Olli

[WIS89]

Martin-

Thrilled to hear that Mark was such a big help. No big surprise really, but still awesome to hear.

I looked through your album, and it looks like you have your entire pit crew working hard! I loved the picture of your little man in his tie working in the garage!

I look forward to seeing the rest of your progress. All the best.

Regards,

Steve

[Martin]

If anybody wants to use Mark, you can't really go wrong. We considered coming over to the US to do the build school. But at the end of the day, it would have been flights for my wife and I, hotels, meals out etc. This way, it was one flight, and we got to build/learn on our own car. Well worth it.

With that said, Mark did recommend the build school to us as well as it is good.

I've got so much confidence now, that I would happily go about doing everything we've just done without him here (I know NOTHING about cars). More importantly, I would also have confidence to try and do the rest of it, including fabricating parts etc. if things didn't quite fit right.

I'm still at a loss for words for how much he knows. If I could retire, I'd happily follow him around like a lost puppy helping with builds so I could learn it all.

Martin

[Mark Dougherty]

Thanks Martin
I had a marvellous time in the UK with you and your family.
Your build will be one for the books. There is a lot going on with that one.
I have been very busy trying to catch up after being gone.
Let's see if we can get everything together for the next stage of the build.
Later
Mark D