Ingenious!!

Mark is a one man shop.  Check out how he moves a whole car around the shop with ease......or so it appears.  Not so easy I'm sure.

Getting organized.

Sorting out all the boxes of parts and setting up a working area.

Next, remove body from frame and start the chasis build.

Factory Five Tour

Here's a tour of Factory Five:

Factory Five Intro video

Big D asked me to include this video on the blog:

Tin Work

The e-mail that contained these photos said "nice tin work, simple frame."

And now for some unpacking

Its hard for me to fathom that someday the bits and pieces contained in these boxes will be built with expert craftsmanship into a car that's so fast I will be afraid to ride in it...

Kit Delivery

Mark and his lovely wife Joyce took pictures for us during the delivery process yesterday. These are folks you want to work with! Did they wait for the transport truck to show up at their shop? No...they met the driver on the highway, took him to lunch (at what Big D claims is the very, very best Mexican restaurant in the whole world!) and entertained him during the process!

Scott, from Stewart Transport, arrives in Mustang, Oklahoma, ready to make the delivery.

It looks like a hot day.

When we were at the factory, I wished I could have seen Big D's name on the yellow paper taped to the front of his car's body. And here it is! I don't know why I'm so excited about this silly little detail, but I really am!

An idea is born...

My husband (affectionately referred to as Big D) has been a fan of Factory Five for years. He's ordered catalogs, watched their free DVDs and visited their website frequently. A few years ago, he won me over to the idea when we spotted a Factory Five Roadster in a shopping center parking lot. Seeing the real deal in person was impressive, and I knew that one day his dream would come to fruition.

Lucky for us, Big D's cousin Mark is not just a fantastic and hilarious guy, but he is the owner of M&M Rods & Customs. Mark has been building cars since he was just a kid. And speaking of kids: Check out this great article about one of his big projects: The California Kid Motorcycle.

Last December, the phone lines between our home here in Germany, Mark's shop near Oklahoma City, and the Factory Five folks in Wareham, Massachusetts were burning with automotive talk that was way over my girly head. And before I knew it, plans were made, an Mk4 Roadster kit was purchased for Mark to build, and suddenly: a dream started to become reality.

Big D and I were lucky enough to visit the factory in March:

Big D and an expert conference called Mark with technical questions. 

We toured the factory.

And Big D looked forward to the day he'll be sitting in his own Roadster.

One happy customer!