FIRST THINGS FIRST: AN ADMISSION

This whole nutty idea started years ago when I first laid eyes on Mercury Charlie's Austin, Texas-based Tall T Coupe. To say I was smitten would be an understatement. Hand-built from a clean 26/27 Model T coupe body that had been in Vernon McKeen's custody for decades, Charlie had cobbled together a period-perfect sixties style hot rod in just 30 short days, then drove the bad boy all the way to Paso Robles, CA without incident to debut it.  In doing so, he singlehandedly turned the hot rod/kustom car world on its ear, arriving in a car unlike anything seen in ions. The car went on to appear in numerous articles recapping the show. As far as I was concerned, Charlie's T was pivotal in making T's cool again and anyone who now owns one knows what I'm talking about.
So why a T for me? Being 6' 5", all it took was one ride in Charlie's car to make me know I'd one day have one. In fact, if it wasn't for a separate conversation I'd had with Will Muntz, I probably would have bought Charlie's car when the opportunity arose. Will Muntz had the good fortune (or soon I say misfortune?) of purchasing Steve Wertheimer's very well-known California Kid roadster from Steve a few years prior. According to Will, everywhere he drove that car, he heard the same question, "Hey, what are you doing in Steve's car?".  For that very reason, I knew that I would have to build my own Tall T. And so the search for a suitable body began. A search that consumed years and included the purchase of two other T coupes before finding the suitable candidate. Now that I have I found a great body, it would be disingenuous of me not to acknowledge Charlie and his car as forces that have inspired me to build this car. I'm not out copy Charlie's T mind you, but simply put, no Tall T I have ever seen has tripped my trigger like Charlie's car. It's stance is perfect, IMHO. The wheels are boss. Of course, I'll pick a different color, a different drivetrain and components, but at the end of the day, I just want to capture sixties cool as well as Charlie did. So thanks for the inspiration, my friend. We both know you've set the bar is high. I'm all in.