Ultimately, The Gift of Time
Text by Joanne M. Anderson Photos by Tom Wallace You know the old saw: Some people see the glass half empty and others view it as half full. Such was the case with an old heap of a car with no windows which sat in the woods for 15 years in south-central Virginia. It had sustained the damage of Father Time and Mother Nature and was seen by many as a top candidate for immediate relocation to the scrap yard. Chad Wikle, however, saw things differently. “It would have been perfect for Fred Flintstone,” he recalls. “It had no trunk, no front end, no interior, no engine or running gear. But, hey, this vintage muscle car had a good roof, good frame rails and two doors, basically four parts with redeeming value.” Wikle’s vision for the 1969 Dodge Charger R/T can be credited to his superior skills and keen eyes for an end result that not everyone can visualize. He has been doing collision repair work since high school, graduated from Nashville Auto Diesel College in Auto Body Repair and is an I-CAR PlatinumTM certified collision technician. He has 25 years of experience in collision repair work, and purchased the Charger from a co-worker who determined it was not a 36
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project he wanted to undertake. What are you going to do with that thing? And what better way to justify such a ridiculous acquisition than to buy it for the next generation? Wikle thought it would be a great project for his son! Once he hauled it home, most of his friends and family members queried: “What are you going to do with that thing?” Across more than a decade of spare time, Wikle relates what he has done with that thing:
March/Apri l
Rebuilt the entire car Took every bolt off the car Redid all the interior Replaced all the rusty sheet metal Added the vinyl top Painted the bottom of the car to look like the outside’s new paint Put in the engine Added a transmission Upgraded the four-wheel disk brakes.
2022
