I'm sorry to hear about your friends death and know the pain that people are feeling because of the various ways in which he touched the lives of others. I also know that God is working through them all to bring peace into their lives.
It's pretty cool that you had that relationship with Don and I'm guessing that he may be one of the reasons you offer so much advice here. I am 42 and still learning. I have two projects to do and will be selling my third one to finance the first. But I also have a number of older hot rodders with more experience to help me out. One guy is going to help me with all of the body work on the first car so then I will be able to do body work correctly instead of doing it over and over because of doing it wrong. And even though I do not have a lot of experience, I still have youth from my church coming to me to ask my opinion about various car stuff.
It doesn't matter how much you know or don't know because there is always somebody who knows more and somebody who knows less and there are always many people who are willing to share their knowledge. For me, that is one of the best things of hotrodding, talking about what you have done and how to do something on your own car.