A New Ferrari Plan

This restoration was indeed a sorry state of affairs. Dale started the brakes in May 2018 and here it is July 2020. As with Ferrari restorations, parts take time to obtain and it just goes on from there.

So fast forward nearly 2 years to April 15, 2020. Dale and I were preparing to leave for Canada hoping to arrive there before the pandemic got worse. We’d hoped to spend 7 months in Canada in order to qualify for the National Health Care. Dale had 1 brake completely done, the 2 fronts were mostly done and 1 rear needed to be started. We were a little disappointed as we were going to be leaving the Ferrari unable to be moved and any real restoration started.

Our oldest son was staying with us off and on as he was working nearby. As we sat at our kitchen table, we mentioned that we were so disappointed to have yet most of another year without much progress on the car. As we talked our son had an idea of sorts; we’d stay home for the next few months, his oldest boy, a college student and very mechanically minded, would come to stay with us and help get the car restoration underway. 

As colleges had just gone on-line, our grandson, Elias, could study mostly then help with the car in his spare time. We could pay him, not what a Ferrari mechanic would make but something more in line with the work he’d be doing.

Dale pulled out his books and a list of necessary repairs, a list he’d made back in the late ’80s when we had to put the car into storage. He and Nate poured over the list, adding this and that.

That evening we called our grandson and proposed the plan to him and, of course, he jumped at the opportunity. Elias moved into our house the following week. He liked the idea of a quick walk from the garage to his room or to the kitchen.

I must add that when Elias was a little boy, he would call the car “my carrari car”. He loved the prancing horse symbol so it was only fitting that he should help with the restoration.