The '62 Ferrari 250GTO I am in the process of building here at Last Chance Garage went out for its first road trip. When I say road trip, you're probably expecting me to talk about turning the key, the pumped-up Corvette LS1 engine's roaring to life, and my having an exhilarating weekend navigating through the twisting roads of California wine country, right? Well, to tell the truth, the GTO traveled over 1,000 miles and didn't even wear the "new" off its engine or tires.
I guess a more accurate term would be "trailer trip," but that doesn't make for an eye-catching title. In actuality, it was a weekend filled with work, and the GTO took on a whole new personality. It's amazing how project pace can pick up when you get several professionals focused on it. The purpose of the road trip was to fit up body panels as the first stage in building a body plug.
With chassis preparations complete, I loaded the roller chassis on a trailer for the trip from my home in Livermore, California, to Thunder Ranch in El Cajon, California. It's a 500-mile trip but was the fastest way I could find to get started with the body plug. I made arrangements to purchase some fiberglass GTO-like body pieces and have Tom McBurnie and crew help fit them. Tom's first comment upon seeing my chassis on the trailer was, "You'll never get a GTO body to fit around that chassis. It's too big!"
Not being the type to give up easily, I continued releasing security straps, put the ramps in place, and pushed the chassis off the trailer. Once on the ground and with the front clip temporarily set in place, a big smile came over Tom's face, and he said, "You know, widen it here and lengthen it there and this is going to work just perfectly." There is a simple but important take-away lesson from this: cars at eye level look much bigger than when sitting on the ground. That's why eye-balling it is no replacement for measurements and trial-fittings.
I jumped in and worked right along with the crew. I measured and positioned the various body parts, and the crew came along right after to bridge the gaps with fiberglass and glue them in place. Lots of C-clamps, hose clamps, hot melt glue gun, pop rivet tool, and metal scraps are invaluable tools when constructing a body plug in this manner.
Tom's parting comment as we were finishing up gives testament that first impressions can sometimes be deceiving. He said, "You know there's nothing I'd have done differently on this car." That coming from a seasoned hand-crafted car veteran like Tom filled me with pride for my project. This step of the project consumed three days and required me to tow the GTO over a 1,000 miles. Despite the amount of effort involved, it was well worth the trouble. I left my house with something that looked like a lowrider sandrail and came home with a car that looks like a GTO. There is still a lot of work to do, but it feels great to step back and see the shape of my car coming together.Besides, I love a good road trip.