Another new owner who forgot introduction!

Hi Everyone, Ian from the south of England here. I have posted a bit elsewhere on the forum but forgot to introduce myself. Please forgive my poor manners.

Anyway, to be honest, I've never been a Ferrari fan so it's a bit odd that I now have one that is in the process of being restored. I've had a few unusual cars over the years, the most fun being the Carver One, an early favourite was the Lancia Monte Carlo Spider and in more recent times I've had Morgan's. My everyday car is a Matt Black Aero 8 which I plan on keeping forever. I ordered it for delivery in Morgan's 100th Anniversary year and I took delivery on 2nd January 2009, it being one of two Aero's produced for the start of the Anniversary year. The other was for Charles Morgan's sister.

My passion however is motorcycling, have owned and kept several bikes in the USA and have ridden in every state over there, some many times over and predominantly on the back roads and twisties, avoiding the interstates where ever possible. Have also riden through Japan and all of western Europe and parts of eastern Europe and Israel & Thailand. Have recently returned from riding Northern Chile and Southern Peru. Keep two bikes here in the UK.

Anyway, how did I end up with a Ferrari? Well, as all my current vehicles were 2 seaters, it was a struggle with 3 young children (recently divorced and one child is with me and the 2 younger ones with their mother). So, I needed a 4 seater but wanted something that would be fun too and had to be convertible! It came down to 3 cars that fit the bill, A 1967 Lancia Vignale, absolutely beautiful, agreed a price for it, the guy wanted to sell either it or a Lancia Zagato he had. Unfortunately, he drove them both to decide and ended up wanting to keep the Vignale because it was just so good. Option 2 was a 1968 Pontiac Catalina (not very common here in the UK). Totally different of course, not as stylish as the Lancia but the kids loved the big brashness of it. And option 3 was the Mondial. It is one of 24 3.0 QV's made in Right Hand Drive and was delivered new in 1985.

The Pontiac needed a little bit of work, the Ferrari appeared on the surface to be ready for the summer. So I plumped for the Mondial at the end of March. Unfortunately after a week and around 1,000 miles I discovered it was not all as it seemed and there was a lot of the dreaded rust quite well hidden underneath. Plus a few electrical issues came to light and a few other things which meant I had to decide whether to cut my losses and scrap the car/strip it down and sell the bits I could or try and put it into reasonable order.

Anyway, decided I liked the car enough to put it right if possible. Soon discovered how scarce some parts are, how stupidly expensive some little rubber bits are and how surprisingly cheap some pieces can be too! Anyway, the car is coming along nicely and whilst won't ever be a concours car, it will be pretty good. The body shell and floor is now totally rust free, thanks to some very good metalwork. In fact, the body panels were actually OK to start with apart from one front wing down near the floor. It was the floor pan that was really rotten. Most of the electrical glitches are resolved or almost there and the whole car has been totally stripped and prepped for paint and is currently sitting in primer. New roof is on it's way as are a few other bits and pieces. I'm hopeful to have it on the road in all it's 80's glory by the end of the month and will post some pictures as soon as it is done.