Gordon's 355 spider has arrived... in the snow!!!

Well guys my baby has finally arrived this afternoon! It is a 1997 355 spider, red/tan, 6 speed, 12,000 miles and I had been looking for about 6 months. I searched and searched on all the websites, ebay, mags, etc and after seeing all kinds of price ranges, I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what a fair price was for the car I was looking for.
Also I read ALL the 355 posts here and talked to several people. One of the most helpful guys was Rich Wallace who also happens to be from Cinci! He is a super nice guy and knows everything about the 355’s. I got to pick his brain as I rode with him in the Gallardo to the Columbus Ferrari club meet in late summer. (Thanks Rich!). I ended up emailing Rich about 30 times with different questions and each time he responded with pages of info. Greatly appreciated!

One day, I stumbled upon a 1997 on cars.com which was located at a little used car dealership in the sticks of Kentucky – close to Louisville. Price was $79,900 and I thought it was worth checking out after seeing so many of these cars at $90 – 110k! I decided on that Friday night that Saturday morning I would make the 2 hour drive to the dealership to check out the car. The dealer had supplied some fuzzy pictures and had warned me that it needed some interior work… Well needless to say, that night I could hardly sleep because I was so anxious with this being my first Ferrari. I looked at the car and even though the outside looked good, the inside was not the greatest. Center console totally gummy (switches would not even move up or down), leather seats were worn and resprayed (badly) before, there was a rip in leather by emergency brake, there was tan leather paint / dye overspray on the steering wheel and some of the black leather, 1 front headlight did not pop up, top did not work at all. Oh yeah – the windshield had a huge crack in it and the side window was totally scratched up. I test drove it for 10 minutes and went home somewhat befuddled. How can someone not take great care of a car like this? I got a copy of all the service records and it showed the car had been serviced at MAG in Columbus. It had the belt service in 2004 including new clutch and various other things done. Then I called Jack at NJB Automotive in Columbus and talked to him about this car and told him to go down and pick it up and take it back to his shop for a PPI. I drove up to Columbus once he had the car there and he explained everything. Car needed new headers, CV joint, new tires, windshield, leather seats restored and some other cosmetics. I ran a carfax and it checked out OK and I offered the dealer a lowball of $50k, and long story short I ended up paying $69,500 for the car and the seller needed to pay for the windshield, which his insurance eventually paid.
I budgeted about $15k in fixups including Capristo, Challenge grill, shields, new tires (same setup as Chaa – thanks buddy!), test pipes, new radiator, leather work, center console work, and other stuff. I shopped around for all these items and think I got good deals on all of them. Jack replaced all center console parts except for the a/c panel which got the “sticker” from Ricambi America (which looks great btw!). He took out seats and sent them off to get totally sanded down and redyed. I had him steam clean the carpets while the seats were out.
So the car was just about done and Jack partner Craig originally told me that it would be ready Friday (tomorrow). Well I turn on the weather this morning and wouldn’t ya know we are expecting the first major snow storm of the season 4 – 6 inches by Thursday night . Great I am thinking – I won’t get the car now until next week. Craig calls up and says he may deliver this afternoon – I said bring it on. 15 minutes before they arrive it started just pouring down snow like mad! I was just hoping I would be able to make it up my driveway!
They got it off the trailer fine and I made Craig drive it in my garage. I pay for the rest of the bill, and Craig and his colleague get on their way home to beat the snowstorm. So, of course I got the itch and was like “oh, what the hell I gotta take her for a short spin”. My son would arrive at the busstop 200’ from our house and I could surprise him and pick him up. At this time there is about ½” of snow on the street and I figure “No problem”. I drive past his busstop and since I am early decide take a little turn down the next street and just turn around and come back and wait for him. What I forgot was that the street I was turning in was on a downward hill and I would have to go up it again to pick him up! So I drive down that street and not wanting to go too far I turn right again and this street goes uphill… I decide to turn around in the cul-de-sac on what looks like just black pavement but turns out to be black ice! I turned the wheel to the left but just kept going straight… heading towards a fire hydrant! In the last second the tires gripped and I was on my way creeping downhill before having to go uphill. Well, I learned my first lesson right then and there, a 355 just isn’t that great in the snow! I already had visions of my car being stuck on top of the hill and getting buried in snow by snowplows and me not being able to get it out for days! I was driving and just saying to myself “you’re a dumba$$” for doing this. I was able to creep by the bus stop without picking up my son and barely made it up my driveway back into my garage covered in snow! Then I got all the snow off of it and dried it. Later I cracked open a bottle of red wine and went to work with the buffer. 3 hours later the car looks fantastic from the outside and the inside looks awesome too (even though I did not touch it yet). I fired it up a couple of times in my garage and revved it up. At first I thought the RPM gauge was broke as the car was making a ton of screaming noise and the rpm’s were only at about 3000 – 4000! Then I forgot that this is a Ferrari and not a BMW…
Now I finally have my new baby home but won’t be able to drive it until all the damn snow is gone! This is torture – but it sure looks good in my garage! Driving impressions and sound clips will follow as soon as the weather is better.
And now you know the rest of the story!
gordon

 

well here are some pictures... FIrst 2 are pre pictures of course!
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The storm is approaching. How I always thought my f car delivery would be!
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I always thought these cars were meant to be driven in the snow...
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Once I finally was able to drive the 355 back in my driveway it looked like this outside!
Interior shots taken at NJB and seats redyed!
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Yoshi shields, seats console...
That's all the pics I have for tonight. Time to open another bottle of wine and hang out in the garage! Thanks for watching. More to follow soon...
gordon
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thanks for the congrats guys! Yeah, now i am officially a spiderman! I need to remember that one!
gordon

btw: This car is definitely a chick magnet if found out very soon... Once I pulled the car into the garage, a white lexus SUV pulls up my driveway and out comes one of my wife's (extremely hot) friends... She said " I saw the Ferrari Trailer driving down the neighborhood and I just had to come over to check out the car....."
Nice!

 

thanks for the compliments. This was sort of like rehabbing an old house in my eyes! (I am in real estate and know some things about rehabbing...).
I wanted it done right from the beginning while the car was apart. I will take some interior pics today in my garage and post them along with a few others. I need to shovel the 6" of snow in my driveway first though...
gordon