Thank you Dave, I was never trying to say anything bad about your work. I used the title Mr. as a sign of respect. Just like you, I have been frustrated when I end up with a car that has all kinds of cobbled up systems that don't work right. I have seen people cut wires right in front of me, saying "you don't need that". You talk about pro's...There are good pros and bad pros too. I was ripped off by so many pros, I had to learn my own work. I know that my own work is better than most of the pros I have been to. They have money and time considerations, I don't. I can spend a week doing a 3 hour job if I want. I can clean and paint all my parts while they are off, rather than just putting them back on and getting on to the next customer. When I do a restoration, I use all my own labor, simply to save $100,000. And to enjoy myself too. And learn. I think there is a place for owners doing their own work, and it is not necessarily bad just because they are not professional. Again, this has no bearing on you Dave, just my experience in a non Ferrari context. When my mechanic died in 1992, it took me 10 years to find a mechanic I can trust, who does good work. You have to understand also, that while I am from the old school, I unfortunately have lived many years in today's new world order, where just about anything with a name brand on it is made in china, and has a useful life of about 8 weeks, and I am offered insurance on everything I buy, right down to the littlest flashlight, because it is understood that it will definitely cease to function within the year. This is all by design of course. I am highly disillusioned. It has no reflection on you. Then, I see the car of my dreams has what appears to me to be a woefully inadequate electrical panel and my first thought is to make one myself. Eliminate in its entirety, the item at fault. Just my first thought. Having had no experience or association with your own work. I have also found that I have been able to build and engineer things of my own in the past that have worked perfectly, while at the same time, expensive commercially available items have failed miserably, sometimes even falling apart as I remove them from the shipping carton. This has nothing to do with you. It is just a deep seated mindset that I can't just snap out of. (or,... of which I can't just snap out) I had a Rolls Royce that had a lousy electrical system, and I removed every bit of it, and made a new harness myself, without any Lucas or RR parts. Those parts sucked when they were new, and why was I gonna use them again? And spend extra for the privilege of worse quality? So, I did what I wanted, and that car never worked as good as it did after I was done with it. And lots of naysayers too. You can't do that, and so forth. I just didn't want to have a cell phone, tool box, and fire extinguisher at arms length, whenever I drove that car. I've seen Rolls Royce carcasses on the side of the road in Ft. Lauderdale, burned out from fires.
Kenco and TR Lover, No....I was not searching for 25 years for a TR. What I said was I had been reading about it, and wanting it for 25 years. I was 10 years old in 1987. I started reading Hemmings every month in 4th grade. I have only been searching in earnest 2 months maybe. prior to this, it was just reading ads each month to keep track of prices and availability. And reading the history books and magazines. As for selling the TR and moving on, I don't plan on that. There will be no other Ferrari that I will ever like more than a TR. No car of any make, except the XJ220, but that would not be a replacement for TR, just a stablemate. To me, the TR is the end all be all of Ferrari. I have no desire whatsoever for the newer models. They do nothing for me aesthetically, in fact I am somewhat repulsed by them. They don't look like real cars to me, and they seem to get worse by the year. No offense if you love them. Just my very strange personal opinion. Don't expect it to make sense. I'm not a typical consumer. I don't even have an ipod.
