Move old Ferraris to Hawaii?

Gentlemen,
I want to retire to the Big Island of Hawaii and I am trying to decide what to do with my old cars.
The problem is, I'm one of those strange people that if I sell a special car, I strive to let it go in better shape than when I bought it.
To bring them to a place with questionable roads and salty ocean air goes against my grain.

The cars in question are:
1. A low mileage, mechaniclly excellent 330GTC that has tired paint. The car is remarkably rust free since it's in Oregon, but I question the lack of rust-proofing in 1968.
2. A Lancia Stratos. Probably the perfect car for Hawaii since most of it is fiberglass, but they made the frame-metal thin and unfortunately Bertone had not invented rust-proofing by 1975.

Short of stripping the above cars and dipping frames, I fear for these two in the ocean air.

3. A near perfect 512BBi. Yes, Ferrari may have gotten their rust-proofing down by then and most of the car is fiberglass and aluminium, but a big cruiser in Hawaii with essentially no real highways?

What do you think?

 

Sig. Glassman,
Thanks for the encouragement. I agree about the boxer.
If I bring over GTC and/or Stratos I would probably have them restored well here on the West coast beforehand.
We are looking into the Waimea area. Wave if you see me.

Sig. Tad,
Yes, you've seen the Stratos on Hwy 35. I live in the upper Hood River Valley.
And thanks for the offer.

I hate rust! The West coast has been so good to my cars. What troubles me is that I've bought old Ferraris from Florida.
A Daytona (#14085) turned out to have severe rust problems in the doors and sills. We had to have the car stripped and restored.
Even an F40 had annoying little rust starting on some of the latches and small places.
Maybe I care too much. Florida is a big Ferrari market and, people have to live and enjoy themselves as they approach decrepitude.

 

Well gentlemen,
Thank you for your thoughtful, heart-felt joy of Italian cars and my predicament.
My gut reaction to your wisdom is to tear the Stratos down, undercoat the be-Jesus out of it, and bring it along to Waimea.
After all, very very few Americans appreciate it and it would probably have to go back to Europe.

The GTC is my love and will be hard to part with. (It has blasted up to Oregon's Timberline Lodge, at 6000 ft. with no problem).
The other thing that annoys me is that this '68 GTC has the best A/C of any old Ferrrari I've owned, up to 1991 vintage!
But it would be criminal to bring such fragile art to the corrosive ocean environment.

Well, the move is a couple years off and I have time to find my friends a new home.

Grazie Mille!

 

Okay Don, (Gawd, I miss Ron Tonkin GT!) Here's the story:

Bobileff did not condone me taking his freshly restored plexi Daytona to Hawaii, so I sold it. (Just as well, as this was near the height of the market). In the meantime, I bought a manual 599 (before the manual market exploded) to evaluate in Oregon before my move to the Big Island. Just got double lucky.

NOTE: Bring the best and most expensive cars with you on your move to Hawaii to avoid state taxes. Once you establish residence in Hawaii, you're over-taxed for bringing anything from the Mainland. (There is one workaround for this.)

My thinking was that a manual 599 is less complicated than the F1, and even though I questioned my technical ability to avoid the Oahu dealer, I actually did well for seven years with my trusty Launch X431 code reader. The 599 is about as reliable (a relative term) as Ferraris get.

Unfortunately, modern Ferraris, even manuals, compared to Enzo-era cars, have no soul!
I admit I'm a dinosaur, a forty-year member of the FCA who hung out with Dick Merritt. I don't care if you disagree with me.
In the meantime, I missed the Daytona, so I bought another one... a mechanically perfect car with daily driver paint, which, if rust started, I wouldn't mind repainting. So I have a 599 and Daytona in my garage, which I can either dehumidify (which heats up the room and you don't want to work in it.) or I can use AC (which is annoyingly expensive, but comfy to work in.).

Eventually, the 599 needs a "Proxi alignment" for a new AC computer I installed, which requires a visit to the Dealer's Ferrari Diagnostic computer.
Now my 599 has an HGTE package, which lowers the car too much for common barge transport to Oahu. So it's placed on a palate for $800+ one way to the Dealer who has you by the palle.

The thing about living in Hawaii is it's a small place... you have few, if any options... sometimes there is little competition and you're screwed with what they call the "Paradise tax". Cars are more expensive, good food is ridiculously expensive for us and the tourists, and houses are over the top.
But remember... there's an incredible amount of competitive, first-rate Ferrari service on the Mainland. If you can't fix your vintage car yourself, RORO it to San Diego.

So the 599 is still at Ferrari Hawaii as I write this and I am reevaluating having a modern Ferrari in Hawaii. Any yoyo can maintain a carburated Ferrari, or even fuel injected, pre-computer cars. When Ferrari instituted their proprietary software and coding for ODB2, they lost the do-it-yourself Dinosaurs.

I will add a follow-up on what happens to the 599, but for those of you who are mechanical and thinking of bringing a Ferrari to Hawaii, bring something that doesn't require a Ferrari Dealer's diagnostic computer.

To be continued...

 

Oh yeah, the Daytona is more bomb-proof than the 599 because the 70 series tires absorb the questionable asphalt better. The Daytona's higher ground clearance and lack of a front air dam are also more accommodating to lousy Hawaiian road angles. The 599's AC is really its only forte. I had Bobileff fabricate a custom evaporator unit for the Daytona and he installed it before sending it over here, but the result was maybe 20% better, which is still close to useless.

Hawaii has some of the most diverse climates to be found, from rainforest to desert, all the way to alpine.
I'm too close to the coastline...I see and hear the whales doing their thing...so I'm in the worst place for marine spray and rust, hence the air conditioning and dehumidification of the garage.

And yes, the 599's black rubbery buttons and knobs all turned goo (they were fine in Oregon). Money and time sending things to Sticky RX and a lot of isopropyl alcohol.