Chapter 3 (page 37)

So as you can see the car finally came back together - utterly - piece by piece. There were a couple of really cool days that eventually happened. One, was the first day that we fired up the engine. Dad asked me to come over and help him with it. We had it on a dolly, fuel and electrical rigged up, as nothing was ever standard or to any kind of safety code! But after a few “college trys” a few sputters, spits, coughs the engine fired! Turned over a few times and then came back to life! I must say, at the time we were pretty intense on the work that needed to be done to start the engine, but once it was running and I had a chance to realize what had just happened, it was a pretty awesome moment.

Then shortly thereafter Dad called again for some afternoon assistance and we raised the engine into place. Once the engine was secured to the motor mounts and we stepped back, it hit us what we had just done. The Porsche now had a real and viable engine sitting back in its engine compartment!!! Yes, once that was done we cracked a few beers!

Then as with the project, it went back to days and weeks. Dad would call me and tell me about more things he put back together and notoriously there would be a snag that would have to be worked out and sometimes with the help of Bruce. But in the end, every problem, snag, headache and roadblock was worked through. Then there was the call to make arrangements to take the car for its interior! To keep the story simple, as there are many additional details, I’ll stick to the wonderful time, loading up the car onto a car trailer and driving a few hours to the guy's place that would do the work. Again, leaving to return to the garage, without the car and revisiting that empty feeling of not seeing the Porsche when visiting my Mom & Dad. (Additional note - it’s super easy to write and even easier to read that we left the car with the interior guy - BUT - I know for a fact that my Dad was sweating bullets when we left. Yeah the guy was well recommended by Bruce, but now the car was so far along and it was like a new parent leaving their newborn with a new babysitter that was highly recommended, but you don’t really know that well.)

But, on the backside of that about 10 days later, he got the call, “come get the car!!” So off we went with truck and trailer and much anticipation and walked into the garage, where it happened………SILENCE. When we see the car - we were utterly speechless. In one fell swoop, everything came together. It was gorgeous! Not quite done, but now we could see the finish line. Like when you’re decorating a Christmas tree and everything is on but the tinsel! We loaded the car and back to the garage we went. This time with a work of art and a piece of Kreuz Family History!