There’s an old saying that every johurney starts with a single step. Tom Yang’s eight-year odyssey restoring a Ferrari 330 America began with a visit to restorer Francois Sicard in 1997.
“Two years before I got the car, I visited Sicard’s shop, where there were five or six ’60s Ferraris under covers,” remembers Yang. “As we uncovered them, I saw that they were lower, rounder, more organic-looking and sexier than my 911.” He knew he was hooked when Sicard unveiled a 250 GT SWB. “It was as if he was lifting a woman’s skirt; I think I blushed. And the sound! It all started from there.”
Yang had never seriously thought about buying a Ferrari, but Sicard encouraged him to find a project car and restore it himself. It says something about Yang that, based on this one encounter, he set out to do just that.
In July 1999, Yang spotted a small ad in Hemming’s Motor News for a 1963 330 America (s/n 5053GT). The car appeared to have all the right ingredients: It was beautiful, rare (only 50 were made) and almost affordable. The relatively low asking price was due to the fact that the Ferrari was pretty much a rolling chassis—only the suspension and brakes, dash pad, instruments, rear window and gas tank were still attached—and the rest of the pieces were scattered. But the owner said that everything was present, which was enough for Yang to decide to take a look.
Before getting on the road, however, he did his homework on exactly what to look for. Working with Sicard, Yang made a list of everything that absolutely positively had to be there; replacing or remanufacturing missing parts could be very expensive, maybe even impossible. When Yang arrived, he and the car’s owner went over the list, item by item, until he was satisfied. “Everything on my list was there, just in three different locations,” he remembers.
That night in his hotel room, Yang called Sicard and told him he was pretty sure this was a complete Ferrari. “I guess you’re going to have to buy the car,” said Sicard. Yang replied, “I can’t do this without you,” to which Sicard responded, “I will help you put this together. I will do this, I promise.”
When asked why Sicard took such an interest in himself and the project, Yang shrugs. “I often ask myself that question,” he says. “Either I’m really persistent or Francois has a soft spot for people who really need help.”
Yang soon had the car and the boxes of parts secured in a generous friend’s shop, about an hour north of his home in New York City. After combing through everything, he discovered that only three parts were missing: a scuff plate, a trim bezel for a window crank and the heater-box housing for the blower motor. Now all he had to do was put the piecemeal Ferrari back together—oh, and restore all of the 36-year-old components to as-new condition along the way.
Yang had been regularly wrenching on cars since high school, but had no experience with either full-blown restorations or vintage Ferraris. Time would also be a challenge, as he had a full-time job as a sound engineer for the “The Late Show with David Letterman.” Yang says, “I realized that it was going to take some time to get the car completed, and if I did it only when I had time, it would never get done.” He soon came up with a solution, rearranging his work schedule so that he could take off every Friday.
Another plus was that the 330 America was a regular production model, and would therefore be relatively straightforward to restore, at least in comparison to some other vintage Ferraris. In addition, the car’s tubular steel chassis, independent front suspension and live rear axle and four-wheel disc brakes are typical of early 1960s Ferraris—simple and rugged.
On August 13, 1999 (and yes, it was a Friday), Yang began working on the car. His first-day plan was to remove the brake calipers from the car, but only one was willing to come off. He then turned his attention to the shock absorbers, and discovered that all of their nuts were seized, too. It was a gloomy start, but an experience well known to anyone who works on old cars.