https://wpta21.com/2021/08/13/10-year-old-boys-car-restoration-project-with-dad-set-ablaze/
CORUNNA, Ind. (WPTA21) -- Imagine this: you're 10-years old, you love cars, and you bought one with your own money two years ago to restore with your dad.
You've put in hundreds of hours of work so you could take it to car shows one day.
Because the boy was in school, we caught up with the boy's father to see the car as it is today.
"How could you do something like that to a 10-year-old kid? I'm devastated. My son spent his money on this car and he's worked diligently to get it to where it was," Joshua Hart said.
In DeKalb County, mechanic Joshua Hart isn't sure how he's going to break the news to his 10-year-old son Gauge that his dream car, a 1994 anniversary edition Camaro, was set on fire Monday night along County Road 8.
It was on a parked trailer at the time.
He says Gauge researched and bought the car two years ago as an 8-year-old after getting back child support from his mother.
"I let him on Facebook Marketplace and he found this car in Bronson, Michigan," Hart said.
Over the past two years, the father and son have invested hundreds of hours and a lot more money into the bonding experience project, finally getting the engine rebuilt this spring.
Every driveway 10-year-old Gauge shoveled, every lawn he mowed, the money went to buying parts on eBay to restore the car.
"Even when he was in school he wanted to go to the shop after school so he could work on it, and I had to say, no, homework first, car second," he said.
Every driveway Gauge shoveled, every lawn he mowed, the money went to buying parts on eBay to restore the car.
Receipts and the restoration process were documented carefully.
"What was left to do on it? We were going to start replacing the interior where it was pretty much car show ready, and then we were going to worry about the paint," he said.
Hart says the two love traveling to car shows, which was the goal, the big dream for this car that's titled in both their names.
"You got a 10, 11-year-old kid showing it to a car show. I mean, he can show them he's built the car and done it. And car shows like that, those guys, they recognize things like that, so they would have been all about it," he said.
With that dream now up in smoke, and Hart trying to convince his insurance company the car's now worth far more than what Gauge originally paid for it, he says it will be up to Gauge to decide what to do next.
"He's strong-minded, the whole works. So the hunt's just going to start over. That's just how he is," Hart said.
A family friend started a GoFundMe page to help Gauge finance his next car to restore with his dad.
The family reported the crime but no arrests have been made.
