What Does It Cost To Restore A Vintage Ferrari?
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Does Reality Match The Perception?
'Ferrari's are very expensive, and people who have them must be swimming in excess cash.' OK, this CAN be true, but to paint all Ferrari owners with this brush isn't realistic. I don't believe the first HAS to be true, and I know the second certainly isn't! So I'm putting my money where my mouth is - you can look at what I spend, understand where the price came from, and judge for yourself.

Of course everything is relative, and I expect restoring 7537 will be more expensive than fixing an equivalent muscle car, as we're dealing with a pretty low volume marque here. What I've been finding, however, are approaches to determining cost which don't ring true to me:

Rebuild or Just Buy More Oil?

There are many articles like this one across the web. As I read them I was a bit perturbed, but thinking about it I realized the parts prices listed are high compared to what I can find today, and the costs reflect paying someone else to do the work. I also feel that you can chip away at a restoration and not do everything all at once. This is especially true if you do the work yourself, which also keeps the costs under your control. I suspect this perception also causes needed maintenance to be put off - with the end result being the eventual rebuild actually costs more.

Which Approach Is Right For You?
You have the choice to hire a professional who has the skills, experience, and tools to do it right. This approach has merit in that the end result should be perfect, you have someone to go to if there's still a problem, and you can be off doing something else while it's happening.

Or you can do it yourself, learn something and have fun in the process. And if you're careful, and arm yourself with the proper knowledge, skill, and a little persistance, you can save on labor costs and have the pride of knowing you did it yourself. A Vintage Ferrari is still just an internal combustion automobile, after all, albeit well engineered with the best materials of the day. They are not so unusual that regular folks cannot work on them - it's just that the price of a screw-up is higher!

What Has It Cost So Far
I'm committing a cardinal sin here (ie. never add up what it REALLY costs!) as I know you're curious what it takes. My philosophy is to 'do it right' and not bodge, do as much of the work myself as possible, and spend my time to keep the costs down by shopping around and being creative.

For other datapoints, Kerry Chesbro has added up his restoration costs, and has posted it on his site, and Tom Yang has details on a 250GT PF Cabriolet engine rebuild.