BOISE, Idaho — A shared love for classic cars and hard work brought a high school senior and his grandfather closer together.
Thomas Jarvis and his grandfather Tom Mohr showed off their vintage Pontiacs side-by-side at the Dennis Tech Ed Car Show in Boise. Tom made the drive from Arizona to be with his grandson on Sunday.
Jarvis made a bet with his grandfather that if he could restore the Trans Am that he recently bought in time for the car show, his grandfather would have to drive up to Boise and show off their cars together.
Both Mohr and Jarvis' teachers at the Dennis Technical Center didn't think he would be able to do it in time, but he proved them all wrong.
"When I first bought the car in it was so beat up, it did not look nice at all," Jarvis said.
He bought the 1985 Trans Am for less than $1,400, which took two years of saving money while working at Chic-Fil-A.
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The high school senior enrolled in auto body refinishing and collision repair courses at Dennis Tech Education Center. He only had two months to get his new ride painted and looking good for the school's car show Sunday.
"And the teachers were like oh I don't know, you got six weeks to get this done I don't know if you are going to make it, I said I will prove all you guys wrong," Jarvis said.
Never backing away from the challenge, Jarvis upped the stakes by making a wager with his grandfather living in Scottsdale, Arizona.
"So we kind of stuck up a deal and said 'If you can get this thing done, I'll drive up and bring my car,' so that was a big motivation and push for me to get the Trans Am all finished up for the car show," he said.
Jarvis' grandfather is the reason why he got into working on cars in the first place.
"I remember him sitting on my lap in this car and I fired it up, it rumbles pretty good, and he was all excited, every time I would rev the engine," Mohr said. "And he got all excited, I think maybe that's where he got it."
With his work cut out for him, Jarvis put in dozens of hours of work, around the clock to get his new ride into shape for the car show. Six weeks later, Thomas accomplished what he set out to do and his grandfather made good on his promise.
"To my astonishment, he made it so here we are," Mohr said. "He's been working really hard on it so I wanted to make sure to support him, if he wanted me up here, then I'll do that, we're pretty proud of all the work he has done."
Jarvis admits that he's pretty proud of himself and his work.
"I've been waiting for this day for like six weeks and I'm so happy that it has finally come around and I can enter my car into the car show because it means that much," he said.