A 17-year-old boy and his grandmother from Massachusetts have a special bond and a special project they’re doing together – rebuilding a sports car.

Connor Hedrick of Easton and his grandmother, Deborah Luke, spend their weekends rebuilding the sports car at his home.

Fixing 1987 sports car

“It’s a 1987 Firebird GTA T-top stick shift,” said Luke. “My daughter actually bought it for him as a present.” It turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving, as the time spent fixing the car has brought them closer together.

“We’ve pretty much just been tackling the mechanical side, the engine redone, the brakes,” said Hedrick. “It’s very fun working with her and then every step is like a big milestone.”

Luke said her love for cars began when she was a teenager.

“It was sort of out of necessity, I had older cars when I was growing up, so to fix them, couldn’t afford to fix them, so I fixed them myself,” said Luke. Now she’s handing her skills in the trade down to her grandson. “He’s very talented. He knows about cars but he’s never actually put his hands on, so he was all on board whatever I said, let’s do this and do that, and he did it.”

Have worked on cars together before

They bought the car two years ago and have been working on it ever since. This isn’t the first time they worked on a car together either, though Luke said the first one was much smaller.

“We actually built a go kart a couple of years ago and he had fun driving that up and down the street,” said Luke.

“It feels the same. She’s always been getting me little Hot Wheels, it’s like the same thing now, we’re working on a big Hot Wheel,” said Hedrick. He said driving the Firebird is “wicked fun.”

“It’s just wonderful to be able to work with him, I love it,” said Luke.

Paul Burton

Paul Burton is a general assignment reporter for WBZ-TV News.