Well, the 55 TBird made it to the Vegas SEMA show across this big and beautiful country without incident.

Upon arrival, it was put in the Concours Parts booth and looked great. The reaction to the car was great and SEMA, as usual, was the holy grail for car guys.

The car was presented to Sgt. McLoughlin by Chris Kersting, President of SEMA, at a press conference attended by several hundred media. It was an emotional event as Sgt. McLoughlin was presented the keys to the car and it was unveiled to him. He had not seen the finished product prior to it's arrival at Vegas. Sgt McLoughlin then presented a cross cut out of the World Trade Center support beams to Melvin that had been cut by the 9/11 rescuers.

Following the press conference, we did many interviews including Motor Trend radio with Bob Long and Car Crazy with Barry Meguiar, to name a few. Sgt. McLoughlin was extremely gracious with his time by coming out to Vegas, participating in the myriad of interviews and hanging out in the Concours Parts booth meeting various people in the industry as they came by.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the parts contributors, SEMA, all the media companies and personnel who have covered the story with this car, my staff and Sgt. McLoughlin.

All of these people contributed in one way or another to helping us complete this project. They also helped right a horrible wrong that was done to Sgt. McLoughlin by an unscrupulous seller that knew full well what a colossal safety hazard the car was and he also knew very well who he was selling it to. The seller obviously did not have a conscience knowing he was not only putting this American Hero's life in danger but his children and anyone else who could have been potentially involved as a result of a failure.

-Classic Restoration Enterprises with help from the automotive industry, has begun restoring a ’55 T-Bird for New York Port Authority Police Sergeant John McLoughlin. McLoughlin was one of the first rescue officers on scene of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

McLoughlin barely survived being buried under 30 ft of rubble of Tower Two for 22 hours. Once rescued, he was put in a medically-induced coma for six weeks and underwent 27 surgeries. To date, he has also endured 25 additional surgeries. Rather than allow doctors to amputate his legs, McLoughlin fought to walk.

When McLoughlin came in and I heard his stories, it truly touched my heart. Then I took one look at the car of his dreams and the condition it was in and realized not only had he been swindled but it was a driving time bomb. I knew right then and there that we should get involved free of charge and make his dream come true, and that’s just what we intend to do, especially with help from the industry!

The T-Bird, the car of McLoughlin’s dreams, will be presented to him at the 2007 SEMA Show. For more on McLoughlin’s story, watch "World Trade Center," the Oliver Stone film which uses McLoughlin (played by Nicolas Cage) as a central character.