Boy's love of cars sparks special mission of collecting decals

Darien, Conn. — For as long as Patch Hurty could talk, he's been talking cars. When his mother, Lindsay, found a Ford decal that had fallen off a car last year, Patch, now 6, took it for a treasure.

CBS News asked him why Patch's mom thought he would want it.

"Because I love cars!" Patch said.

For his parents, it was a teachable moment. "My husband and I thought this is a great way to encourage him to read," Lindsay said.

So began the "Patch Project." Team Hurty, which includes his big sister and little brother, is on the hunt to identify decals. 

Who was the most help?

"My big sister," Patch said. "All my little brother did was make funny faces."

Next, a letter writing campaign to carmakers.

In it he wrote: "I wonder if you might have a left over decal from the factory floor. It would be my dream come true to collect all the car logo decals."

The auto world found him as hard to resist as we did.

Decals and letters started arriving from companies like Chevy, Infiniti, Volkswagen, BMW, Rolls Royce and DeLorean.

The car love was flowing when Patch stopped by Carriage House Motor Cars in Greenwich, Connecticut, where Ferraris and Bentleys are stacked end-to-end. The owner, Michael Schudroff, gave Patch a tour and introduced him to a Testarossa.

The "Patch Project" has become a two-way street. Maybe all those grown-up car people saw a little bit of themselves in a kid named Patch.

"The only difference between him and me, is he has hair still, and I don't," one mechanic said.