High School Auto Shop

scottragee

scottragee

Sharpest Tool
Jun 18, 2021
347
Davis, CA
First Name
Scott
Willys Model
  1. CJ
Willys Year:
  1. 1955
Since joining the OWF a few weeks ago, and looking at several different threads, it seems clear that the vast majority of folks generally do the bulk of their own re-build work in their own shop and only farm out work to professional shops when absolutely necessary. I'm curious if anyone on this forum has had any experience of offering their vehicle to the local High School Auto Shop and let them do the labor (and learning) while supplying whatever parts are needed. If so, how did the experience go? What would you do differently next time, if you had a next time? Did you take Auto Shop in H.S. yourself? These are just starter questions to prime-the-pump. Share whatever you feel is relevant to the topic.

Let me give a little context: I made plastic models as a kid including 1:12 scale Tamiya models of Formula 1 cars. Wanted to take Auto Shop in H.S. but attended a small, college-prep like H.S. that had no trade classes. Dabbled briefly in some auto shop activities when I raced Formula Ford cars in the early 90's. Now I'm in possession of a CJ-2a Jeep, but no room in my garage for it to be turned into a shop (I work out of my house as a Civil Engineer, designing Industrial Buildings, so my garage is my library and file storage) nor do I really have much knowledge about all the "tricks of the trade" (or much of a tool collection).
 
I have no direct experience of this, but my gut says it would depend a great deal on the shop teachers and how much they demand of their students. I'd imagine some are sticklers for quality materials and workmanship and others not so much.
 
Lookout Ranch said:
I have no direct experience of this, but my gut says it would depend a great deal on the shop teachers and how much they demand of their students. I'd imagine some are sticklers for quality materials and workmanship and others not so much.
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That makes total sense to me. In construction, the GC can have a great reputation, but it really comes down to who the superintendent is on the job site - the guy who is overseeing the work done every day (and thus controlling quality).
 
Yes, It definitely would depend on the supervision. I loved having my son (only one mechanically inclined, of two) mount tires for me, but he worked on my father-in-laws truck, and a kid backed it out of the shop and hit a steel post. They took responsibility, and sourced used parts and repaired it, but I wouldn't trust them to work on anything without a knowledgeable teacher checking on them. Then there's the time the wheel came flying off the Suburban... lol.
 
scottragee said:
Since joining the OWF a few weeks ago, and looking at several different threads, it seems clear that the vast majority of folks generally do the bulk of their own re-build work in their own shop and only farm out work to professional shops when absolutely necessary. I'm curious if anyone on this forum has had any experience of offering their vehicle to the local High School Auto Shop and let them do the labor (and learning) while supplying whatever parts are needed. If so, how did the experience go? What would you do differently next time, if you had a next time? Did you take Auto Shop in H.S. yourself? These are just starter questions to prime-the-pump. Share whatever you feel is relevant to the topic.

Let me give a little context: I made plastic models as a kid including 1:12 scale Tamiya models of Formula 1 cars. Wanted to take Auto Shop in H.S. but attended a small, college-prep like H.S. that had no trade classes. Dabbled briefly in some auto shop activities when I raced Formula Ford cars in the early 90's. Now I'm in possession of a CJ-2a Jeep, but no room in my garage for it to be turned into a shop (I work out of my house as a Civil Engineer, designing Industrial Buildings, so my garage is my library and file storage) nor do I really have much knowledge about all the "tricks of the trade" (or much of a tool collection).
Click to expand...
I have experience in high school auto shop and had a good teacher. With that being said what I learned was the very basic things such as how the ignition system and carburetor works and basic trouble shooting. Nothing that would help me rebuilding a Jeep. Maintaining a Jeep, yes, rebuilding one no. I was in auto shop almost 60 years ago and the school wouldn’t let us pull an engine due to the liabilities involved. I’m sure that that the school authorities would be even more concerned today. You may get better results speaking to a trade school. Good Luck with your Jeep.
 
I took tune up at the local trade school after lunch when i was in high school. In that class of 20 or so were 3 people I would trust to work on my car, One of them became a mechanic and ended up working for the city on diesel busses. Myself and Diane never ended up as mechanics. The rest of the students would do fine changing parts, but god help if you needed actual troubleshooting. The auto parts stores didn't help much, I remember once needing to order parts for a tune up and asking for one range colder plugs for the car I was tuning and the counter guys fought me. But the next time I saw that customer he said he now had the best running car in the fleet. Underpowered station wagons with a rear full of carpet samples, cooler plugs, no pinging, more power and mileage. We all learned that, but no one takes that risk. But for the 90% of the cars that came in for plugs, points, cap and rotor and anything else it needed, wires maybe and the occasional carb rebuild it was usually a good deal, but the teacher was really good.

Ira
 
Do high schools even offer shop classes? I graduated in 1965 and recall that even then, getting into shop class was VERY difficult. But,
that was L.A.Unified School District... I had a low opinion of them then... That has never changed.
 
In 1970 Chatsworth high had at least auto and print shop. I think there was also wood shop, but I can't be sure.

Ira
 
I went to a Auto Diesel school out of HS, it was about a 14mo program you took a focus class for 2 weeks at a time, say like brakes, auto transmission, hydraulics, refers, diesel HD stuff.

It was pretty fast paced so there really was only 6 weeks in the shop and you had to have the focused classes to work on that system, so if you started with say Auto transmission and had not done say brakes your shop time could not include brakes.

I don't see a HS "shop" being a good fit for these vehicles. Really depends on what is available.

The place I went to had a Auto Body program, now that's a different story, you could really do a decent project on the body side as it was 12 months of shop class and 2 months of in class. So folks wound up doing some really cool projects on that side.

But if you have a local option, good teacher and they would take decent donations I'm all in on throwing the school some serious money for tools and equipment if they could develop a good plan with decent results.

I would follow up with a professional inspection of the work performed.

As you know from racing there always one more thing to triple check.

Good luck with your project, keep us posted if you find a good place to have this done. Maybe the kids can start a build thread to follow.
 
I should add that the local NAPA store was very supportive of our high school auto class, and gave the students discounts. They also had some brand new cars donated from the manufacturers. It was interesting, troubleshooting with my New school son though. While I was thinking Old school basics like air, fuel, spark, he was thinking sensors, ecu, and new school stuff. If only he would have remembered to take the ratchet off of the crank shaft nut after turning the engine over, while i timed the diesel injection pump. Spun the crank bolt out and crashed the pistons & valves.
 
I took two years of BOCES auto shop in High School. With a good instructor, I would have completely recommended them for someone looking for "cheap labor" and a chance to let the kids learn a trade..

I can't remember how many vehicles came through for brakes, oil changes, etc. We even worked on the instructors Chevelle he was restoring.

But when I asked at my local BOCES, all I got was "we don't have time for it".
It's sad, really. I'd have no problem letting some kids get real world experience and maybe kindling the love of working on vehicles I have.
 
These stories have brought to mind an experience I had with my son when he was a teenager and he was the one racing - go-karts, and I was the wrench. I had just given him a pep talk about focus and concentration, and after 1 lap he comes back in - I had forgotten to tighten down the engine mounts after a gear change. and he lost the chain. Talk about eating humble pie! Details, details, details.
 
Somewhat along same lines----but not HS shop. State prison where I previously lived would take in vehicles to have the prisoners redo for re-training job skills. I had a mid sixties Bronco and let them have it for a couple months. When it was returned the music system was on the front seat along with a bag of tape deck motors. Seems the prisoners would remove the motors to make tattoo guns. The shop "foreman" and warden gave me the bag of extra motors and wished me luck in finding the one that would fit my system. Heck of a deal----no music for a long long time but they did an excellent job on brakes and front end work!
 
I don't have experience with high school auto shops, but I do remember that my mechanic in the 1980s told me that it was really hard to give me labor estimates. He said my car had twice as many bolts and finer threads than the ones he was used to. If this is true, I would think you'd want to make sure that someone there is familiar with your engine, so they don't end up working against a deadline, like Summer vacation.
 
A high school near me just raffled off a ~1969 Dodge Charger they totally rebuilt /restored. I loved auto shop and a project like yours would have been awesome -I went on to college to suck up more auto education -then I kept fixing boats (started doing that at 16) Finally got an engineering degree and went to New Process Gear. -It all started at home with my dad and then in shop class
 
Time for an update to my game plan to get the CJ-2A running:
After coming to the conclusion that my budget does NOT include professional restoration shop labor, I reached out to the Davis High School Shop Teacher. Today he replied as follows:

"So, in a nutshell, the auto tech program could be of use for your project. We have been approached by folks like you in the past with similar vehicles, goals, dreams, histories, etc. The way it would work and the only way it would work for us is if you are willing and able to volunteer with us to lead the project. Projects like this need to be lead by someone for whom the project is “their baby”. It’s not my baby or the students’ baby, so that would be you. If you are there daily during our class meetings, I can devote shop space to the project and give you a small group of students for whom this would be a long term project, but we would need you to be the project leader, driving the project every day, working with the students, while I provide a variety of supports, technical and otherwise. This scenario works best for a retired person or person of sufficient means/free time to devote. You would not be the first to play this role in the shop, nor I suspect the last.

The advanced auto class, for which your Jeep would be a project, starts in September and runs through early June. The class meets for approximately two hours every afternoon from around 12:30-2:30 PM. If you think you are able to volunteer in the shop most of those days and months (allowing for vacations, days off, etc.), then I can give you the students, the shop space, tools, and resources to make a considerable amount of affordable high-quality progress towards your goals.

Let me know if you are interested, then we can begin to discuss specifics and logistics. Last very important bit of context for this email. Your project would be one of many projects in one class of many auto shop classes and students. I think that is important info for you to know.

Any questions or concerns, please let me know! Thank you for your interest in the DSHS Auto Tech Ed Program!

Now I am not retired, however, as a "one-man office" I can adjust my hours as needed. I like the idea of coming alongside the students and working together - hopefully building some camaraderie in the process.

So between now and September, I am going to:
-Retrieve the Jeep from the Auburn VW restoration specialist and tow it to my garage here until the class starts.
-Study up on the Service Manual
-Keep viewing more of Brian Hainer's (aka metalshaper) shop videos
-Take pictures and post on this forum (I'll start a build thread) - including asking you guys "What do I have?" Someone has already posted that I have combat wheels on the front, a late '50's speedometer, an exhaust manifold that may be off a Jeepster. What other oddities may be present?. So in other words, I'll be counting on this community to help me, and the students, through the journey.
-View Vintage Don's thread on his '46 CJ-2 build
-Am I missing anything?
 
I'm sure if I volunteered to lead the project with the students, it would take over 20 year's to get it done (sorta like when I led myself, on a volunteer basis.:)
 
Having students to be an example to will definitely help keep the project moving forward!
 
Maybe link Hainer's videos to your student group. Perhaps one or two at a time as Brian covers a topic that your group is going to be working on.
Linking Don's threads could be educational and entertaining for the students as well. Just make sure there are no rabbit lovers in the group.
 
I totally agree. As I am finding those resources educational, so will they. And if I misspeak about something in those threads or resources and if they've seen them, they can straighten me out! Keep each other on the straight path.
 
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