The students continue to work...
The students continue to work in the windshield area.
Weyant worked on the left quarter panel of the Pontiac. "That was an enormous amount of work," said Steve Ames. The quarter panel had been improperly put in place in the past, and Weyant had to "work his ass off on that," Steve said. "He did not get discouraged. After he got done with the left quarter panel, he asked Joe if he could do the one on the right, because now, he'd figured it out. That's great. That's exactly what we want to see from these kids.
"All of them are doing well," Ames added. "Joe and the students are approaching this very, very well, and are going in the right direction. ...It's everything that I hoped it would be."
Other Pontiac hobbyists are also getting excited about the project. Macchioni said that some people who read about the GTO restoration have called him at the school, others have sent e-mails, and one man even visited the school to see it. "They're just really enthused about the project and the students working on it."
Although they love the process of restoring the Pontiac, the students also can't wait until the project is completed. "I just want it to be finished," Weyant said. Dodge and Thomas look forward to painting the GTO, and Thomas said she'd like to take it to the drag races.
The students plan to use the experience they're gaining in the real world as well. "It's helping us," Thomas stated. "I still want to work with cars," Sprucebank said. But if he doesn't have that opportunity, he realizes that "the skill I got from this shop I could use in iron work or something." Cleary agreed: "I could go in precision metals or something like that."
At Spring Carlisle, Carlisle Events purchased a sand blast cabinet (approximate value $900) from TIP Tools of Canfield, Ohio, for Dauphin County Technical School's auto shop.
A close-up of the GTO's taillight...
A close-up of the GTO's taillight panel and trunk lid shows off the studen't handiwork.
As you may have read, the project car was donated by the Carlisle Automotive Classrooms Foundation (CACF). CACF is a nonprofit organization founded by Carlisle Events in 2001 to help high school students get hands-on experience restoring classic vehicles. This year's project car is co-sponsored by Steve Ames of Ames Performance of Marlborough, New Hampshire.
The work-in-progress has a projected completion date of early October and sale of the GTO is scheduled for Fall Carlisle (October 1-5).
Money from the sale will go directly into the Carlisle Automotive Classrooms Foundation so that other students may continue to benefit from hands-on car restoration. The foundation will also donate some of the proceeds to Dauphin County Tech in the form of new equipment for the school's auto shop.
Keep up with the students' progress on Carlisle Events' and Ames Performance's Web sites, www.carsatcarlisle.com and www.amesperf.com. Visit the sites often to see how the work is coming along and to become better acquainted with the students.
As Steve Ames, member of the Automotive Restoration Market Organization, says, "Remember, the youth of today are the future of the hobby-take a kid to a car show."