So, I started my new job in september and it prohibited me from working on my car!!! (not so much prohibit, but I was beat after each day) So finally tonight I grabbed my little brother and got my passenger side door finally back on the car. So finally some progress has been made.. pictures to follow.

Now for the news on the new car. My new job is teaching a high school automotive course. ( Technology teacher!!!) so I was looking for another project car that needed mechanical . Since my 78 was past the mechanical point in the project. So i stumbled upon a 1980 Z-28. From the original owner ( Who happened to be a family friend) So i got the car and with help from my students are in the process of bringing the car back to life. So far we have rebuilt 90 % of the brake system and finding new rust spots we have to fix. The car has no engine. But i have a small block and a 350 tranny laying around. So we will go with that. I will get more pictures to follow. So now I have the 1978 Z and the 1980 Z !!!!!!!

 

looks good, i go to a career center for welding. but our automotive kids dont work on such great cars like these. Unless i bring my camaro down for some small stuff , but nice project

 

I wish we worked on cool cars. The last car I remember working on was a Chevette. The tranny of all things. I still stop in from time to time and see the teacher. He says kids now days have no real interest in working on cars. He call it a car wash class. Sad very sad.

 

Wash & wax 101.

 

I felt bad for him. He had drag racers come in and talk about valve seat angles and how the affected power. Long stories about him and his assistant street racing down a street that was vacant back then, now its part of my sub division. Now kids just want to put rims on a car and a stereo in the trunk.

 

Well, being a gear head my entire life, I am trying to get kids out of the wash my car mode and into the work on car mode. So far I think I have been pretty successful. I mean we do not get into hard core stuff like the angle of the valve seats. But our first unit was the four stroke theory. and with the project car we are going through each system as we refurbish them. We have also worked on my bosses 67 Mustang. We have done some custom cold air intake stuff, and a monster tach in a kids new charger and countless oil changes and brake jobs. I also have a small metal lathe in my classroom. So I am getting students on that. (It is a mandatory project. One kid made a sick light saber.) I will have my students take some pictures tomorrow of our progress.

 

One thing I learned for certain was that every car MUST have a work order. When the superintendent of schools had his breaks done someone filled the M/C with engine oil. No one knew who did it. No one confessed either. It turned into a big deal after the rubber lines got soft and blew. My teacher told me they didn't know if someone was trying to kill him or made a mistake. Teacher's butt was in a sling for not having proper work orders.

 

The thing about that is, all chemicals are locked in a fire proof cabinet, that only I and the other technology teachers have. So that is one way around workorders , the other is, that I do not tell students who's car it is we are working on. when the kids ask who's car it is, they get the same response every time " My grandmothers car". We have had the principals car in the shop and they are none the wiser. So it works pretty well with out vandalism. And I am pretty fortunate about the school I am at. Majority of the students are really good kids. The worst thing they will do it Tweet about each other.... But they love the camaro. and the work ethic on it is very high.

 

Thats cool. I like the Grandmother deal. They should all work on cars thinking theirs will be driving it. It should help them take pride in their work.

 

It's always nice to have Automotive courses, my college does any and all automotive work for free as long as the the owner has the correct parts