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Washtenaw Community College student Jacob Joseph works on a 1969 Camaro in the Custom Cars & Concepts class.WCC customizes class for car buffs
Custom Cars & Concepts course is springboard for hobby, career or major school.
"As much as it's school and learning, it's also like a job, like running a small business," says Adam Hubers, left, working with fellow students Mike McShane and Greg MacIvor.
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ANN ARBOR -- Cassie Pascoe turned down a college music scholarship to pursue a different type of hobby and sound close to her heart-- engine revs and exhausts.
Pascoe and her fellow Washtenaw Community College classmates just orchestrated the transformation of a pair of late-1960s Chevrolet Camaros into popular showpieces for the 53rd annual AutoRama, the hot rod and custom car event held last weekend at Cobo Center.
"I also enjoy hearing an open header," Pascoe said of the unmuffled exhaust tone emitted by an American muscle car engine. "That's music, too."
Washtenaw Community College was established in the 1960s when area business leaders recognized a need for advanced occupational and career training to complement the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. Today, it is grooming students to fill critical automotive posts in service, fabrication and other technologies.
At the urging of Ralph Rendrick, a professor of occupational education at U-M, one of WCC's first missions was to prepare students for careers in the auto industry. For years, the school's welding program has been considered among the best in the country.
More than 300 students take classes offered by the school's Automotive Services department. The teaching staff includes six full-time and about 20 part-time instructors and covers such things as vehicle service; auto body repair; vehicle and engine restoration and fabrication; and power equipment technology.
Students who excel in Automotive Services classes are eligible for the Custom Cars & Concepts class that is earning national recognition for its vehicle design and build quality.
"The idea was to put together a class for the best of our best and at the same time address some of the needs of the industry," instructor Chris Finney said.
The class includes 16 students organized under student team leader Phil Davie. They work on five teams that do everything from office management and vehicle design to body and mechanical prep.
Students may have specialized skills, but with such a small group, everybody is permitted to get involved in all facets of a vehicle build program.
For example, Adam Hubers is often sanding and painting body panels when he's not working at the computer graphics terminal. Hubers hopes to advance from WCC to the prestigious Art Center College of Design, the Pasadena, Calif., school that has trained many of the auto industry's top designers.
"I came here not knowing anything about cars other than what you tamper with at home and doing my own oil change," said Custom Cars & Concepts class member Aaron Tredell "A.T." Barnes. "I'm going to come out of here building custom cars. It's not about the grades. It's about a permanent hobby, and maybe I can become a part-time instructor."
The Custom Cars & Concepts class was introduced nearly two years ago and has become one of the school's most popular offerings. Last October, it hosted its first on-campus car show.
To showcase their talents and training, members of the Custom Cars & Concepts class turned head instructor Gary Sobbry's new 2005 Dodge Magnum R/T wagon into the Purple Rain Magnum project vehicle -- and they did it in just 30 days.
The Purple Rain Magnum project so impressed officials at Chrysler that the automaker invited the students to include the vehicle in the company's display the following month at the 2004 Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas. Chrysler is one of several automakers talking with the class about future projects.
For AutoRama, students created a steel-bodied 1967 Chevrolet Camaro powered by a 500-horspoewer Chevrolet V-8 engine and a fiberglass-bodied 1968 Camaro drag racing car with a 632-cubic-inch, 2000-horsepower, nitrous-assisted Dart aluminum engine.
"It was awesome," Hubers said of the long AutoRama weekend. "A lot of people liked the steel-body drag car and, of course, the Magnum."
The class received a second-place trophy for the fiberglass drag car, a fifth-place trophy for the steel-body car. The Magnum placed fourth, without a trophy.
The team has been working in temporary space while the school's old wood shop is being converted into a new custom-car-building facility.
Because of the construction, there wasn't time or space to finish two other AutoRama vehicles: a classic 1952 Chevrolet pickup truck being built on modern mechanicals, including a highly modified Chevrolet S-10 chassis, and the installation of a nitrous and in-vehicle entertainment system for the Purple Rain Magnum.
"It would have been nice to take that '52 truck to AutoRama," Hubers said. "I'm graduating, but the next generation of students in CCC will up the skills and will take even better things to AutoRama next year."
Vehicle owners pay for all parts and materials but not for students' labor. However, private donations are accepted to fund scholarships and acquire equipment for the new shop.
While the class is helping attract more students and scholarship funds, it also has become a major career springboard for students.
"A lot of us will get really strong jobs (in the industry after graduation) or be able to continue our education at major schools," Hubers said.
The class already has several new projects lined up after AutoRama.
"We want each next project to outdo the Magnum," Hubers said. "That's part of the learning process because you learn from your mistakes."
And from others' mistakes as well. "I can't enjoy some cars like I used to," Barnes said. "Now I see the fish-eyes and runs in their paint."
Despite all the fun they have in class, there's still one real drawback. "There's no time to work on my own car anymore," Hubers said.
Larry Edsall is a Phoenix-based freelance writer.
"I came here not knowing anything about cars other than what you tamper with at home," Aaron Tredell "A.T." Barnes says.
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