Palomar Tech Wrap Up

During 2024, I took 8 classes, 25 units. Most for mechanics, but one was an elective in Refinishing and one in Welding. I finished the program’s ten required classes Dec. 19th in five semesters; four is the quickest possible due to lack of instructors and classroom/lab space. I have a high priority level with scores of units, but others without that priority have been idle, taking only electives, unable to get the last few classes for a certificate needed for their promotion to mechanic. 

Folks ask if I learned anything about Model A’s, and while not specifically, I learned to use machines, tools, and chemicals on many different steel parts in a safe and focused way. You’d think that after almost 50 years in various garages, I’d have had that down, but when you’re taught to fix Model A’s with hammers, pipe wrenches, bailing wire, Bondo, and duct tape, and you’re happy if it only squeaks a little as it makes its way down the road (Just add more grease, Dave!), then classes like these have been truly eye openers. 

I also found when comparing what I’d learned to what’s communicated about Model A’s that some folks making comments on Ford Barn or writing articles in the Restorer included factory procedures and specifications. In past years, I’d read those details, but hadn’t noticed them. Who were these amazing people who knew that? 

Classes were fun because I met other antique car mechanics and we’d have lunch together and work on each other’s cars. Then, some really good students, who were mostly taking electives any way, wanted to practice on our cars, eat lunch with us and get to know us. 

I had tried handing out old Restorers and Model A News, donuts on International Model A Day, flyers promoting specialized restoration training at McPherson College, and flyers promoting the money available as Model A Youth Restoration Awards and you know that polite smile you get right before your grandkid buries his face behind his cell phone playing Minecraft? They wanted to be mechanics, and I got a whole lot of that. 

Early in the year, I commented on a post in the MAFCA Facebook group as to how to get young people interested in the hobby mentioning my experiences and desire to start a fraternity of mechanics. I even called it the Grease Monkeys. Some men back East liked my ideas and wanted to form a club, but when I tried to contact them to follow up and actually do it, they wouldn’t respond. I wonder if soon after they said they liked my idea, they played Minecraft. 

I spent quite a while considering my future, the hobby’s future, and even my community’s future without organizations that preserve history, inspire and educate young people, and correct common myths and misconceptions. What if the “answer” to all this was everyone taking the Blue Pill (Matrix reference) and living virtually, playing Minecraft and repairing cars with bailing wire and duct tape, rather than noticing factory procedures and specifications, working together, making friends, and completing your goals the right way? 

My confidence grew because I knew I wouldn’t have to do everything alone. I had made friends, there were teachers, and even amazing mechanics contributing to the hobby already. There were plenty of people with the same understanding of the world that I now had. I just hadn’t met them yet.