a little o/t but what are your thoughts on wyotech?

I would say it depends on you, me personally I didnt go to school. and when I hired someone, I went through 3 guys from wyotech, befor I hired the kid who worked on cars in his front yard. Not everyone has the same drive, why do you want to go to wyotech. do you want to work at a shop? open your own shop? from the looks of your avatar, it looks like you have a hot rod. Im my opinion if you want to work at a rod shop. I would take some of that money that school would cost. buy a tig
buy an angle grinder, and get some sheatmetal tools from eastwood. then I would buy all the covell videos, start with sheet metal shaping with hand tools, watch them over and over, become obsested with metal shaping, get I job so you can pay your bills, watch videos and work on all your friends cars for free on your time off. walk into a rod shop with some experience under your belt not a mailbox. just my opinion. Sam Barris didnt go to school, nor did Gene Windfeild, or any one in the 50's or 60's for that matter

 

Jesus guys this schooling is expensive, Im sending my kid to a big ten school for a chemical engineering degree, already has kraft foods interested, costs 18 grand a year plus about 8 or 10 for housing and life money, If you guys can swing the math maybe you should go at this from an engineering platform at an accredited college, I taught the kid to weld in my shop on pipe per pipe fitters specs and she got a certification of a 99.9% pure weld from Tausig using a SMAW process.

 

Wyotech and UTI both suck,they just talk you kids into joining,get the big Gov. loan,and once you sign the papers they have there money and screw you,already seen to many guys go through the schools and don"t even know the basics,all the schools like this spend more time advertising than they do giving quality classes.only school worse than those 2 in the diesel institute that takes all the money from the loan,give out some tools and teach nothing.

 

Wrong UNOH is a private not for profit school, no government funding. As far as degrees, I beg to differ. UNOH is offering Masters programs as well. But then those degrees are junk as well HUH?

I would love to see you set up a drive-by-wire throttle on your hot rod, of course I'm sure you can find it online please show me.

A mechanic can't teach someone how to be a mechanic? So if you learn by watching is it not still learning? Any mechanic (if patient enough) can teach ANYONE how to work on something. If someone was to just "do" something they may hurt or kill themselves or others, thats why there are schools like this. Remember when getting under a car with a bumper jack was ok, ya thats how I want to learn......

 

No schools back then, Chip Foose went to school but hes a nobody right?

 

Thats why UNOH doesn't advertise. Oh and if a student doesn't like it they aren't out the whole amount, its a pay as you go place.

 

geezus,, not everyone needs to go to school.

if its your thing go ahead, learn what you can, but dont bitch about having 30 grand + worth of bills to pay.

My advice? Find a local chassis/fab/machine shop and sweep floors. Start at the bottom like the rest of us.

If you do go to the school and are looking for a job, dont come in and tell me you were the best in the class and procceed to tell me all you learned, and when I hand you a helmet and a tig torch look at me like I'm the dumbass because you never actually learned to weld.

 

Is that what they waste the studen'ts time with? A wire hooks up to a power source, and delivers a signal. Anybody with half a brain can learn the symbols and teach himself how to read a schematic, without a fuckin' teacher pointing it out. Nope, I won't show anybody that has a 'show me' attitude, anything.

One day, or not, you will realize that we all learn it by doing it. Watching somebody else is entertaining, but only slows the process. Save the money you would have spent on paying a teacher's salry for buying a car to work on.................

 

Your so smart, I bet you popped out of the womb and grabbed a wrench and started to fix cars. I bet you never learned a thing from a teacher huh? BTW your wrong on the DBW.

 

I guess my point went over your head.

 

na just being a smart alic

 

Yes, the Art Center in Pasadena. A REAL school with tons of history.

 

Wow, I've typed and deleted a reply at least five times. I agree with a lot of comments here, especially Seret's, and this is coming from someone whom went through a university, has 2 degrees and uses neither professionally... As well, I was a teacher.

I am a big believer in learning, finding information, and being passionate about things. The biggest thing I learned after all my education was that I wasn't following my passions. I'm now working on developing a whole new career and I'm not going back to school for it. I know how to read, I know how to find information, and I can think critically... but it's being in action and passionate about what you do that'll make you successful.

So, save up some money, stay out of debt, and really think about what you want... and go after it.

 

Sure I learned from teachers.

It's called elementary school, the sole purpose of which was to teach kids how to read, and think, and apply what they read. High School was simply more of the same................

Right after my first grade teacher, Mrs. Edwards taught me to read and write, from then on, I showed up, did the assignments, and rarely, if ever, learned shit from a lecture. .........that I couldn't find the same stuff in a book

In VocTech schools, it's just more of the same. Coddling kids that haven't learned to think for themselves. Somewhere along the way you (might) grow out of the need for somebody to show you something you could learn by yourself. I hope you do.

 

Shizzelbamsnapper,you my man must have attended one of these schools you are so up on,aren"t you the idiot that bought the wheels ,didn"t check to see if they would fit your car ,then came on here and blamed it on Summit,sounds like you need to shut up and take advice instead of being a smartass know it all.

 

Not every school or class is for everyone.
I wouldn't attend any school without checking it and the town out first.
First I'd have to ask what a prospective really wants to do. Will that school teach that effectively?
Do you and your lifestyle fit the school? Do or can you fit in?
Will the local fit you? Even for a few months or couple of years?
Can you handle being away from home?
Can you handle being away from the significant other?
Can you handle being away from your homies?

I had former students go to both Wyo Tech and the Arizona schools and the biggest complaint from either was having to deal with fellow students who had no prior knowledge or experience. Some that went to Phoenix had trouble with the locals not wanting them in "their" part of town.

The dress code thing at Wyo Tech may seem silly and outdated to some but welcome to the real adult world of work. Out in the real world a high percentage of top quality dealerships and high end independents are going to have some sort of dress code and that is what that school is preparing those guys for. For the most part looking the part is part of the job be it at the Cadillac Dealership or an independent Hot rod shop.
Kids get shortchanged a lot today because a vast number of school districts don't offer any real auto mechanics, body and paint or welding classes anymore or send the students who want those classes to a regional skill center where they may spend as much travel time as they spend class time. That means that a lot of guys are walking into Wyo Tech, UTI or other schools with no prior training and no real skills at the start.
We see that here on the HAMB 24/7 when guys ask questions that are basic first semester high school auto shop stuff. Nothing wrong with that because a lot of guys don't get into cars until they are out of school and have been through other things first.

 

Nothing wrong with a local college. And working in a resto shop already you are on the correct track. Just bust you ass and do the best work possible.

 

Um no didn't buy any wheels, you need to reread your threads. That was Sk_Rodz.

I did attend one of those schools if you had bothered to read my original post in this thread.

 

+1 Couldn't agree more.

 

I graduated there in 2004, and it is exactly how KrisKustom put it, you get what you put into it. If you go there with a willingness to learn, you will love it much like I did. I took collision and refinishing with street rod fabrication electives and also chassis fabrication and high performance engines. It was a great experience, learned a ton, met a lot of cool people. Highly recommended. But I will say the town of Laramie does suck ass! More police per capita than any other city in the U.S., and the do not like the "techer's" very much.

 

Agree! I went to PIT in the early '80s had a good time and learnd some stuff too, but it was the job I had at a British Sports Car shop in Tempe when I was there that tought me what it was all about. Still the expirience was Gold!

 

Well, we can always count on 29Nash to open the keyboard and stick his size whatever in his mouth on anything like this.

Your theory may work if one only had to work on 1929 Nash Automobiles but out in the real world one has to deal with a lot of different issues if he or she is going to be at the top of the game in the field.

Today, welding for others when building chassis often means that you have to be certified for your product to be able to pass a state inspection. Buying a use Lincoln 225 and sticking scrap metal together out in the carport isn't quite enough training in the majority of cases.

Being able to sort out an diagnose just about any system on new vehicles requires advanced training and being able to understand and follow specific diagnostic paths.

Being able to paint the new paints requires skills that weren't even invented back in the spray on three coats of lacquer, sand with six hundred and spray on three more and sand again. In the early 70's I had two young friends spray a late 40's Buick in Black Lacquer in the driveway with Laddie Segrest standing back and telling them the finer points of how to do it. That paint job turned out as nice as just about any paint job you saw at any rod trot in Texas that year. Neither had ever held a paint gun or attempted body work before starting on that car.

Yes, most of us can muddle our way though building our own car out in the garage next to the house with little or no prior knowledge. We can weld scrap together until we feel that it is safe to try to weld up a frame, we can go to the local Book store or online and buy a how to rebuild and modify almost any desirable engine book. We can even buy dvd videos that give us step by step instructions in some cases. Guys can come on the HAMB at just about any hour and hope that Squirrel, John Evens, Bruce Lancaster, Mr48Chev or one of a dozen other happens to be on and see their question and give a straightforward and honest answer to a question that may have been answered ten times in the last two weeks. Some just hope their rod will hold together and make it to the nearest NSRA event in hope that the Michigan Hot Rod Association guys will be there to straighten it out for them. You want to hear hot rod horror stories hang around those guys at an event for a while.
But for the majority of guys who want to go out and do it for a living and do it well they need to go to a school that can teach them what they need to know. Then they need to go back and get the special training they need to keep up with the new stuff.
My brother in law makes way more as a mechanic than I ever dreamed of when I enrolled in trade school 45 years ago but he takes classes all the time to keep up with the latest and busts his ass to be on top of his game. He also has about 70K invested in tools so that he can do the jobs faster and right.
Some of the guys on here with shops may take a guy off the street and start him with a broom and train him. Most will want a prospective employee to show up with marketable and documented skills. Some will even watch various people who are posting examples of their work on the board with the eye that that person may be a good fit in their operation.

 

my recomendation is a state school or a community college
you will live within driving distance of home and friends
go to a school or college that wants to get you a meaningfull job so the state can collect taxes from your new profession

I attended North Dakota state school of science for 4 years auto body and auto mech and it was a great school, and it is accredited so you get college transfer credits

attended a Minnesota tech school for one year as a Veteran[free tuition]
and I was not toatally impressed
shop around there are a lot of schools out there that need students
I went to tech in 1963 and the new big pay to go to school schools did not exhist then and the state schools did a good job then

 

Go get a license to work on aircraft, make 100k plus a couple of years later and work on your car as a hobby.....

 

IT SUCKS...........the end! When I was there in 2001 there were about 60 students to 1 instructor, if you fell behind you were left behind. Allot of it depended on paper coursework instead of hands on real world training. I would recommend a Technical College for the core skills and look for some privately owned advanced training elsewhere.

The weather there sucks too, the parties arent' much unless you head down to Colorado, the dress code is TOO STRICT, housing pretty much SUCKS with four guys in one tiny ass two bedroom apartment.

The only thing good about it is you get to meet and hang out with allot of cool people and check out quite a few cool cars.

 

go there, learn everything you can, dont be a f%$k up, and graduate..sounds easy...too bad most kids your age havent figured it out...I graduated from there 5 years ago at 25 years old...Still building cars professionally, and fabbing everyday. I was in pa last week and would go back to take the Hi po powertrain classes they now have...Keep your head on straight and work hard.....

 

That's funny, most A&P/A&I I know are starving.

 

unless you do that stuff in the military sorry had to be a dick

 

Mr48chev; You say "Well, we can always count on 29Nash to open..........."
"We" who? You got a fuckin' mouse in your pocket? And it's 29nash, for your information.

Your personal attack on what I know, or what my skills are, is based on??? You don't have a clue what my capabilities are.
I'm retired. I speak from my life's experiences.
My '29 Nash hot rod is my hobby, not my life's work. It's an escape, a fun machine. Your opinion or judgement of that isn't worth the price of one hill of beans.
After elementary education, any time I might have spent listening to somebody else tell me how to do something was paid for by my employer, safety requirements, etc. A kid don't need to go to voctech school to learn the safety rules, the mandate is on the employer. As far as paying somebody for that information, you gotta be shittin' me!

I'll take all the free advice I can get, but pay for someting I can learn on my own by reading and doing it? Fuck no.

The mechanics 'on top of the game', as you call it, (that I know) got a head start by going to work, not to VocTech schools. The quicker a kid gets into a shop and learns on the job, doing it, not listening to somebody talking about it, the better. A side trip to a voctech school might be entertaining, but a waste of time.

 

Here is the link to the Hot Rod Institute in Rapid City, SD that is a "hands on" school: http://www.hotrodinstitute.com/ During our Lake Area Roadsters Reliability Run we visited the school and I posted a lot of pics of what we saw there. A very impressive school! See them in this thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364477&highlight=lake+area+roadsters+reliability