McPherson College Auto Shop Program needs the old car communities help

McPherson College Auto Restoration Program needs the old car communities help

Happy New Years day to all, we have picked this day to start out The Old Motor fundraiser to help The McPherson College Automotive Restoration Program which many young H.A.M.B. members also attend. The non profit College in McPherson, Kansas, needs our help to be able to obtain needed equipment, which will help with furthering the education of the students. Follow along and learn more about the College and its restoration program.


The Automotive Restoration Technology Program at McPherson College was established in 1976 through the generosity and foresight of local entre-preneur Gaines H. “Smokey” Billue, who provided funds for the construction of Templeton Hall along with additional operating capital through the donation of a portion of his classic and antique car collection – an initial investment of over $2.5 million.

This unique automotive restoration program attracted the attention of classic car enthusiast Jay Leno. In 1997, Leno established the Fred J. Duesenberg Scholarship at McPherson College to provide financial assistance for automotive restoration students. One year later, Leno combined forces with Popular Mechanics magazine to provide a full scholarship each year for a sophomore restoration student, you can learn more about it here.

The school is very well equipped, but always has the need for new and additional equipment and that is what this fund raiser is all about. Wanting to further the students educations, they need our help to to obtain the following equipment.

Any amount towards any needed item, no matter how small will be more than welcome. You can also buy any particular tool or piece of equipment and contribute the full amount for it also if you would prefer. All contributions will go 100% directly to the program and the College. Please take a moment to stop by The Old Motor for information about the school and the fundraiser and we also have a couple of interesting videos where you can learn more.

And big thank you from us and the College for for helping them out if you can. And just remember two things; the help we were given by others when we we younger and by helping the students today, they may down the road help us with our own cars as they are the FUTURE.

 

Well the first thing they really need is a purchasing agent for that stuff at realistic prices.
The weld shop could make the 5 tables with some donated left over materials. You know like real world guys do. (And so on )

 

Those are all very good thoughts and I will pass them onto to them. The problem is the school is a non profit and any of the students that enroll only have time for the classes.

Many street rod orentated kids go there and start out their own shops later.

Adam Banks of Manteno IL from Rad Rides by Troy is on their board of directors.

Jay Leno also helps them out a lot.

 

That is a good place I will help Thanks for posting

 

Fred, thanks for the support I hope others will check it out and help them as well as these kids will be the FUTURE

 

Purely hypothetical at this point

So as an individual, I could donate an actual physical table or two to the school ?
They then would have more liquid assets from other donations to put towards their Yoder or other big ticket items?

 

If we were to decide to choose one item to donate for as a HAMB member donated item what would the choice be. Rather than just send a few bucks for the tool kitty we could direct those bucks towards one piece of equipment.

 

Yes that is the case, but they would be happy with any kind of help at all. Even if it was only twenty bucks as it all adds up and they can buy the equipment that they really need but can never seam to be able to stretch for.

As I mentioned earlier a lot of kids that are into street rods, racing and motorcycles have also gone thru the school.

A lot of big name people in the Old Car World have helped them and continue to help them.

If anyone has any questions there are many links on theoldmotor.com to the schools website and you can learn everything about them. Comment here or there and I will try to answer any questions. And thanks for considering helping them.

 

I bet they would be very happy if The H.A.M.B. members got behind and picked out something.

If there is enough support I will check with them in the morning and see what they need the most.

Thanks for asking.

 

I am hoping you guys would take a look at this and help the school if you can. Thanks so much, David Greenlees

 

Below are photos and info on some of the things they have done recently, sent to me by my friend Chris Paulsen (in the red shirt) a teacher at the school.



This is a pedal car they customized for The Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California, last year when they were celebrating the 80th anniversary of the 1932 Ford V-8. When they offered us a stock 1932 Ford pedal car to customize, we quickly accepted. This pedal car is one of nine built by shops or individuals for this celebration.

To create this pedal car, the body was heavily modified, leaving the top of the hood and truck lid as the only parts unchanged. The track-nose grill was hand fashioned by a student as were the matching bulges on the hood sides. The aluminum grill insert is many individual pieces welded together before polishing. The all wood dash was added with handmade aluminum gauges (speedometer, tachometer, oil pressure). The steering wheel was hand fabricated using an aluminum spider and ring encased in wood. It has a full interior featuring door panels and pleated seats. The trunk is fully trimmed as well with carpet and black cardboard panels. The axles were lowered and the wheels were changed. The tires were stenciled “Firestone” by hand. The headers were also made here using old bicycle handlebars. After fabrication, they were sanded and buffed before copper and nickel plating: all done in-house, of course. The paint is several coats of hand rubbed lacquer. To top it all off is a handmade wooden shipping crate.

You can read more about it and see many more photos here.



Below are photos that Chris Paulsen a teacher at the school sent along with some of the details



Here is a Model T speedster we've been working on lately.





Here is a photo of the 1929 Model A Station Wagon we finished a few years ago. Students assembled the chassis, built the body from scratch, and did the complete restoration.



I thought I'd share a photo of the 1957 Fairlane we are restoring. It's coming along quite nicely. The body work is finished. It's been painted and most of it has been color sanded and polished. Mechanically its rebuilt everything and should have it running soon. I should mention that when I say 'we' I mean the students.
Thanks for looking,
Chris Paulsen
McPherson College

And a big thanks to Ryan for making this sticky

Thanks all of you who have responded, it is great to see how generous people can be to help out a good cause but they still need your help. To learn more stop by theoldmotor.com for more details.

 

Thanks for posting. Our shop will see what we can do. You may need to make it more clear that this is a Not-For-Profit school. I had to dig a bit to find out. It may make donor's $$$ a bit easier to get. Just a thought.....

 

Nice work on the pedal car! "FRA-Gi-LE, it must be French" haha

As far as the equipment you need, It would seem to me that you could hit up some companies that make the things you need to sponsor or donate this equipment even down to your local steel/raw materials supplier to donate some of the raw materials to make tables or other needed items, especially since it is a non-profit and thus would be tax-deductible. Many companies can appreciate that if the students are using their products while learning that it is highly likely that they will continue using the products out in the real world, especially knowing that the company was cool enough to donate those things! Hit up some of the companies, you will be surprised what they will probably help the college out with. Then keep us updated about which company donates what here on this thread-free advertising showing the good will of those companies.

 

HAMBer Joe (lowtruck) McCollough is a student @ McPherson College ... checkout his Scratch-built '32 grill shell... thread.

Wayne Carini visited McPherson College in May of 2012 to film the "Wayne's Apprentice" episode of Chasing Classic Cars ... here's an excerpt from that episode featuring Joe's work:

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Thanks to all for you comments and insight. Yes the college is a non-profit and we have the payment system to contribute set up so that you can help by mail by printing the form or electronically and 100% goes right to the school directly. Just be sure to mark your contribution as for "Auto Restoration Equipment"

The fundraiser is meant to be more of a grass roots effort by TheOldMotor.com which is also a non-profit formed to help give back. Unfortunately running my shop and The Old Motor is a 16 hr a day job and I don't have the time to contact manufacturers, but thanks to help from Ryan here at the H.A.M.B., Hemmings Motor News and others some are starting to come on board.

If any of you have the time to help contact manufacturers in the field to help contribute to this fundraiser contact me and we can go to work.

As you know many big name people help the school including Wayne Carini and Jay Leno and Wayne is seen here last summer at the school.

And just remember two things; all the help we were given by others when we we younger and by helping the students today, they may down the road help us with our own cars as they are the FUTURE.

Many thanks to all,

David Greenlees

 

David, It was great to speak to you on the phone today. We are going to help the school in any way we can. Hope to hear from the "powers that be" there soon. By the way, I went to www.theoldmotor.com and it really looks great! You should be proud! Awsome work! Contact me any time.

 

Some amazing work! I love that Model A.

 

I have read all of the threads but have never seen anything about where the school is located. Not that it makes any difference, just curious.

 

McPherson College is located in McPherson, KS.
If you attend the Starbird/Devlin Rod and Custom Show in Wichita, KS, January 18 - 20, 2013, stop by the McPherson College booth and look at some of their work. They also do a demonstration multiple times per day where they completely dissamble a Model T and reassemble it and get it running in less than 20 minutes. Outstanding demonstration.

 

I want to go there....like really really badly.

I'll see what I can rustle up for a donation.

 

A great way to learn more about McPherson's program is to visit them at their campus in McPherson, Kansas, next weekend at one of their special "VISIT DAYS"

You need to sign you first and more details are here on their website.

 

The South Omaha Automotive Brotherhood, The South Omaha Turds will be kickin down a donation for this super program. Our pal Paul Kruse of Poverty Flats fame has been very active in supporting and promoting this fantastic school, we know it is the real deal when Pov is for it. Best wishes for a great year at McPherson in "Lucky 13". ~sololobo~

 

I wish I were much younger and would have the opportunities that you are providing. I'm happy to make a donation and will keep you in mind for further donations in the future.

 

Having been a summer class student in the Trimming class, I can say the school is first class. I'll be sending some $ there way in a couple of weeks. The furnace repair man got $500 from me yesterday , other please do help them out it is a great cause.

 

Larry, Way to go dude.......We all know what a great thing you SOT boys are doing for this cause. Outstanding school for sure.

 

Just a thought, but you could check out a site like GoFundMe.com in order to raise funds. You can link it to your FB and then friends can also link it so it can be seen by a large number of people. It's easy to donate and I've contributed to a few things from those sites without really knowing anyone related to the fundraising campaign.

 

Our fund raiser to to benefit The McPherson College Restoration program has been going very well thanks to you our readers. Many have made very generous contributions and the shop is working with several individuals who want to donate equipment and one shop that maybe closing, has even offered all of its body shop equipment and tools.


But more help is still needed and we just ask that you take five minutes to make a donation directly to the non-profit College, located in McPherson, Kansas. Even if it is only ten dollars, it all adds up so please help them if you can. If you can help first off the most important thing to do with your donation is to mark it as being for “Auto Restoration Tools and Equipment”. You can learn more about doing so directly online here. If you are more comfortable sending in you donation you can print this form and send your contribution directly to them. You can also learn much more about the College and the fundraiser here.





Amanda Gutierrez who runs the Restoration program at the school has also asked me to post this ad for the College. They are looking for an assistant professor to help with the automotive and motorcycle engine rebuilding program. You can contact her at The College to learn more about the position.


The photos show the trimming shop at the very (top). Left to right (below); another photo of the trim shop, the wood shop with a student making a buck for forming sheet metal and a student working on a mechanical repair in the shop.

 

I saw that episode, I'll see what I can rustle up as well

 

I went throught that program, and a few of the cars I worked on are in the pics. Good times.

 

I attended a summer workshop there for metal working and i must say it's a first class operation. The only school that offers this type of major. They just don't slap some paint and call it good. Many parts have to be fabricated and it's amazing what the students can accomplish. My son graduated from McPherson but damn... wasn't interested in the Auto Restoration program. Great school and worthy of our support.