Trade and vocational school inexpensive work

[Restorer32]

Many times on these forums comments are made to the effect "contact your local trade or vocational school. Often they will do automotive work cheaply or free just for the experience". Has anyone ever actually had such work done satisfactorily or is this one of those urban legends? The latest variation is "they will often do computer work cheaply just for the experience".

[JV Puleo]

I have, albeit in a situation where I knew the instructor and he asked if he could use my project as a teaching tool. I agreed and presumably it worked out well. He was pleased with the result although I haven't seen it. He showed his student's work to another instructor who asked if his department could complete the project. I agreed to that as well and sent them the requisite materials. In the meantime, their schedule was changed and now it appears that, while I will get the job, it will not be until the fall - close to one year after it began. This is a very long term project so that isn't actually a problem for me as there is plenty more to do. I've rearranged my work schedule to suit the situation but I can readily see where many - if not most collectors would find this sort of thing impossible to work with. Personally, I wouldn't do something like this unless I knew the adults connected to the project and / or it involved making something which could be used or not if it didn't meet expectations. Usually there are clear limitations on how "commercial" the project can be...  meaning it can't be commercial at all.

 

These situations do exist. Currently I think the most likely is in the area of computer modeling and 3D printing. Keep in mind that education professionals are often the first to leap at what they perceive as "new" technology. They don't often really understand it and frequently underestimate its limitations. Their goal is to appear up-to-date, often to an audience that knows as little or less than they do. The sort of discussion that has gone on here about just how practical some of the new technology is, often doesn't take place. Its good just because its new, with little or no reference to practical applications.

Edited May 21, 2015 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[39BuickEight]

The local high school here (thanks to the teacher) is the go to place for lawnmower repairs and service.  Not sure about cars.

[misterc9]

A friend of mine teaches at the local community college. They have an auto program. He's friends with the auto teacher and brought his ten year old car in for simple minor repairs. He had to sign a legal release first. He paid for the parts. The results were disasterous. It cost him way more to get the car straightened out at a regular garage than the original repair would have cost. It wasn't just the students who learned a lesson that day.

Edited May 21, 2015 by misterc9 (see edit history)

[Larry W]

I took an auto body repair class at a local community college a few years back in hopes of gaining some auto restoration skills. Understandably, I was the oldest kid in the class. First of all, note that auto body repair classes and auto restoration are two different entities. In the auto body repair class, only vehicles five years old or newer, were brought in, needing body REPAIR, solely at the teacher's discretion. Young folks were taught the latest skills needed to earn a living, repairing damaged late model vehicles. No rust buckets were allowed in the class, and no rust repair was done. Someone looking for cheap labor on an old car might inquire at an auto RESTORATION class. The class went for two semesters and I learned quite a bit about doing body work on my own vehicles, all while having one of the most fun and rewarding times of my life. But, I worked mostly on other people's cars except for my mother-in-law's '94 Cutlass. Knowing my disdain for Asian Imports, the teacher asked if I'd be willing to work on one and I said "sure, if I screw it up, it's no great loss!"

Edited May 21, 2015 by Larry W (see edit history)

[fordrodsteven]

I had a '73 MACH 1 that I took to the local school ( in 2002) when I lived in Rock Hill SC. I removed all the trim before bringing the car to them. It was a rust free California car. The paint was in very sad shape. They sanded the whole car, primed and repainted. I had the front and rear windows professionaly replaced while it was at the school body shop. I got the car back at the end of the school year and was very pleased with the final product. The only issue I had was the stripe on the passenger side was slightly out of place (too low by about 1/2") I re-assembled the trim and had an outstanding vehicle at one third the cost of my lowest quote from the local body shops. I only paid for materials. High school labor was free. I don't know if I was just "lucky" or if that school usually turned out good quality work.

[Guest]

When I was in college our automotive technology classes always had cars from the outside to work on. This was done to provide the real world experiences that technicians needed. The only students that worked on outside cars were the senior year students. This worked very well for us.

If in this statement this ever happened......" The results were disastrous. It cost him way more to get the car straightened out at a regular garage than the original repair would have cost. It wasn't just the students who learned a lesson that day."

I can tell you that sort of thing never happened in at my college! Every project we did had to be signed off and inspected in stages by our instructors plus all the road testing etc.. Our instructors were true professionals and not only were they college grads themselves, but worked in the REAL world as technicians as well. They had made a impact on my life that has lasted up to now forty four years.

[Harold]

Back in the seventies one of my college professors had his fairly-new car repaired and repainted in the local automotive high school.   The results were very nice.

[misterc9]

Disastrous .    They put valve cover gaskets on an Oldsmobile but got the wrong gaskets. They put them on anyway. The car was leaking oil so bad  that it caught fire on the way home. Luckily a truck driver had a fire extinguisher and put it out. Lots of burned plug wires and vacuum hoses plus a tow job .Our shop fixed it.  We won't mention the name of the school.

Edited May 22, 2015 by misterc9 (see edit history)

[Guest AlCapone]

The local college Woodworking class built me a garage for cost off materials. I then donated $500 dollars for their efforts. It does not hurt to reward them with lunch time pizza. After doing a valve job on my 52 Pontiac I bought them pizza and it was like I had given them a fortune. Wayne

[edhd58]

I had a local high school auto repair class rebuild a 62 Rambler flat head 6 a few years ago. I was warned by another person that had work done to check out the work very carefully before I started the motor. I did and found they had not done several things right, plus for an unknown reason the had taken the front shaft tube off the trans and dropped all the ball bearings in the bottom of the trans. I wound up taking the whole engine/trans apart to put everything right.

[Bhigdog]

Thing is you can hear the same horror stories about a "professional" shop....................Bob

[60FlatTop]

The touchy spot with trade schools operated publicly can be the unfair competition to competing businesses that are paying taxes to support the public schools. School operated printing and catering services are a common example. I haven't seen any legal action on the car repair side, although a very successful school could get into a legal mess.

Bernie