Wrecked 93 EZGO School Project

[Bajrang]

I've added an album showing some of the kid's build, it can also be found on www.morethanthecar.com just click on the red buggy.

[Bajrang]

sorry, I'm trying to figure this all out. I'll try to get them in order.

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/album...id=4005&page=2

THAT is beyond cool !!!!

[Muddog]

Sir. you are an incredible person. I bow down to the ground to you.
You are teaching these kids good work skills, but more importantly, you are teaching them one of the most valuable of life lessons.
That is, take pride in your work, take your time and do it right.
Honesty,faith,patience, willingness to help your fellow man, caring for Mother Nature's creatures and pride in what you do are the cornerstones of life.
Children are the future and I know that these kids you are guiding are going to grow up to make the future better. Some of these kids are going to surprise you with how well they're going to do in life. Then again, maybe not, you might already know.
I know why you do this. Still how good is the feeling to see the look of pride and happiness on a child's face when they accomplish something they didn't think they could do and couldn't have without your guidance?
There's now 129,625 members on BTW and we're behind you all the way and will do what we can help, just reach out to us (actually I can't speak for the other 129,624, let me know otherwise and we'll count you out).
If you post your location in your profile, I bet you'll find people nearbout who will help.
Thank you for what you are doing to make the world a better place.
Muddog

[cgtech]

I love it! I took all the shop type classes I could when I was in HS. The classes have been sliced down to something I wouldn't recognize now days. We did "build your own bike" races for metal fab class, with two goals, cross country race, and drag race. We whipped up in the cross country race a couple of years, and I still have that bike from my senior year. I have used it in many activities since then (including normal stuff, like transport around town, and I have to admit it has hauled a couple beers in its day, after I was of age of course. It is really still around, I'm 35. Really needs a new chain right now). Those were the activities that kept me engaged in school. Now days the school I graduated from only offers the "first year" version of those classes, only book time, with no "hands on" that came with the second & third years of those classes, where hands-on was most of time spent. I truly appreciate that you are keeping the building alive in the system. It really was a driving factor that kept me happy to go there & get it done. We had "cut away" engines to study with systems highlighted by paint colors, I wonder how they disposed of them..

i have no idea what help you need but all my resources are at your disposal

[Bajrang]

Thank you so much cgtech and crash test dummy, you're very kind.

To Muddog. Wow! I don’t think anyone has quite “gotten it” like you just did. The name of our website (morethanthecar.com) came from the mouth of a 14 year-old girl in reply to a ESPN reporter’s question about their Sprite that had just brought a record price at an RM auction. “Oh it was really much more than just about the car.”
Around 2000 I formed a Blue Grass / Folk band with four of my Jr. High girls and played together every Thursday night for four years. During that time, we preformed at Fairs, parties and even an animal shelter. In 2003, two of the girls asked if I could teach them about ‘old cars,’ and general auto mechanics. The story is well covered on the website (http://www.morethanthecar.com/teamsprite/) so I won’t say too much here, other than the most important and unexpected lessons of the project was the encouragement and generosity of total strangers, worldwide. People would send us a needed and unavailable part, right off their own car, and not even accept reimbursement for the shipping. The picture the media and music industry paints of the world doesn’t find generosity, kindness and encouragement exactly newsworthy; with billboards, MTV, and music all shouting, “It’s all about me,” And as far as cars, the only women you see at a garage are on the calendars, generally dressed in a way you wouldn’t want your daughter to dress, and holding a spark plug or can of oil like it was a vial of anthrax. The Sprite was an all girls’ class, taking 18 months to turn 21 boxes of unlabeled parts, twisted lump of wire and a rusted tub into an award-winning car. Team Isetta (http://www.morethanthecar.com/team-isetta.html) was a four + year project, with one boy (who stuck the whole project out), and revolving class of two to three girls between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. Classes met once a week, as well as after school and on weekends. All three projects, Sprite, Isetta and buggy aimed, as well, at gaining some confidence on the everyday physical plane, we rewired defective table-lamps, fixed leaking garden hoses, replaced burned out AC outlets, washers in faucets, and fixed toasters, fans, and vacuum cleaners.
Twelve to sixteen is a perfect age for a class like this, particularly with girls. They have ability to focus, a high fuss level, longer attention spans, and are less likely to become board with the mundane tasks if they know the reason behind them. “That bolt will go here, it will show, so it needs to be perfect. I don’t need to tell you if it’s done, just bring it to me when you’re satisfied." They are aware that they are doing something unusual, something ‘out of the box.’

The lessons? On a mundane level, that most mechanical things, from pencil sharpeners to internal combustion engines, work on just a few simple principles, and that most things can be fixed with a little mechanical understanding and the proper tools. Camaraderie, team-work, flexibility and compromise (working through differences), perseverance, critical thinking, commitment to a goal and standard, the ability to improvise, aesthetics, sharing in others successes and appreciation for their achievements, self discipline, managing money (each project had a bank account with the kids able to sign checks), focus and the results of carelessness, responsibility to the car and class, reward in seeing an idea through and that skills are not defined by gender.
Not to be afraid of tools, and I guess, if it is already broken, and doesn’t belong to your dad, why not take it apart and try to see why it isn’t working?
The days of a father or uncle showing a newly licensed youngster how to diagnose an engine noise, find a bad fuse or even change a tire, has been replaced with the gift of a cell phone and a AAA card.
In the last two years, the net results of a misspent youth has limited my hands, back and lungs to working on Golf Carts, and the occasional bird house, so I only work with two kids per term, but I absolutely love it. I didn’t start teaching until I was fifty (23 years ago), and it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve every done. If you have any passion, contact a local school and see if they might be interested in offering a class. You only have to stay a day ahead of the kids, and don’t overlook the young ones.
One more thought, if the project is “cute” it engages their hearts as well, a very important thing. That's one of the reasons I was trying to find a used California Roadster body. If you know who would be a good contact, please pass it along.
We even had a telephone call from Jay Leno thanking us for some pictures we sent. Unfortunately, he got my answering machine, but still, that was pretty cool, and I still have the recording.
Sorry I waffled on for so long, you can tell how much I enjoy being a part of it.

[Mooncarter]

Nicely put.