"THE ARTISAN" High school 69 nova pro-touring build

[Artisan Motoworks Club]

Hi, my name is Paul Estrella and i am an Automotive instructor At Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School. We are in the beginning stages of building a 1969 pro-touring nova. We are building this car to demonstrate the unbelievable talents and skills that our students have. This is a project that is much bigger than building a car with a great group of kids. We Are teaching and demonstrating the importance of responsibility, accountability, and Productivity. We always encourage them to dream big, strive for greatness and never be afraid to work hard. We are school located 40 mins south of Boston and a demographic where many of these students have never seen a car like this or ever been in one. We are building this nova in collaboration with many of our shops within our building. We are currently in the process of having the visual design students create the artisan logo and a rendering of the vision of the build. We have met with the Internet tech and engineering students where they will be creating and maintain the website for the build. We a full machine shop,fabrication shop,collision repair shop and Automotive shop that will be highly involved in the build. We Have opened the opportunity for students that are in shops that are not involved to come work on the project after school.

[raustinss]

Hey Paul, looking forward to what this future generation has up their sleeves

[Artisan Motoworks Club]

Just brought the car for the students to see for the first time. This was some of the students on this cycle of shop. We Have roughly 70-80 students in automotive at a time and 140 -160 in the program. They spend 9 days in shop for 7 hours at a time. Once the 9 days are completed the rotations changes and they go to academics and those students return to shop. We have over 2200 students and 26 shops in our school. Projects like these are not funded by the school due to lack of funded. We are a public high school with the original New Bedford Voc being over 100 years old and automotive was one of the original shops.

[Peter Mc Mahon]

I see happy engaged kids, nice.

[Jk918]

In for this one sounds like a great program

[Artisan Motoworks Club]

Just want to Give a Big thanks Parke Bishop from Bishop Built Rides for donating a tubular radiator support to the cause. I won it for the door prize at the Pro-touring dinner this year and he is a complete class act. It is a complete piece of art and it is going to look amazing in our car. Thanks Again to everyone at the dinner for being so great and and reaching out to help at with some of needs to help this get done. Car people are the BEST!!

[Motown 454]

Great project! I'll be watching and enjoying every minute.

[Artisan Motoworks Club]

Had a real great day today with the kids today. We worked a deal out for a 2004 6.0. I traded some wheels i had that i was saving for a project and we have to pull the motor and trans out of the truck but can take everything but the transmission. If anyone knows a deal for a 5 or 6 speed we are looking. I would even buy one that needs to be rebuilt. trying to do this on a almost zero budget. We are going to sell the sbc out of it so i had the kids pull the valve cover and check the condition. Looks like a brand new set of push rods, roller rockers, screw in studs. I had them look up the id numbers of motor , heads and intake. Motor is a late 70's 4 bolt main, heads are 58cc 305ho heads and the intake is a pristine 1964-65 corvette L76 327 ,365hp winters intake. Gavin was in charge of looking up the parts identification. He was pretty excited to find out we can get 300-500 on evil bay for the corvette l76 intake. We have started our list of parts we are going to list for sale and stuff i have stashed away we can sell to come up with some funds. They really get into making something from nothing.

[Artisan Motoworks Club]

the kids also got the Rear trunk gaps perfect and was drilling index holes for reassemble. They were able to index the hood and latches. The pass door is done and drivers side door is almost done. Had about 10 kids stay after school and looked like we have a few that are real hardcore about the project. I ended up being able to Have three students who finished all thier shop tasked ahead of time work on the car all day. We dont have much time tomorrow due to half a day and thanksgiving break but it will give me time to get parts lined up. It is great to see the excitement of these kids building something themselves.

[crashclement]

Hey Paul, I'm new to posting here on the forum; but I've been looking around for a good while. I grew up in a small town here in North Carolina. Wow, I just figured it up and seems to have been 32yrs. since I darkened the doors or I guess that I should've said bay doors of my own hometown small high school. I almost didn't graduate or I should say almost quit when they told me no auto mechanics my senior year. They explained that I had already had more auto mechanics than any other person in the history of the school. I'll make the rest of the story shorter. My a.m. teacher told me don't worry, he wanted me to go talk to the D.E.teacher. Oh by the way, I still own the 72' Nova that I drove to my graduation!!! Shoot, I wish I could still drive it; but do to an unfortunate accident and the car having multiple roll cage bars in it just makes it difficult. Well, thanks for sharing your build project and good luck, Big Joe C. PS. Be sure to tell all the young'ns in your classes this ole ' country boy from North Carolina said good luck and I can't wait to see the finished product!

[DDA-SS]

nice solid project.

[Artisan Motoworks Club]

Today i showed them how over 400 people looked at the build and how we had a bunch of comments. My students where very surprised. It gave them some motivation and in a short day able to get the grill , headlight bezels all removed. We got alot of the brackets and hood hinges sandblasted today. Did get a special package in the mail today that i willl post up later on when i can get some pictures taken.. thank you Parke Bishop and larry Callehan

[Artisan Motoworks Club]

This gorgeous Radiator support is from Parke Bishop and are very reasonable in price($550 plus shipping for 67-69 camaro, 68-75 nova) . I was lucky enough to win it as the door prize when i went to the pro touring dinner. Thanks again to Larry Callahan for shipping it from California to Mass.
Dont be shy to check out Parke Bishop at Bishop Built Rides on facebook and here. Thanks Again for all the support

[crashclement]

Mr.Paul, That's a really nice piece ya'll have there. If'n my best friend / brother from another mother goes through with his current intentions, I might end up purchasing one of those. Is there any weight savings? Chromoly or steel? I'm guessing moly cause it looks to me like it's tig'd together? Well, I guess you're gonna tell me to go to their site like you've already said too! Ok,I get an "F" for this semester! That'll teach me Mr.Paul!!!

[rchaskin]

this looks like a cool project...

Good Luck!!!

[digitalsolo]

Cool project! Wish my school had an auto program when I attended.

[Artisan Motoworks Club]

Mr.Paul, That's a really nice piece ya'll have there. If'n my best friend / brother from another mother goes through with his current intentions, I might end up purchasing one of those. Is there any weight savings? Chromoly or steel? I'm guessing moly cause it looks to me like it's tig'd together? Well, I guess you're gonna tell me to go to their site like you've already said too! Ok,I get an "F" for this semester! That'll teach me Mr.Paul!!!

It is a really nice looking piece. It looks to be tig welded and is made of steel. They Are $550 plus shipping and barley weigh anything. I bet you shave a few lbs off the front. i would highly recommend anyone to look into these guys. They are also building a very cool nova .. (AWD hint hint..)

[Artisan Motoworks Club]

Had a very productive few days. We were able to get the motor removed. We were able to sell the factory radiator support for $100 to help offset the $400 i just spent on sheet metal. We will be listing some parts for sale shortly also to help support buying some parts. Media department finished a short clip of our build description and will be posting that video of that interview. We are putting a proposal together to see if we can get some backing from companies. Jason and Bret from ridetech have been a big supporter with lots of great advice and help with getting some parts. The guys over at Pchrods said he could help out with some parts he had laying around and i just want to say that any company that is willing to invest in supporting kids who need it is a company i recommend you should invest in.
We are using this build to raise attention to our shop and the kids who need some positive in their life. They learn a trade but more importantly life lessons on the way to learning that trade. By creating this club we are able to fundraise. Just so everyone knows if you ever attend a car show at our school puts on or any fundraiser 100% goes to students to help with in post secondary education. It also helps to support students who cant afford getting their licences and to our club and others. No money from fundraising goes to the build. If their is someone you know who might be able to help out we appreciate Everything. Thank You for reading and stay posted

[ryeguy2006a]

Great project, keep up the status updates!! I wished I had something like that when I was going to school. Great program.

[Martin71RS]

It was nice meeting you at the Sema Dinner, I think you guys are doing a great job teaching kids and getting them involved in our hobby! :-)