Steve Schertz is the Automotive Instructor and NATEF Director at South Elgin High School and a Sycamore Motorsports member. His students are working on a very special project that is really cool. They plan on entering it in SEMA in a few years, which would be the only entry to date done entirely by high school students. I asked him about it and he was kind enough to send me the details and some pictures to post on our blog. Enjoy!
Adam,
The project is a 1937 Chevy 1/2 Pickup. My grandfather purchased it in 1951 for $275. My grandparents used it to move the family from Colorado to Central Illinois. It lived its life as a farm truck until it blew a head gasket in 1964. It was used to haul grain, feed, pigs to the market, and follow the combine to pick up corn that was left behind. It sat in a barn until 1984 until my grandparents sold the farm and retired. Then it was moved to a shed in Henry Illinois were it sat until I picked it up circa 2001. I stored it outside in a field for another 5 to 6 years until I relocated it to South Elgin High School where it sat some more.
My students started work on the truck in 2017. We used the original frame, cab, hoods, and doors – everything else was too far gone to be reused. Students did the body panel patches, metal straightening, fabricated the chassis, and all the other custom made parts. I spent many nights teaching students how to weld, cut, grind, and general fabrication skills. The pics show that we have put an immense amount of time into it and it should be ready for SEMA in 2-3 years. Students have been working on the truck each Thursday after school to learn no curricular skills or earn extra credit; they volunteer their time and are gaining experience they can take into a possible profession one day.
The specs of the truck are GM ls 6.0, cam, heads, intake, headers, Holley EFI and it should be about 500hp. 4 speed super T10, gm 10 bolt triangulated 4 link. Heidts front crossmember and suspension components. Willwood calipers and rotors all around. Corbeau seats, AutoMeter Race dash, Sparco steering wheel. Some of our sponsors are Painless Wiring, Schwartz Performance, Heidts, Flowmaster, B&M, I Did It, Sanderson Headers, AutoMeter, Pyrotect, and many others.
Steve
