Northwest Technical School collision repair students restored a 1966 F100 Ford truck that was showcased on the cover of LMC 1957-1972 Ford Parts summer/fall catalog.

  • The finished truck at the World of Wheels fair.
  • Northwest Technical School Collision repair students restored a 1966 Ford truck. Students are top: Levi Carter and Zac Carr; bottom: Montana Lykins, Shawn Moon and Daniel Gish.
  • The truck in the timber before being brought to the tech school.
  • Collision instructor Ron Wiederholt holds a copy of the LMC parts catalogue featuring the Ford his class restored.

The Ford truck is owned by Wayne Johnson, motor-coach driver for NASCAR racer Carl Edwards. Johnson heard about the tech school’s program through friends and brought his truck, which was sitting abandoned in a timber near Springfield for more than 18 years, for the class to restore.

The class of 31 students worked on the project for three months under the supervision of instructor Ron Wiederholt, taking the truck down to bare metal and rebuilding the engine. The truck was then exhibited at the annual World of Wheels exposition.

“My favorite part of the project was the paint. It’s fun. You can sand all day and it doesn’t look like much, but when you put the paint on, it makes a huge difference,” Josh McGinness, Burlington Jct., said.

The two-year technical program is open to adults and high school juniors and seniors who have finished graduation requirements. The class works on bumpers, crashed cars and vehicles of all ages doing complete restorations thus providing students with the opportunity to experience all types of auto body work. The waiting list for restoration projects is five years.

“We don’t want to step on any auto body shop’s toes here in town,” Wiederholt said. “We do things here that most body shops don’t want to do.”

Customers who bring vehicles to the class for repair are only charged for parts, not labor. Monetary donations are used to send students to SkillsUSA, a competition program.

Facebook Comments