A Salem program uses a classic car to teach life lessons

I t was 100 years ago that Henry Ford's Model T changed America.

Today -- in Bert Harrison's home restoration shop east of Salem -- it is still altering lives.

Inside the single-story building, a half-dozen teens from Salem's Roberts High School work at the sides of men old enough to be their grandfathers, as they recreate a Model-T Speedster from rusty parts.

Seventeen-year-old Greg Davis sands rust from a hand brake assembly. Josh Sullivan, 18, and Zack Stout, 16, struggle with the transmission assembly bolted to the back of an engine. Their gloved hands are covered with grease that may be 60 or 70 years old.

A student sands paint off the spokes of a wooden wheel, while others disembowel the rear-end assembly for rebuilding.

"For some of these students, this is the project that keeps them in school," says Dean Lohrman, who teaches at the Salem-Keiser district's alternative high school.

Each student is supervised by a mentor from the Northwest Car and Motorcycle Museum at Pacific Powerland in Brooks.

The restoration resulted from a casual meeting of museum members and school officials during the annual high school car show at Pacific Powerland.

Museum president Doug Nelson learned that none of the students had cars to enter. That got members thinking about hosting a show for the school. About that same time the national Model T owners group began encouraging members to get young people involved in auto restoration.

Things fell into place.

A couple active with Model T's donated a chassis. A museum member came up with a Speedster body. Enough engine pieces were found to build at least one good one. Enterprise Rent-A-Car donated use of a van to transport students and the Frontier Bank of Salem and the Beaver Chapter of the Model A Ford Club donated funds, and a $5,000 grant came from the Collectors Foundation of Traverse City, Mich., an arm of Haggerty Insurance, which specializes in coverage for collector cars.

Like others involved with cars, Nelson is concerned about the lack of automotive programs at many high schools, and what he sees as growing shortage of men and women trained to go into the trade.

Lohrman says the Model T project is the launch pad for a number of educational efforts, ranging from history -- how the car changed America -- to math and writing.

And students, he says, are learning lessons they might not pick up in a classroom. For many, the time with a museum mentor is the closest working relationship they have had with an adult male.

"It's fun to work with them because they have so much to teach," says Sullivan.

Students also are learning to work as a team, focus on a goal, and develop an appreciation for how things were done in the past.

"This is the kind of place where I really fit in well," says Davis. "I don't do well in a big classroom. I kinda get into trouble."

In the next room, Blair Wasson, 65, asks Stout and Sullivan to examine how the engine they are disassembling works. He has them roll the flywheel, and as the crankshaft turns, the pistons move up and down.

He encourages them to ponder how the parts work together.

"When you work with these," he says, holding up his grease-covered hands, "you begin looking at things differently, you start solving problems in your head and discovering how things function."

Jerry F. Boone is a Portland-area freelance writer. If you have an idea for a DriveTime feature, contact him at jfboone@aol.com.