Back to School

[Minidave]

Me!

Teaching automotive courses at JCCC starting in 10 days or so.

So all you young whippersnappers better look out!

You can call me Professor MiniDave now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxtN0xxzfsw

[mcconned]

Congrats to you Dave!!

[davester]

Good for you, Dave

[boxer]

Great job Dave! Maybe we can have a garage day in your new garage?

[GrayGuy]

GREAT NEWS! Go Professor Go!

[Minidave]

Great job Dave! Maybe we can have a garage day in your new garage?

Hmmm, I'll have to see how they feel about that, my first guess would be no, but you never know do you? One thing's sure, they've got good equipment, everything you can imagine from lifts to tire machines to on the car brake turning lathes to you name it.

[Counterfit_Mini]

Awesome!! I think I need to go back to school! LOL

[BLUGOOSE]

Does this mean that the Club will have use of the lifts Dave????

[Minidave]

Highly unlikely......the only people allowed in the shop at any time are students and faculty - safety reasons, insurance and all.

However, I'm sure I could bring someone's car in for some work, if someone needed an alignment or new shocks or whatever and we could do it for you. I'll have to get my feet wet on all this first.

I did get my class assignment tho, I'll be teaching Suspension and Steering I, Wed and Fridays from 10am to 2 pm., first class is Wed the 22nd. I have a lot of reading to do before then. I also have to learn how to use their brandy new super fancy schmancy alignment machine, it's got fricken' lazers!

Interestingly, one of the segments in the course is on active rear steering, I had to look and see if anyone even offered that anymore (Honda and Mazda did in the late 80'/early 90's, and GMC offered it on their bigger pickups from '04 to 06) turns out Nissan is the only mfr offering it on their cars these days as part of their "Super HICAS" handling package on Nissans and Infinity.

Lots to do in only a few days!

Oh and I found out one more nice thing, the shop is air conditioned!

[BLUGOOSE]

Dave,does this mean that "garage days at your house will be no more????? Say it isn't so!!-Frank

[Minidave]

Oh no, in fact we're working one up right now.....so no worries mate!

I also got the work order forms and disclaimer forms for outside cars to be worked on in the shop - the language is a bit scary, I think we'll stick to doing things at the MiniDave shop for now.....

[Minidave]

Today I took a few pics of the shop at JCCC.....sorry, Automotive Lab at JCCC, to share.....

Pic 1....My Clubby on the super zoomy Hunter alignment machine with the fricken lasers!

Pic 2...Shows the size of the shop....erm...... LAB a bit better.

Pic 3...the lower level and lifts. Yes, the school has it's own wrecker!

Pic 4...Tire machine, balancer and a couple of brake lathes - we also have a brake lathe that will turn disc rotors on the car

Pic 5...View of the shop from the other end, well lit. Those big Snap-On boxes are full of tools, and yes - they're there for the instructor's use. The students bring their own tools. You can also see the "old" Hunter alignment machine, it's due to be replaced in the spring with one just like the one the Clubby is parked on. Note that you can't take a lowered car onto the old one, it won't clear the ramp....the new one is in a pit, so the ramp is flat.

Pic 6...Yes, that's a Dyno!

Pic 7...Transmission dyno, it has a GM 3800 V-6 to power it.

[Hagar46]

Wow, Dave. Looks very impressive to me but I'm not a mechanic (that is automotive technician). Looks like you might enjoy going 'back to school'.

[Minidave]

I'll have 13 students for the first semester, and I finally got logged into the system and officially hired.

I got my course books and shop manual, and my first lecture will be Wed at 10am -11, 1st lab immediately after and runs till about 2 pm.

1st class and lab are purely intro and won't even go the full allotted time. It won't make me popular but the first thing Friday's lecture class we're having a test! I'm doing that on purpose so I can find out what they know and who has experience. 2nd lab will be nothing but shop safety and procedures, then the next class on the following Wed we'll be tearing into cars already.

One of the highlights is when we blow up the first airbag! Should be a fun day!