By Shannon Lukens.

Students in the Auto Tech program at Colorado Northwestern Community College have a project this month.

Dale Updike runs the program on the campus in Craig.

“We’ve got a ’59 Chevy Apache Suburban, with full windows. It was donated to us by a guy here in town. We’re not going to do a ton to the body. We’re going to clean it up a little bit and put a satin clear on it so it looks good. The big thing will be under the hood when it’s done. The goal is to have it so that it will spin the tires.”

That’s what Updike does to help his nine students learn about how to fix cars and trucks. They get old cars like the ’59 Suburban and rebuild it for the Hot Rod Club.

 

Updike says it’s rare to find a car like this because they only made a few thousand and there aren’t many left.

 

He has an old bus and he is going to get seats from that to put in it. But first, they’ll “pull the carburetor, rebuild it, put it on, hook it to a gas can and make sure it runs.” Updike says the small block Chevy 350 engine only has about 10,000 miles on it with a fairly new Turbo 400 transmission.

“We like stuff like the Suburban where it needs work. We’ve got to do stuff to it. So then I can teach them how to play with distributors and carburetors and some of the old stuff.”

 

Updike says the students also learn how to fix cars by doing custom repairs on the campus for $50 an hour, plus parts.

ASE Certified Auto Technology is a two-year program at CNCC.

 

They hope to have the ’59 Suburban ready for the Parade of Lights in Craig on Nov. 25.