Students learn car mechanics at Calhoun automotive camp
Jun. 24—The roar of engines and power tools could be heard at Calhoun Community College's automotive technology building Thursday as regional high school students assembled automotive gas engines and learned how to jump-start a truck.
Brewer High sophomore Micah Cobb said his attendance at the Advanced Automotive Academy, hosted by Calhoun and the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce, not only taught him how to make basic repairs on his own vehicle, it positioned him to pursue an automotive career after he graduates.
Cobb said engine work was what attracted him to the three-day academy.
"Also, learning the basics of the inside of current cars like all the electricity and stuff," Cobb said.
While Cobb was cutting brake rotors — resurfacing the steel plates that brake pads contact — several students on the other side of the building huddled around an engine analyzer, using it to test out a gas engine they had assembled.
Bob Jones High senior Joshua Diamond grinned as he activated a Toyota gas engine with the analyzer, listening to the engine rev and watching its transmission gears spin.
"This (engine analyzer) makes sure the engine is running and purring like a kitten," Diamond said. "We hooked this up about three days ago and we've been running diagnostics and running through the issues and getting them fixed. We stripped it down to the pistons and put it back together and connected everything to the simulation."
The students were led by Calhoun automotive technology instructor Buddy Fortin and he taught them everything from building and repairing engines and the physics of car batteries to details about the vehicles' braking systems.
"We're cutting rotors and then I'm going to talk to them about brake calipers on a car and we're doing a strut suspension (adjustment)," Fortin said.
Austin junior Nick Sanders is active in Decatur City Schools' green power races, where students race each other in electric-powered cars, and he wanted to try out the Automotive Academy this year to further his automotive knowledge. He said the academy taught him the importance of quality vehicle maintenance and the significance of the mechanic's role.
"You're basically taking care of someone's life," Sanders said. "If something goes bad, like an explosion, that's your fault. (The academy) helps me learn in real life. If I get stuck or if something happens to my vehicle, I'll know how to deal with it."
Sanders said he likes engineering and is considering pursuing that after high school, but the skills he learned from the Automotive Academy give him various job options.
"Say if I get tired of one job, I can get another job because I have experience of doing other stuff like this," Sanders said.
Amber Fortenberry, director of talent development and recruitment at the chamber, said the goal of this year's camp was to introduce students to jobs that are readily available to them.
"All of the students that come through this program have a job waiting on them upon graduation," Fortenberry said.
— wesley.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.
