Take A Kid To A Garage
By Patrick Knight
W e’ve all seen “Take a Kid to a Car Show” arti- cles and ads so I thought I would give it a try with Alan Valentine, a 28-year-old kid. I invited him to the 2021 NSRA Nationals in our hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, and he spent three days with me in my tent with 50 of my buds, all 50-to-70 years old, looking at all their cars and listening to stories of past Nationals and their other cars at home. He was amazed that most of these cars were built, not bought. After the show was over, I invited him to visit my home garage to show him how we built these cars. After a couple of hours of cars, parts, welders, hand tools, a sheetmetal brake and shear, glass bead cabinet, lifts and a room set up for paint- ing, he looked me straight in the eye and said, “How do I get into this game?” I told him there were schools that taught auto mechanics but cautioned him they involved thousands of dol- lars and a year or more of time to learn only the basics. That level of education is not available for everyone, so I offered him anoth- er option.
garage was used to disassemble and inspect an engine I got in a trade deal. He had never seen the internal parts of an engine and was wide eyed and bushy tailed the whole day. Sensing his enthusiasm I made him an offer, “Just pick one of the engines from my pile and it’s yours.” I guided him toward the one needing the least amount of machine work and parts. The plan was he and I would assem- ble it and paint it with a real paint gun and then he had a fresh 350ci ‘82 Corvette engine to put in a car he did not have! At his tender age, with all the expenses of a young family man, a high-dollar car was out of the question, so we all went on the hunt and found a ‘78 Camaro Z28 that had been in storage for 30 years. It was found locally and needed minimal investment to be on the road. Now he could become a participant, not an observer, in a car with an engine he had hand assembled. Yes, it needed brake and fuel system maintenance and a few minor upgrades, but it’s a solid car that did not need a complete paint job or interior. After a short three-year
internship with influence from a bunch of old- school street rodders, he is now ready to be “in the game.” Look for Alan at the 2026 NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Louisville and let him tell you about building his own ‘78 Z28 Camaro, with a little help from some newfound friends.
None of my friends he met at the Nationals went to school to build cars, we all went to the next-door guy’s garage at night and watched, lis- tened and learned. All those guys had day jobs and only a few were in the automotive field, but more than anything they wanted to build cars, or sometimes just do their own brake job. Nevertheless, these garages were full of knowl- edge that one could learn from, so I put together a plan for Alan to learn how to build his own car. His day job was five days a week with a day off during the week. I set him up with three different garages to visit one day a week and assist and learn from our experiences. One such day in my
14 MARCH 2026
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