Garrett builds credentials as site for auto body work

The sun was casting long shadows one late afternoon this spring as a handful of teenagers decked in jeans, T-shirts and other work clothes marked out the bed of a nondescript pickup truck in need of body work and a paint job.

Jim Parker
The Post and Courier

Local car enthusiast Charlie Hall examines a patch of epoxy applied to the right front corner of his 1979 MGB roadster, which had been bashed in years ago. He was refinishing the car late last month as a part of a weekly auto body class for adults at Garrett Academy of Technology.

They were huddled along a narrow drive at the back of Garrett Academy of Technology, home to the school's Vocational Auto Body Shop.

It was Mike Branch's class, in which he's been instructing dozens of students since 2003 on auto fender mending, dent work and spray decorating in the shop's paint booth. Some students who took the course had a general knowledge about vehicles while they were growing up. Others, including Rodney Williams, were novices.

"I didn't know anything about cars," Rodney conceded. "He teaches us all kinds of stuff."

Rodney is among 30 to 40 students who are part of a three-year program to explore the field of auto body collision work, possibly moving on after school to be employed in a car shop or factory.

"Here at Garrett, it's like every school should be like. You get academics and vocational training," said Branch, who has been involved with the program since its launch five years ago.

Auto body work is nothing new. But popular shows such as MTV's "Pimp My Ride" have made car restoration and enhancement a hot field.

Leroy Capers said he got interested in auto body collision because of the precision artwork and body styling that can be performed on exteriors. "That's the first thing you see when you ride by, not the engine," Capers said.

Leroy Burnell
The Post and Courier

Garrett Academy juniors Darren Dwight (left) and Jamal Delesline-Mack and senior David Swindler (right) work on a pickup truck. They are taking part in the auto body course, started five years ago, which helps high school students pursue a career in car and truck frame painting and repair.

"We train them for the industry," Branch said, noting that graduates can wind up with jobs from such diverse companies as American LaFrance, Baker Motor and Mount Pleasant Paint and Body Shop.

And the jobs can lead to lucrative careers.

Right now, the average wage for an auto body technician is $12.50-$24 an hour. An expert technician, meanwhile, can earn upward of $60,000 to $75,000 a year.

In his classes, Branch isn't averse to adding a little levity now and then. For one introductory class, he took long metal strips and told the students to whack them as hard as they could with sledge hammers. After a few minutes of unrestrained fun as the kids beat on the pieces, he told them to stop, then dropped the bombshell. The students had to restraighten the pieces they had just whacked into submission. There were a lot of groans, but in time, the students learned that seemingly unsalvagable parts can be restored. In the end, the students got to put their own designs and special touches on the creations and display them in the shop.

Auto body instruction is not the only car-specific course in Garrett's three-year technical "majors." There's also auto mechanics. Students can take the multiyear programs in fields that could lead to auto jobs, such as metal fabrication welding and electronics.

At the same time, the auto body program has an unofficial sponsor, the British Car Club of Charleston. In the fall, the club raffled a 1991 Jaguar Sovereign sedan to benefit its pet project. Branch said such fundraising support is invaluable because supplies aren't cheap.

There's another service with the auto body program: It offers weekly evening classes where fledgling car enthusiasts can learn how to work on the old cars they bought on a whim and would like to make classic.

"I've been trying to get in this class for three years," said Ed Langendorfer of Mount Pleasant.