It's so very seldom we get vehicles donated for our students to train on. When we do, they are already refugees from a salvage yard. Lets face it... people don't give away decent cars to school kids. Since the tax laws changed a few years ago, even car makers crush their flood cars rather than give them to us.
So.... we have to make very scrap count. The boys practice on them till metal gives up. Brakes that are designed to be replaced four or five times in the life of the car will be changed fifty times a year, till there's just not enough material left to patch it back together. Believe me... we are good at patching stuff together.
After that... after the vehicle has given it's all... then we ask more. We take off anything that can be used in further training. We scavenge components to make cut-away instructional aids. We pull the wiring harness to use while teaching wire repair, and to patch other cars with. The body panels are given over to the body and paint class. We patch the tires so many times, there is more patch than tire. If the car had a squeak left, I'd find a way to capture it and make it work for a living.
What you see above.... that is what finally makes it to the salvage yard, and even then we sell the scrap metal so we can buy cleaning supplies.
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