Turner brothers restore 1950s truck as senior project
Twin brothers Jared and Jason Turner of Markleysburg travel around in an old 1950s vintage pickup truck. What amazes everyone about that truck is that the brothers bought the truck for $2,000, stripped it down and restored it themselves, with minimal help. But their fully restored Ford F100 will help them to graduate from high school. Pennsylvania requires all schools make a senior project part of the graduation requirements. They are asked to complete a project that benefits themselves or the community and put at least 100 hours of work into it.
In the Uniontown Area School District, students complete this project over a four-year period, doing just a little bit at a time, according to Karen Brozik, who is in charge of supervising the senior projects.
In a student’s freshman year, Brozik said, they fill out an interest sheet that gets them to think about what they might want to do for their project. They also complete a career choice program on the computer. This gives them an introduction to the program and “gets their feet wet,” Brozik said.
In their sophomore year, Brozik said they try to pin down the students, having them sign a contract that states what they are going to do for their project. Of course this is not set in stone because the student can change their mind if they want.
In their junior year students complete a research paper related to the topic that they chose for their project.
In addition to these requirements the students also have to write and complete several other small assignments, with the help of English teachers, and create a portfolio.
Every two months or so students also meet with their project mentor. Each mentor has about 25 students that they meet with and discuss progress.
Finally in their senior year students finish their project and present it to either a single person or a committee. An eight-minute presentation, pictures on a poster board showing progress, their portfolio and a step-by-step typed paper are what seniors actually present. They are required to dress up and explain the project and what they accomplished.
Jason Turner said they decided to restore the truck for their project because they have always been around cars and it was something they had an interest in.
He said their great uncle, L.J. Dennis, was their mentor throughout the whole process. Dennis is a retired mechanic and now cars are just a hobby for him.
“Between my dad and my uncle we learned everything we needed to know,” Jason Turner said.
The twins completed most of the work themselves, but had some help from friends along the way.
Dick Rughs, who has a shop near the high school, boarded and shaved the motor for the twins. According to Jared Turner, everything is new on the truck.
“Open the hood and you’re going to see a lot of chrome,” he said.
Tom Baxter, a retired Verizon employee, completed all the wiring in the truck for things such as the gauges, ignition and lights.
Kevin Fike from Parrish Upholstery oversaw what the twins did in his shop. The twins bought the material and he showed them how to install it correctly.
Doug Rosenberger, who owns a small car dealership, helped the twins to buff and polish the truck when it was finished.
The hardest part of doing the project for the twins was having patience, they said.
Jason Turner said it was difficult for them when they thought everything was finished and they were done, and then they would take a test drive and something else would go wrong.
Like when they were ready to put the upholstery in and the truck wouldn’t start. It set them back two weeks when they discovered that the transmission was shot because it was put in wrong.
Their mother, Wanda Turner, who only admits to playing the role of financial coordinator, thought that the bonding experience was an important part of the project.
“It was a great time to be able to do work with their dad and get hands on experience they wouldn’t get otherwise,” she said.
Their father, Jerry Turner, said that he felt the best part of working on the truck was spending time with his boys. He helped the boys every step of the way and even went to car shows with the boys to take pictures and decide what they liked and didn’t so they could incorporate those ideas into the truck.
“That’s time you can never get back,” he said. “We really enjoyed working together days and nights,” he added.
The truck turned out so beautifully that Jerry Turner believes it is worthy of showing up on the pages of any national car magazine such as Custom Classic Trucks, Classic Trucks or Street Ride.
When the boys presented their project to Brozik, she thought it was so good that she took the entire class outside to see the truck.
“I would have liked the whole school to see it,” she said. “I just loved the fact that they were so proud of their project and wanted to talk about it,” she added.
Uniontown Area High School principal Thomas Colebank liked the truck so much that he said he was going to try and talk the twins’ father into letting him take the truck out for the weekend.
“When you see something of this caliber, it gives an impression of what can be done if you put your mind to it,” he said. “It’s rare to get a set of boys that not only meet the standard, but exceed it,” he added.
The twins are pleased with the results and plan to keep the truck for their own personal use.
“I think we are both satisfied with the progress and what we learned,” Jason Turner said. “It shows that if you put your mind to it you can do anything,” he added.
In the fall, the twins plan on attending West Virginia University, Jason Turner for elementary education and Jared Turner for pediatric dentistry.