Kevin Stansbery
Grandpa and the garage: Two things that will be forever linked in the mind of junior Kevin Stansbery.
While putting a lot of time and effort into working on his antique 1980 Z28 Camaro with top sunroofs, Stansbery reflected on his younger years working on cars in his grandpa's garage.
"I was probably around 12 or 13 whenever I actually started to tinker with cars," he explained. "I mostly just did it because I was really interested in them and I love hanging out with my grandpa."
Stansbery said that working on cars gave him a rewarding feeling, even though it could be frustrating at times. "The hardest part of the work so far would have to be changing the suspension," he said. "The reason is that they are just really big springs that force you to compress them more than they already are and make you take them out through a somewhat small hole and hope that it doesn't expand and shoot out like a bullet."
For the majority of his life, Stansbery said he always enjoyed cars or anything with wheels. He hoped to have a career involved in working in a garage or even a hanger for plane mechanics.
However, even if he is not given the opportunity to have a job like that, he does not see himself ever not working on cars in the future. "In the future, some cars that I would love to work on would probably be a DeLorean or a De Tomaso Pantera because, in my opinion, they are the two coolest-looking cars that I've ever seen and just seem fun and rewarding to work on," he said.
As far as cars he is not interested in, Stansbery admitted that he did not like "any car that is really square." He explained, "I just think they're hideous looking."
In the future, Stansbery hopes to pass down and teach his kids the amazing world of being a mechanic and fixing up cars, the same way his grandpa taught him years before.
"We bought the car in parts so that my grandpa could go through all the parts and teach me about the different functions and restoring rusty parts and I just think it is more fun to work towards the final result and feel the accomplishment after putting it together with my own hands," Stansbery said.
He also added, "Every year I'd go with him to a place called Newport, it's an antique car show where there's just old cars lined up and down the roads, and he'd just tell me all about the cars all day."
Story by Michael Keefer