Seamus student in the Automotive Restoration program at McPherson College

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My name is Seamus Hnat and I am a senior in the Automotive Restoration program at McPherson College. This coming May, I will be graduating with a Bachelors in Science with an emphasis in Automotive Restoration Technology. The technology track focuses on the core restoration classes, where students are required to take most of them plus two advanced classes. Over the past few years I have taken all of the core classes and this school year I have been able to focus on advanced courses such as Advanced Engine Rebuilding, Advanced Automotive Trim, and Advanced Electrical. Besides my general education classes, I have been taking private pipe organ lessons through the college twice a week since my freshman year. I have also been working in the Automotive Restoration Collection in Miller Library for the length of my time here at the college. The collection holds periodicals, manuals, books, newsletters, factory and dealership brochures, and even blueprints from various Duesenberg components. Students from the restoration program can apply for a job in the restoration collection, but spots are very limited. I have helped put almost 1,000 manuals into the system and nearly 3,000 magazines have passed through my hands and onto the shelves or into storage. If anyone is ever looking for any automotive information, we might have it.

I chose to take the Automotive Restoration Technology degree track because it was my weakest area of study. Before coming to McPherson College, I had only been working on older automobiles for about four years in Toledo, Ohio, where I had been living during the time of my high school career. I met a gentleman by the name of Ralph Emery that has a number of antique cars and fire trucks, as well as hit-n-miss engines and a functioning boiler room with steam engines galore! I had joined the Vintage Motor Car Club of America (formerly known as the Veteran Motor Car Club of America) and Packard Automobile Classics when I was a freshman in high school. The best way for a youngster to get involved in the old car hobby/industry is to join a local car club.

During the summer when students have time off, they tend to take part in an internship to gain experience in the industry. For the past two summers, I have interned at Stahls Automotive Foundation and Museum in Chesterfield, Michigan. Stahls has about 100 cars in the museum as well as mechanical music machines, a Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ, and two very large dance hall organs. Stahls also has about five cars that participate in the Great Race every year. This past summer, I was offered a full-time position as one of the mechanics for the museum. Stahls is not your typical museum, we drive the cars too!

I really enjoy restoring smaller projects like Gamewell fire alarm boxes, bicycles, or one of my current projects, a 1915 Arco Wand Central Vacuum system. Although, that is not where the paychecks are at, so the old car industry is where I have built my foundation for my life’s occupation. I don’t see what I do as a job, but more as a lifestyle. In August of 2014, right before starting my studies at McPherson College, I had purchased my first brass era automobile. My 1914 Ford T Touring, Jackson, is the vehicle I love to drive and work on the most. You can never have so much fun going so slow! Some students on campus have been putting together videos about our student projects, and the first video they made is about my Model T and I. You can check out the video.

Words and photographs by Seamus Hnat.

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