Am wanting to know if anyone has used or knows someone who has used a high school to do there paint and body work.I know the teacher he's real meticulous seen his cars and talked to one other person.There all newer cars don't know anyone with a older one done by one.

Sanding and painting a NEW car is totally different the painting a old car.

What happens when they run into rust, they KNOW HOW to fix or just hack something together to get it out the door?

New cars need on average no to very little body work in order to get a good show/driver paint job.
Basically a sand and spray, pretty easy.
A car thats pushing 40 years old, you need cutting,welding,sanding etc the list goes on...Eric

I am in the night auto body class at the local tech school. There is a 72 Caprice in there right now that the high school kids work on. It has come out rather nice I think. They did some metal replacement and you can't tell it was even done. The best thing to do is go talk to the teacher yourself. You will be asked to pay for all materials.
As of right now, 95% of the people in the night class are working on their own cars none of which are old at all, all plastic cars. The oldest one in there is a 55 Chevy and that is being done by a 2nd year student, he is really only there to use the facility. The oldest one other than that in there at night is my 86 Cutlass and after that I plan on bringing my 69 Dodge Dart in.

im in auto body during the day. well i am in 11th grade as well. we just finished painting a 86ish firebird (we as in, me and 2 other kids). it came out rather nice, i would have to say. i had my car in their last year, and my friends and i did all the work on it (rust repair, and a paint job). it came out really nice, but the paint job looked like crap,because i didnt paint it, (one of the kids in the afternoon class did it).

what i would do is, go in and talk to the instructor of the class, and see what he says about it. try to have him put his BEST kids on the project. i know when it comes down to doing customer cars, the teacher will ask me and my team (usually will consist of myself, and 2-3 other kids, mainly friends), if we want to do the project. if not, he will move onto the next set of kid. but from the last few cars we had in their, my team was the 1st to be asked.

i would def talk to the teacher. most of the kids in the class should know how to do all the rust work, if not, then well, those kids shouldnt be on the team for that car. but then again, when their is a customer car, expecially when their is an old muscle car, the attitude is totall diff with the kids, and they dont want to mess it up. well thats the way i see it in shop.

good luck.

aaron

I took night classes at a local votec school and learned to paint years ago. I am in a night class now because I did not know anything about the new basecoat clearcoat paints.I just painted my 72 SS with laquer because I did not want to put base coat on top of the laquer.They both will buff out the same way . I got a better job than any of the students would have done. I have seen many of the cars they do here. Some look very good and others look not so nice! The instructor here told me what you see is what you get, runs, orange peal and all. If you have a nice car and want a nice job I would take the class and do it yourself. In our class all you have to do is ask the instructor for help and he will do it for you or show you how. Good Luck

painting is not that hard really. you have to have patience, and you have to buy the really expensive things, like guns and air compressors. I would say if you are willing to get in to it and you plan on having some things to paint in the near future, its worth getting in to. I sarted when I was 13, I'm 20 now. I have painted about 15 cars, done alot of body work. I went to trade school in high school, but they didn't have auto body--thats cool. I went for welding and machine tool.

Like others have said before, talk to the instructor. He will know if he's got students with the caliber of skills to do what you are looking for. If they cut and buff too, I would say it might be worth it, because that will get rid of alot of surface blemishing anyway.

Anybody can paint a car....
BUT not everyone can be a "Painter"
Huge difference!

I've always said anyone can do this work if they have enough interest and patience. Experience pays off in time and higher quality but if a novice is determined a quality job can be realized. This group here sure has helped many.

Painting is not all that difficult. The Base coat/clear coats are fairly forgiving. What makes or breaks a paint job is the prep work! If the body work and the surface prep is not good, the paint job will not turn out good, no matter how good the painter! Personally, I would not allow a student to paint my car. Remember that they are learning and somebody will be last in the class!

Good Luck
Steve

Right..like I said, just about anyone can paint a car, and even get good results. Applying the paint is not that difficult, and I also agree that the prep work half of the battle.
Where the "Painter" comes in, is experience. Knowing what to do when a problem happens. What causes that particular problem, and how to fix it. How to blend color, or clear. How to color match, which solvents to use in which conditions, what size tip works best with BC, or CC, etc. etc. etc.