ShoreNewsToday
April 2, 2015 by Laura Stetser
Home of The Current and Gazette Newspapers
EHT ‘car guy’ on a mission to restore auto body education in Atlantic County EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – Inside a nondescript concrete building along Oakland Avenue in Egg Harbor Township, John Truman is in the midst of several projects. His auto restoration shop is full, though it is not a commercially advertised business. Word of mouth alone has delivered the many muscle cars that are in all stages of repair and disrepair around this rectangular space, some from as far away as South Carolina. His 24-year-old son Dan works alongside him, learning and adding his own skills to the business. Truman has managed to create quite a business for himself over 36 years in the industry. The work pays well and is steady. “You know, we’re not millionaires, but I drive a nice truck and so does my son,” said the owner of Truman Muscle Cars, adding that neither of the men are “what you would call book smart.” But he said that doesn’t matter. He holds up his hands and says, “These are what we are good with. We know how to build things. You give us anything, and we can take it apart and put it back together again. And you can make a good living doing it.” The self-described “car guy” said that growing up, there used to be lots of tradesmen, those who loved building things rather than taking a traditional path to college. He was surrounded by them when he started working on cars as a 16-year-old boy. But today, he said, the educational world has led many young adults to believe the only future is one that involves more academic pursuits. Yet Truman said he believes the interest in the trade still exists among young students, even though the exposure to learning how
to do the work is diminishing. According to him, if schools build a program, the students will come. “My son’s friends come here all of the time and they are blown away at what we do. They think it is so cool,” he explains. “You just have to promote the programs in the right way to get their attention.” So when he heard that one of the local vocational high schools had cancelled its auto body program out of a lack of interest, his wheels started turning. “If you show the kids this restoration stuff, they will get lit up just like I did and like my son did,” he said.
be. That school should be the last stop for students to get skills they can use to get a job. Not everybody wants to sit behind a computer all day,” he said. “I was trained there, and I’ve done very well. And the facilities are already there.” The auto body courses at other vocational and technical schools have met the same fate in the past few years.
Restoration work is where the creativity and enjoyment come in, he said, and, it’s also the market where there are jobs waiting.
A vo-tech school in Camden County cancelled its program a few years ago, and Cumberland County’s school is considering cancelling its course when its current instructor retires in October, Truman said.
Local educational trends tell a different story
“It makes no sense,” Truman said. “There are jobs out there for these kids.”
Truman was sparked into action after hearing that his and his son’s alma mater, Atlantic County Institute of Technology, cancelled its high school auto body program in the 2014-2015 school year.
He has been pleading his case to the ACIT administration for months.
The school still offers evening courses for adults, though the focus of the curriculum is mostly on mechanics and engine work. “They are going away from being a trade school, and that’s exactly what it should
“What happens every time there is a snow storm?” he said. “People need to get cars fixed. They just need to be trained how to do it.” He said not every kid is college-bound, especially with the rising cost of higher education. >> continued on back