All the Right Gears
Many high school students are excited by the newfound freedom driving brings, and even more excited when they get their own car. However, unlike senior Isabella Palacios, most students do not have to fully restore their cars. In 2008, Palacios’s father brought home a 1964.5 Mustang and told her that she could have it if she fixed it up. Having spent the majority of her life working with cars, she eagerly took on the challenge.
“My dad has been working with cars since before I was even born, so they have always been a part of my life,” Palacios said. “I tend to forget that most people have never heard about Cobra race cars or Carroll Shelby, the guy that invented the Shelby Cobra.”
Palacios’ 1964.5 Mustang from 2008 is still not complete. When she first began working on the car, its entire interior, including the seats and the carpet were torn out, leaving only the shell of the car. To remove all the paint, Palacios sanded the car down to the metal. She then prepped and primed the Mustang for paint. Currently, work on the car has been put on hiatus because the engine is being repaired at another shop. In the meantime, Palacios has been handpicking paint and interior pieces for the assembly of the car.
Palacios frequently assists her father with cars at McCluskey Ltd., a vintage car restoration company in Torrance where he is the shop manager and head painter. Her main job is prepping the cars for paint jobs, which involves cleaning car parts or taping them up. She also cleans paint guns and other tools around the shop. Through these tasks, Palacios has learned a lot about vintage cars and how to work with them.
“The majority of cars that come through the shop are either vintage or rare, so a lot of people who ask me about my work have never even heard of them,” Palacios said. “I have learned about technical things, color matching, how to operate sanding tools and how important making parts are in order to get a clean line.”
As she has gotten older, school has prevented her from spending as much time at the shop as she would like. However, whenever she has free time, she spends it working on cars.
“I basically grew up at the shop,” Palacios said. “When I was younger, I always went to car shows and races. As I have gotten older and school has become more demanding, I have not been able to go there as much. When I do, it reminds me of when I was little and running around all the cars or helping my dad
”Other members of the Palacios family also assist in the shop, making the work a family activity. Freshman Natalia Palacios helps with the same jobs as her sister does, though not as frequently.
“Because [my family] is so busy all the time, it is nice to have something that we can all do together,” Natalia Palacios said.
While stereotypically being interested in cars is more common for boys, this was not apparent to Palacios. When Palacios became aware of the stereotype, it came as a surprise.
“Since I grew up with [cars] from a young age, I never really knew that girls were not supposed to be interested in cars,” Palacios said. “As I got older, I noticed that none of my girl friends were interested in cars, but my guy friends were. I never cared about it though because it was something that I like and it interested me, so I was not going to let a stereotype keep me from it.”
