Gilroy
– Gentlemen (and ladies) – start your engines, Bump Fest 2005 is
here.
Ever wonder who at Gilroy High School owns the best looking car?
The loudest? How about the ugliest?
Gilroy – Gentlemen (and ladies) – start your engines, Bump Fest 2005 is here.
Ever wonder who at Gilroy High School owns the best looking car? The loudest? How about the ugliest?
Pride was at stake for GHS students competing for the title of Best Looking, Best Domestic, Lowest Drop, Biggest Wheels and yes, even Ugliest Car. GHS’ Auto Club put together the second annual Bump Fest to decide.
Forty vehicles lined the GHS track, hoods up, doors opened and sound systems blasting. There was bass so loud you could feel your organs vibrating.
Parker Padilla stood beside his 1963 Volkswagen (VW) Beetle, that was competing for the title of Best Import. Padilla’s car is designed to resemble Herbie The Love Bug – complete with the signature ’53’ on the front and blue and red racing stripes down the back.
“It’s my car,” he said. “I just can’t drive it legally (yet).”
The sophomore has worked alongside his father attempting to restore the car to it’s original state. The one difference is an upgraded sound system – CD players weren’t around back then.
Nearby, Fabian Fernandez parked his 1963 Chevrolet Nova – a sleek cranberry masterpiece he spent two and half years restoring.
“I bought it for $2,000,” he said. “So far, we put $10,000 into it. And it still needs more work.”
When Fernandez purchased his ride, the rear left side was wrecked, the entire car needed to be stripped and it required a paint job and a new interior, among other repairs. Now, the engine shines resembling a modern kitchen appliance and the cranberry interior looks like it could be the original.
“We don’t have to pay extra because we do the work ourselves,” he explained. The idea: Pay for the parts, not the labor.
Past the 1976 Ford competing for ugliest car, which was covered with yellow caution tape, golf balls door handles and faux shark teeth lining the grill, rests Carlos Cardoza’s 1963 VW Bus.
It looks pretty standard: No lifts, no souped-up engine, no hydraulic system. But open the doors, step inside and relax. Leopard print pillows and blankets recline where the seats should be.
This is Cardoza’s sixth car.
“I buy cars that don’t run, I fix them up – make them look good – then I sell them for profit,” he said.
The young entrepreneur should make at least a grand on this car before moving onto his next project: A 23-window VW passenger bus.
Upon graduation, Cardoza will attend WyoTech, a technical institute in Fremont, to pursue his dream of professionally restoring VW’s and Porsches.
Another GHS senior headed to WyoTech is Jose Leon, president of GHS’ auto club. His strategy is similar to Cardoza’s: It’s what’s on the inside that counts.
Leon’s car, a blue Ford Focus hatchback, has four working television screens – one on each visor and head rest. The car also has a sound system you physically can feel when approaching from three cars away.
Leon is one of 150 students Terry McMurray – GHS auto shop teacher – instructs in the vocational education program. Some are advanced students like Leon, and others are beginners like junior Bobby Trout, who ended up pushing his VW Beetle from the competition instead of driving it.
“It’s a very ambitious goal I’m setting,” he said. “Before it wasn’t even running at all.”
Trout paid $100 for the car and said he got every penny out of it. He has spent almost $2,000 in repairs.
“I could have got a nicer 2000 (model car),” he said. “But I figured I might as well make this my baby and appreciate it.”
