Having dropped out of school, I had nothing but time on my hands. I decided to pursue my goal of building a show car. I did a great deal of major planning and began engineering the 1965 Chevy Impala. I cut 18 inches off the back and now had to weld the car back together. I bought myself an oxygen-acetylene welding outfit ad read books on welding. I gathered together scrap metal and taught myself how to weld and braise. I wasn’t satisfied with the money I was making in the gas station, went to the unemployment office, and found a slightly better paying job as an apprentice welder. I could handle the torch well enough that I was given a chance to do production brazing of marine oil coolers and heat exchangers. There was a young man there who went by the name “Radar.” Radar was a nickname. He was called Radar because somehow he would go speeding from deep in Queens to Hickville, NY, out to the job in about 30 minutes every day without ever being caught and would always arrive to work 5 minutes before the start bell. The saying was he always slipped under radar; hence the nickname. On the other hand, with his welding glasses on he looked like Radar in M.A.S.H 4077. Radar taught me how to run lead something that is highly skilled and also an ancient craft. After three years of doing the same repetitive work day after day, I began to wonder, “Is this what I really want for myself? Is this why my high school teachers worked so hard to teach me math and science? Is this why I worked so hard studying math and science? I’m smarter than this. I could be engineering these heat exchangers.” Plus the money sucked and I just wanted more out of life. Going home, sitting in front of the boob tube and drinking beer after dinner was not for me.I had had enough. I went back to Famringdale to complete what I had started: my Automotive Engineering degree.