Elkhart center restoring 1973 vehicle with 46 miles on it

ELKHART, Ind. (AP) - Many old cars change owners over the years.

For one car at the Elkhart Area Career Center, it hasn't left the auto shop's possession in decades. After 40 years, a teacher has gone from working on it as a student to using it in his own classroom.

Martin Hostetler, the automotive technology teacher at the career center, has been working after school with students to fix up the oldest car the school has: a 1973 Pontiac Ventura.

"It's the first car that was donated to the school. It was actually damaged in transit from California to here," Hostetler said. "It only had like 13 miles on it when it was donated and it only has 46 and a half now."

The car was set for delivery to Battjes Pontiac in Elkhart straight from the factory when heavy damage was found that made it unsuitable to sell, according to Hostetler.

Battjes worked with General Motors to get the car donated to the then-new career center at Elkhart Community Schools. Hostetler remembers the car from his time at there as a student, when he attended from 1976 to 1978.

Hostetler has been involved with the automotive classes at the career center nearly as long as the Pontiac.

"I've always been on the advisory board, so I've been involved with the automotive program for 40-some years," he said. "This program gave me my life, my job and start. It's meant a lot to me so that's why I came back to it."

Hostetler returned to the career center classroom as a teacher about 10 years ago, he said. He found the Ventura was in sad shape - not running, just sitting with parts missing.

"I decided at that point that I wanted to save this car," Hostetler said.

He worked with students to get the car's engine running, but after the economic downturn of 2008 funding was tough to find so the car went back to storage. Earlier this school year, though, the Ventura finally came back out and work has slowly started back up.

A couple of days a week, Hostetler and students meet after school to work on the old Pontiac, which still has its original window sticker and factory tires on it.

Hostetler has decided to use the car as an opportunity to get more students involved and hopefully spark some interest with others - even those outside of the program - while also building a car that can travel to car shows.

"We could have something that when it's done, it belongs to the school so it will always be here," he said.

Despite the car not being a sought-after classic, like the Chevrolet version of the Ventura, the Nova, Hostetler said some students have shown interest in the older car.

"We still have some kids that still like the older cars. We're still trying to build the interest," he said. "It really doesn't matter if it's a new car or older, if you're a car person, you're a car person."

Funding repairs on the car will also be tough, Hostetler said. A GoFundMe page will launch soon and Hostetler hopes to find students interested in helping promote the project or building a website for it. He also wants to get career center alumni involved in the project, as well.

"I've kind of put it out to the whole school, not just the mechanical side of it, but design, advertising, building a website and Facebook page," Hostetler said.

He is also concerned with finding parts. The Ventura is missing its front bodywork, which is tougher to find than the more popular Nova models.

"If we can't find a front end, then we'll make it a Nova," he said.

Given the slow nature of working on a project car a couple nights a week and the fundraising involved, Hostetler estimates it will cost $10,000 to $15,000 and take five or six years to complete. The car would have more money put into it than it's worth when finished he said, but it would all be worth it.

"We could work on a million other cars but not one that's been with the school for 43 years," he said.

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Source: The Elkhart Truth, http://bit.ly/2nnUCYZ

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Information from: The Elkhart Truth, http://www.elkharttruth.com