Kyle Hauger, left, and Shawn Siegel flip the Baja frame so prep work can continue.
Body Shop’s prep work will lead to smooth, long-lasting paint job
Kyle Hauger, a technician in the Krapohl Body Shop, was busy Monday scuffing a black frame from the Baja Society of Automotive Engineers Team at Central Michigan University.
Kyle Hauger uses a scuffing pad to reach the hard-to-get spots on the frame.
It’s tedious work, prepping for a paint job. First, a degreaser was applied to clean the frame. A wire wheel took care of scuffing much of the frame. That left Hauger, using a scuffing pad, to hit the tiny details by hand. Overall, the prep work took about 2.5 hours to complete, a mini version of what a typical vehicle takes.
Properly scuffed, the black metal piping was left with a dull finish.
“You’ve got to get into all of the nooks and crannies, or the paint won’t stick,” he said.
The Baja team is one of Krapohl Ford & Lincoln community partners. The program at CMU challenges students to engineer, fabricate and race developmental, single-passenger, off-road vehicles. It’s a real-world manufacturing project that teaches students skills such as engineering, technology, logistics and marketing.
Krapohl provides support by loaning the team vehicles to travel to in-state races, and the Body Shop offered to paint the Baja and formula car frames.
Hauger, a Beal City High School graduate who has worked in the Body Shop for about 18 months, said he enjoys the Baja team project because he’s never too far away from dirt track racing. His father-in-law, Willis McKenzie, is the defending champion in the Hobby Stocks class at Mt. Pleasant Speedway. Kyle helps out by working on Willis’ vehicles.
The final step for the Baja car — painting in the bay — likely will happen later this week.
Connect with us
