Veterans & Community Auto Skills Center

06/18/2026

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🔧❤️🇺🇸 Help Us Build a Rolling Classroom 🇺🇸❤️🔧

I'm working to launch the Veteran & Community Skills Center, a nonprofit project in formation focused on practical skills, mentorship, and hands-on learning.

Our first goal is to acquire a 2000–2005 Buick LeSabre or similar GM vehicle to serve as a training platform.

The goal is not to buy a perfect car.

The goal is to buy a teachable car.

This vehicle will become a rolling classroom where veterans, families, and community members can learn real-world automotive skills:

Brakes • Suspension • Electrical • Fluids • Cooling Systems • A/C • Diagnostics

Students won't just watch. They'll learn by doing.

We're also fortunate to have the support and mentorship of Robert Metcalf, a retired engineer, machinist, author, and former Formula One engine builder who wants to pass along a lifetime of knowledge and experience to the next generation.

Currently seeking:

• Financial donations toward the training vehicle
• Vehicle donations, especially older GM cars and trucks
• Parts, tools, and shop supplies
• Veterans interested in learning
• Community members willing to mentor and teach

Have an old car sitting in your driveway, pasture, or garage?

Don't scrap it just yet.

A donated vehicle could become a teaching platform that helps veterans and community members learn valuable skills while building confidence and independence.

This isn't about fixing a car.

It's about building a classroom on wheels and preserving knowledge through mentorship, service, and community.

Veteran & Community Skills Center

Practical Skills. Real Tools. Community Support.

🔧❤️🇺🇸

Veterans & Community Auto Skills Center is a newly forming nonprofit organization. We are currently building a safe community space where veterans, young adults, and community members can learn automotive skills and mentorship. Donations help us purchase tools, safety equipment, and build hands-on t...

06/17/2026

Veteran connections, I could use your help.

I'm reaching out to veteran organizations and community partners to identify veterans who may be interested in learning from Robert Metcalf, a retired engineer, machinist, author, and former Formula One engine builder.

Whether you're completely new to fabrication and machining or already have experience and want to take your skills to the next level, we'd like to hear from you. The goal is hands-on learning, problem-solving, craftsmanship, and passing on knowledge that is becoming harder to find.

We're exploring small-group classes, mentorship opportunities, and advanced fabrication projects for those looking to grow their skills.

If you're a veteran, know a veteran, or know someone transitioning out of the military who would enjoy this kind of opportunity, send me a message or text.

Help me spread the word. There is a lot of knowledge worth preserving, and a lot of veterans who still have a passion for learning.

🔧 Veterans helping veterans. 🇺🇸

06/13/2026

Last night was a reminder of why we're building this.

I spent the evening with Robert Metcalf, my son, and my friend Joseph Jenkins. Robert taught us machining, let me run the mill drill, and demonstrated TIG welding. I loved every minute of it.

This morning, I woke up to find my bank information had been compromised and nearly $1,000 was gone. Frustrating? Absolutely. But life is a mix of smiles and setbacks.

Today, I'm choosing to focus on the good.

Most importantly, Robert wants to do his part for veterans. If you're a veteran interested in learning fabrication, machining, welding, or metalworking from someone with a lifetime of experience, send me a message or text me. We're just getting started, but this is the kind of knowledge that deserves to be passed on.

Veterans helping veterans. Learning, building, and moving forward together.

🔧❤️🇺🇸

06/10/2026

Can old dogs learn new tricks? I guess we’re about to find out.

One of the things I’m most excited about with the Veterans & Community Auto Skills Center is that teaching goes both ways. We spend a lot of time talking about helping others learn, but there is just as much value in sitting down with someone who has decades of experience and being willing to listen.

Robert has forgotten more about fabrication, machining, and building things than most people will ever know. The opportunity to learn from someone with that kind of knowledge is rare.

I’ve turned a lot of wrenches over the years, but there is always another skill, another technique, and another perspective waiting to be learned.

Looking forward to the lesson. Looking forward to the stories. Looking forward to seeing what happens when experience, curiosity, veterans, students, and community members all come together around a shared project.

Can old dogs learn new tricks?

Absolutely. That’s the whole point.

06/06/2026

The more time I spend talking with Robert Metcalf, the more I realize this isn’t really about automotive work.

It’s about preserving knowledge.

It’s about mentorship.

It’s about creating a culture where experienced people pass what they’ve learned to the next generation instead of taking it with them.

Robert has spent a lifetime solving problems. Engineer. Machinist. Fabricator. Race engine builder. Author. Teacher. He’s built things, raced things, written about them, and spent decades learning how and why things work.

What stands out isn’t just what he’s accomplished. It’s that he’s willing to teach.

We talked about race cars, machine tools, engineering, fabrication, science, education, military hobby shops, scholarships, internships, and giving people opportunities they may never have known existed.

What I think Robert sees is something bigger than classes.

A place where people can learn.

A place where questions are welcome.

A place where curiosity is encouraged.

A place where someone can walk in knowing nothing and leave knowing something.

A place where a veteran, a student, a homeschool kid, a mechanic, an engineer, or someone simply looking for direction can discover what they’re capable of.

The military taught me that knowledge should be passed on. You train the next person. You help the team. You leave things better than you found them.

That’s what resonated with me.

The project isn’t really about machining, welding, race cars, or even automotive repair.

Those are just the tools.

The real goal is mentorship, craftsmanship, problem solving, and helping people discover opportunities they didn’t know existed.

We’re still in the early stages, but I believe San Angelo is ready for something different.

A culture of learning.

A culture of mentorship.

A culture where knowledge, craftsmanship, engineering, and curiosity are valued again.

And that’s something worth building.

06/02/2026

A flashing check engine light is your car screaming, “STOP DRIVING ME.”

Summer heat is here, and I just looked at a 1997 Buick LeSabre that had been driven back and forth to Pecos with a flashing check engine light. A quick diagnosis found a dead ignition coil. Cylinder #2 wasn’t getting spark.

Too easy, Gunny.

The problem is that driving with an active misfire can damage your catalytic converter, waste fuel, reduce power, and eventually turn a simple repair into an expensive one.

Those old 3.8L Buicks are tough engines and can take a lot of punishment, but even they have limits.

If your check engine light is flashing, don’t ignore it. Your car is telling you something is wrong. Catching it early can save you thousands.

Veterans & Community Auto Skills Center

Driven by Service — Built for All.

05/30/2026

I had a really interesting conversation today with a local craftsman who has spent years in racing, machining, welding, fabrication, and engine building.

Nothing is official yet, but it got me thinking about what could be possible here in San Angelo.

There are people in this community with incredible hands-on knowledge, and there are young people, veterans, military families, and others who would benefit from seeing those skills up close.

The idea is simple: small hands-on classes where people can learn from experienced craftsmen. Things like basic fabrication, welding concepts, machining, engine building, race car history, and real-world problem solving.

I would also like to eventually record some of these lessons so the knowledge can be shared beyond the room.

This is still just a conversation, but it feels like the kind of thing worth building toward.

Preserving trades. Teaching skills. Giving people a place to learn

05/25/2026

What I learned in service is that people from different backgrounds, countries, cultures, and beliefs can come together and get the mission done with integrity.

Some of the best mechanics I ever worked with came from Panama, Trinidad, the Philippines, and all across America. Different perspectives and techniques made us stronger. In the shop, there is a universal language: make it run, keep people moving, and look out for each other.

That belief is the foundation behind Veterans & Community Auto Skills Center.

This Memorial Day is not a celebration for many veterans and families. It is a day of reflection, grief, memories, and honoring people we lost. The best way to respect their sacrifice is not endless war or division. It is building stronger communities, helping people, teaching skills, treating each other with dignity, and making life better for the next generation.

Driven by Service — Built for All.

05/21/2026

That’s exactly how these older GMT800 trucks keep going. Half mechanic skill, half “I know I saved that part for a reason.” Good feeling when the used blower motor fires right up instead of dropping $100+ on a new one.

On the water pump bolts for the 5.3L Chevrolet Avalanche — torque matters because the pump seals against the timing cover with a gasket. Too loose:

* coolant leaks
* uneven sealing
* warped gasket

Too tight:

* strip aluminum threads
* crack the pump housing
* distort the gasket surface

The timing cover is aluminum, so it’s easier to damage than old iron blocks.

Factory water pump bolt specs for the 5.3:

* First pass: 11 ft-lbs
* Final pass: 22 ft-lbs

Very important:

* Tighten in a crisscross pattern
* Sneak up on the torque evenly
* Don’t hammer one bolt all the way down first

That slow even clamping pressure keeps the pump flat against the block.

And honestly? A dealership or chain shop today:

* Water pump job: commonly $700–$1400
* Blower motor replacement: another $300–$700 depending on labor and parts

You already had the part and the know-how:
“Make it work, yep.”

That’s exactly the kind of practical skill your whole Veterans & Community concept is built around. Older vehicles stay alive because somebody is willing to diagnose instead of just throw money at it.

05/19/2026

Circa 2009. Third deployment.

A group of us were giving shoes to Iraqi special forces soldiers’ kids because many of them weren’t safe outside Victory Complex. This little boy ran up to me smiling. Just a toddler. A kid.

Honestly, I do not know if he made it.

I remember drinking tea with Iraqi soldiers in tents, smoking ci******es, and talking about family and life through broken English and hand gestures. In those moments, politics disappeared. They were just people trying to survive the same war we were.

Years later, I look back differently at Iraq and Afghanistan. We completed missions. We served honorably. A lot of good people tried to do the right thing in impossible places.

But war leaves wounds that do not always show.

While I was inpatient at Landstuhl, Germany, I met a soldier broken by what he had lived through as a Humvee driver. I was hurting from my own trauma too, but the pain in his eyes stayed with me. Some wounds do not get fixed by treatment. People learn to carry them.

That is part of why I’m doing what I’m doing today.

I want to build something centered around mentorship, humanity, purpose, and community. A place where veterans and young people can reconnect through skills, helping others, and looking out for each other.