I completed my internship at Buckcreek Auto collision Repair shop. Buckcreek Automotive Repair focuses on body restoration, and occasionally does engine work if they feel they will be able to complete the task. I wanted to complete my internship focused on this career because I have always been interested in automotives, and enjoyed using my hands to construct and work on machines. I took an engineering class in the 11th grade and enjoyed it very much. I also always joined my father when he worked on vehicle engines and body repairs. Because of this, I thought that it would be a wise decision to complete my internship in this career field. Pursing my internship in this career field would assist my decision on whether I wanted to continue to pursue this career path after my internship.

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My mentor was Patrick Menchaca, an employee at Buckcreek Auto Collision Repair. Patrick focuses on body restoration work, but does a small amount of engine work. Shadowing Patrick gave me the insight that I need to determine whether I would pursue this career path.

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During my internship with Patrick Menchaca, we mainly focused on bodywork, which consisted of replacing body panels and painting them. I had mostly watched these processes before and have only done them a couple times, so I was not familiar on how to complete them. These tasks would be new to me, and potentially challenges I would have to solve. What I enjoyed about his job is that it was not repetitive since there were different cars and tasks that came in all the time. We worked on a range of cars from trucks to sedans to small coupes. I was able to experience working on multiple cars, which gave me a variety of tasks to complete.

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At first, working on these vehicles was a bit nerve racking because they were someone else’s vehicle. This was the biggest challenge I faced during my internship because it caused me to stand back rather than working hands on during the beginning on my internship. This was a problem because experience is a necessity to be properly work on vehicles. I was worried to damage someone else’s car, and I was also worried because Mr. Menchaca was responsible for me. Anything that I did was put onto my mentor, so I did not want to damage or incorrectly assemble any parts.

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The first day was a walk-through of the business and what he performed for his daily tasks.

We then began to work on Mr. Menchaca’s next project, which was replacing and repainting the front bumper on a Chevrolet Equinox . Since this was still the first day, I did not do much of the work; I was observing and learning how to properly use the tools. First, we removed the front bumper to prepare to put the new bumper on and see if there was any frame damage to the car. We then obtained the new bumper and prepared it to be painted. I was able to prepare the new bumper because it is a simple task. All I had to do to prep the bumper was scuff it, which is using a piece of steel wool to create scratches, so that the fresh layer of paint would stay more thoroughly. Then I wiped the bumper down to get excess dust from scuffing off. Mr. Menchaca then began to paint the bumper. I enjoyed this process because of the spray gun to paint the bumper, but I was very nervous about carrying out this task myself. When painting a vehicle, you need to be very careful and thorough or else it is very difficult to fix a paint mistake. This was causing me to be hesitant on painting the vehicle myself. Since I kept being hesitant and standing back during the beginning of my internship, I was not gaining as much experience and knowledge that I could have been.

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I was able to get over this problem with help from Mr. Menchaca. He continued to show me how to properly use the tools to assemble and disassemble the different parts of the vehicles. We then began start on the different projects he had. He continued to walk me through using the tools properly and I eventually began to complete these tasks by myself. I removed multiple parts from cars and painted them. I experienced and learned many new skills I was able to take away from this internship. Although I enjoyed working with Mr. Menchaca, I learned that I would not want to pursue a career in this field. It was very repetitive and I feel like it would turn into a burden rather than an enjoyable hobby. I am glad I was able to complete my internship so that I could get the insight I did on my desired career path.