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The Street Rod Foundation, Inc. (SRF) of Haslett, Michigan, is a non-profit Public Charity (501 (c) (3)) founded in 2005

Our foundation provides innovative educational programs to secondary and post-secondary institutions. They are designed to help students gain a wide variety of educational skills (i.e. Automotive Technicians, Marketing, Design, Welding, CAD/CAM, Advertising, and Management, etc.) along with real life working skills as they work as a team building the Educator series vehicles of today and the future. Students will learn how to incorporate new technologies and designs into these vehicles so that they are more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly. In addition, our program not only reaches college age students but currently we have some displaced auto workers in the program being retrained in skills that will equip them to re-enter the workforce.

A very important part of our mission emphasizes the guidance of our youth to achieve good leadership skills while building character. These traits will enhance their futures as they live and work in their communities. This is at the core of Street Rod Foundation and we incorporate this message in all areas of our projects.

Automotive manufacturers and Parts Vendors have donated needed parts. Jackson Community College is building “Educator One”, and it will be highlighted at many different venues (i.e., car shows, malls, schools, and community events, etc.) throughout the build process and after completion. Advertising is a big part of this project. We hope to show all phases of this build from start to finish in some of the most popular car magazines and on our website. We will be highlighting the participating schools, vendors and manufacturers.

 After building and showing “Educator One”, this soon-to-be well-known street rod will be auctioned off and a portion of the proceeds will be given back to the Educational Institutions and to the students that have participated in the project in the form of grants and scholarships.

Our goal is to give students hope for today and to build on their dreams for tomorrow. Educator One is simply the “Fun vehicle that drives our program”.

 1932 Ford Hi-Boy Roadster named "Educator One" Build Phase 1 at Street Rod Garage.

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Our Dearborn Deuce body was manufactured by American Specialty Cars. They generously donated a portion of its cost to Street Rod Foundation.

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Dave Lechler on the left is a marketing student from Lansing Community College that has worked 120 hours for his internship with assisting SRF in our initial marketing campaigns.

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Our motor was one of the first parts to arrive.

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Ford Racing Performance Parts provided the motor which is a 302 cubic inch - 345 hp, roller cam with aluminum GT- 40 cylinder heads.

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Holley Performance Parts has provided the High Performance 700 CFM 4 bbl, Throttle Body Injection System and the Stealth Series Weland Intake Manifold.

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The Educator One requires a heavy duty 5 speed manual transmission that was also donated by Ford Racing Performance Parts.

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American Stamping, a nationwide leader in the street rod industry, donated our frame rails. SRF chose them because of their outstanding reputation for meeting the highest precision stamping. 

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Here you can see the frame rails loaded in the fixture to make sure they are straight, before the guys at the Street Rod Garage perform their magic of building the chassis that will handle the power of our 345 hp Ford.

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To strengthen the chassis, Street Rod Garage welded structure supports every 10 -12 inches along the entire frame rail.

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The next step was the welding of boxing plates to the frame rails. This provides added strength to the frame to prevent it from twisting. Now the frame rails are ready to be removed from the jig.

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Delaney and Brantley from Street Rod Garage are taking the frame rails out of the jig to be touched up.

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Brantley is smoothing out the welds on the frame rails.

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Delaney is touching up the welds to the frame rails.

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The cross member which holds the radiator in place and strengthens the front end was donated by Chassis Engineering. Here you can see the frame rails are realigned in the fixture and the cross member has been installed.

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Street Rod Garage donated their labor and materials to build the chassis for Educator One. This picture shows the complete frame with both the front-end cross member and the x-member installed in the middle of the frame. All frame supports are in place at this stage of the build.

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Delaney and Brantley are rigging the frame to remove it from the jig.

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The frame has been moved to a set up table where the suspension will be installed. Once the front and rear suspensions are in place the frame becomes a rolling chassis.

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The chassis is being set to the correct non-load ride height.

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Super Bell Axle Co. donated the complete 4” dropped straight front axle with the finned super stopper brakes. It’s looking good.

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Here you can see the finned backing plates. This will add that special look.

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Street Rod Garage notched the rear frame rails to give plenty of clearance for travel.

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Unisteer Performance Products donated the Rack and Pinion unit.

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Johns 9" Factory donated the complete rear housing with axles and a new 3.55 gear. Aldan Shock Absorber donated the polished coil-over shocks.

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The triangulated 4-bars have been installed that were donated by Chassis Engineering.

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The Universal pedal assembly, the brake and clutch master cylinders have been installed. They were donated by MP Master Brakes.

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The Street Rod Foundation went to Alabama to personally present a token of our appreciation to the guys at the Street Rod Garage for building Educator One’s chassis.

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Meet the good ole boys at the Street Rod Garage. Left to right Delaney, Mr. David Sutton, his grandson Ben, and we can’t forget the ring leader Chris Sutton

We brought the chassis back home to Michigan, where Jackson Community College will take over working on Educator One.

Phase 2 begins on the next page

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