TRIPLE GARAGE TRIPLES THE PLEASURE
Edmontonian learned love of turning wrenches in high school automotive class
EDMONTON About this time last year, Dan and Judy Brochu were discussing goals. Key for Dan was finding a home with a bigger garage, as he’d been working on projects in a cramped 18-foot by 20-foot garage.
“We looked at acreages but they all needed so much work,” the Edmonton automotives teacher says.
“We found a beautiful twostorey walkout backing onto a golf course, but most important to me was the 22-foot by 30-foot triple garage.”
Brochu says his mechanical talents came naturally, and while his dad was an airframe technician in the military and his grandfather owned a diamond drilling company in North Bay, Ont., he didn’t spend much time working with either of them.
Rather, it was when he turned 16 and a group of his friends all took automotive class at high school that things started to click for Brochu. They’d all gather at a friend’s barn in London, Ont. with their cars and work together to problem-solve. He says they all taught each other and learned from their mistakes.
From that introduction to auto mechanics, Brochu trained to become a technician. In 1984, he graduated with a red seal and worked 21 years for an Edmonton GM dealer, specializing in rebuilding automatic transmissions. In 2006, he became an automotives instructor at NAIT and continues to pass on his knowledge.
After buying the house, Brochu spent two months getting the garage together. He taped and mudded the walls, painted the room, then moved in his Snap-on tool chest and workbenches. He says the space is still a work in progress, but it houses a completed 1969 Mach I Mustang and his current project, a 1934 Chevy hot rod truck.
Here’s what we found out about Brochu’s workspace and the tools he uses.
Q: What tools are in your collection and where did they come from?
A: My Snap-on box contains everything I’ve purchased over 25 years in the trade, and I still have my original top box. I’ve also gone to auctions and bought some old tools that I’ve added to my collection. For example, an old British crescent wrench that’s time-worn with use came out of a box of tools that I paid $5 or $10 for. I’ve also got some old engine test equipment, like a machine for checking connecting rods to make sure they’re straight and a device for checking a hydraulic lifter to test if it will hold pressure. These are outdated industry tools, and I’ve found some of them in a scrap metal bin that were headed off for recycling.
Q: Which tool or tools do you use most often?
A: Right now it’s mostly my body tools, usually the body hammer and dolly as I work on the body on the truck. My MIG welder is a go-to tool; I’d be lost without that. My first MIG welder was a Clarke that I bought in the 1980s.
This one I have now is a Tweco unit, and it’s a three-in-one machine with arc, MIG and TIG capabilities. I use it most often as a MIG machine.
Q: How did you learn to use the tools?
A: High school automotives is where I learned a lot, including arc and gas welding. When we moved to London I wanted to take woodworking, but the class was full. Dad told me to take automotives, and said I’d learn some skills that I could use. Basically, it chose me rather than me choosing it, and I was a natural at it. Now, if I’ve got a question, I’ll jump online, look at YouTube or join a forum. I have a few friends I can ask and I have a niece in B.C. who does custom home furnishings, so I can ask her questions about upholstery.
Q: What’s the most important project in the garage right now?
A: The ’34 Chevy. I would like to be doing final touches on the truck this time next year. I have to take it back down to the frame and get it ready for paint. I’m going to build a small booth in the garage equipped with filters and a fan. I’ll do the final metal work, prime it and paint it. I never could afford to pay someone else to do paint, so I learned my way around a paint gun. The truck will be finished in a 1994 Corvette Polo Green. It looks black in low light and it’s got a bit of pearl in it.
Q: Is there anyone else in the house or in your life interested in working in the garage?
A: My wife, Judy, loves what I do. We’ve been together since high school and she took an automotive shop class so she could understand what my friends and I were always talking about. There’s a stool at the top of the stairs and she’ll come out and sit and watch and visit while I’m working. My son turned 29 this year and just moved to Parksville, B.C. He bought a 1976 Land Rover, and the mechanics must have somehow distilled into his life because he hadn’t really shown much interest in what I’d been working on in the garage, but he enjoys it now.