Closed around the late 1980s and used mostly for storage, Palisades Charter High School’s automotive shop, which once roared with the sound of American steel, has remained behind lock and key for many years. Inside the dusty wooden doors of its back cabinets, the remnants of its former glory lay dormant’that is until David Riccardi, PaliHi’s new director of operations and classic-car enthusiast, was given the keys to the garage. ’It was like opening King Tutankhamen’s tomb for a car buff like me,’ said Riccardi, noting that he ‘found the old grease pan just lying there. It’s amazing, it’s like they just locked the place up and walked away.’ Riccardi, who began working at Pali in March, said that he has already found a whole treasure trove of car parts inside the old garage, ranging from a late 1950s Edelbrock Chevy intake manifold to ’60s-era Oldsmobile rocket engine racing pistons. ’The reference libraries I found in those shelves are priceless as far as restoration, service and body manuals go,’ Riccardi said, noting ‘You might find reproductions but rarely originals.’ While contemplating a ’60s Corvette Spinner sitting on his office shelf that he found in the garage, Riccardi said that he is planning to bring back the old PaliHi automotive shop. ’The whole idea is to bring back a lost art and give these kids the ability to bring something back to life again,’ he said. These car parts, and the garage, represent another era ‘when we thought differently, when cars were created for speed and necessity’there is no personality anymore to the cars nowadays,’ Ricarrdi said. ‘You can’t tell one apart from the other.’ Riccardi said he plans to clear out the space (located in Building J) and knock down an adjacent wall to restore the spacious shop to its original size. The finished area will be large enough to hold four or five sedans. ’There was a mezzanine up top, too, where they used to teach students in a classroom setting and down below they worked on cars. I am planning on bringing that back, too.’ ‘ It didn’t take long for some of Pali’s alum grease monkeys to get word of Riccardi’s plans, such as Steve Hart, who called the shop ‘the reason I finished high school.’ Back during the auto shop’s ‘golden days,’ the garage was under the tutelage of Russell Kitagawa, who took it over around 1966, Hart said. ”I loved the shop. I would go there after school. All the teachers would bring in their cars for service.’ Hart, who went to Pali from 1974 to 1976, said the shop was originally built in 1963 but didn’t get into full swing until Kitagawa arrived. ‘He was a great teacher and he was kind of a rebel himself.’ Kitagawa drove a 1957 Ford Ranchero with flames coming off the side, Hart remembered. ‘He had a really dry sense of humor and would say things like ‘the gas goes in one side and the air comes out the other’ or ‘Sparky says so” stuff like that.’ Many students fixed their own cars and Palisades families would donate their cars to the shop. The back of the shop (called the graveyard) was filled with donated vehicles, Hart said. Automotive manufacturers such as Ford and Chrysler contributed complete engines, transmissions and auto components to the automotive class. ’It was a fun class that taught real-world issues,’ said Hart, who was one of the first people to rebuild an automatic transmission on campus.’ Another of Kitagawa’s students, Roger Pecsok, who rebuilt a VW engine in the shop and graduated in 1987, said it was a great class. ’It was the kind of thing that really gave you a lot of confidence. It was a good practical class to take,’ said Pecsok, who sold the Volkswagen to his brother Phil for $1,000 before he went off to college.’ ’Kitagawa was an animated teacher and was a lot of fun,’ Pecsok said. ‘He was the heart and soul of that class.’ ‘ Kitagawa retired in 2006 but still keeps in touch with some of the legacy teachers, Hart said.’ The station wagons that ended up behind the garage, such as the Ford Esquires, really told a story but somewhere along the line people stopped designing those cars, said Riccardi, who hopes to teach students not only the basic fundamentals but a little restoration as well. ’When you pull an old car apart, sometimes you find things under the seat’an old ticket stub, maybe a note,’ said Riccardi, who added that American-made cars are a reflection of our own history. ’We have had a lot of interest expressed but we could still use some help,’ said Riccardi, who envisions having hobby nights at PaliHi where local car enthusiasts could come and use the garage. ‘I already have a logo envisioned for the garage: an illustration of Dewey the Dolphin riding in a convertible and maybe some blue flames shooting off the sides.’ Riccardi said he hopes to have a convertible restored in time for next year’s Fourth of July parade. The car would represent the school and would bare the auto shop’s new logo.’ When asked if he would consider calling the auto space ‘Dewey’s Garage,’ Riccardi said, ‘That’s a really a good idea.’ Click here to visit the Pali automotive class Web site.
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