By Carrie White
Gone are the days when girls tracked to home ec and boys to auto shop.
This year, Patagonia High School’s Automotive 1 class has a girl-to-boy ratio of 7-to-1. That’s no accident. Jeff Gudenkauf knows women are more vulnerable when it comes to auto repair overcharges. So even if the ladies don’t become mechanics, they’ll know when they’re getting greased.
“They need a knowledge base,” he said. “I teach them what they need to know so that when they’re out there and someone tells them they need a new engine, they’ll know the difference.”
Gudenkauf, who counts automotive technology teacher among his titles, started the program in 2021. The shop, a facility once jammed with exercise equipment, washers, dryers, tables and desks now boasts a laser wheel balancer, Hunter alignment machine, two lifts and industrial-grade tools.
From humble beginnings, the program has progressed to include a hands-on experience in car rebuilding and offering minor car repair services to the public, sans labor cost.
Auto 1 & II are currently working on — and probably will be for the next couple years — a 1979 Ford Ranchero rebuild. According to the Gudenkauf, there were only 15 such models made with this car’s specs. “The guy that ordered it ordered it with specific paint, trim and interior,” Gudenkauf said.
Ford Motor Co. and Buma High School in Sierra Vista will be helping with the project. Buma High will be assisting with the body work and paint job. Ford will be assisting with the engine. Patagonia and Buma high schools are members of the Cochise Technology District. The district provides certification and dual enrollment credits for students.
When not occupied with the rebuild or learning basic skills, the students offer minor car repair services to the public. Make an appointment, purchase and bring in any necessary parts and the students — under Gudenkauf’s supervision — will get ‘er done. Services include tuneups, brake work, oil changes and diagnostics on cars built before 2025. No engine rebuilds. (To find out more or make an appointment, email jgudenkauf@psd062.org.)
Airam Hoyos, a junior from Nogales, is enrolled in Automotive 1 this year. She likes changing tires. While she isn’t sure if becoming an auto mechanic is in her future, she likes “learning new things. My papa and uncles are auto mechanics,” she said. Plus, she’s keen on graduation with ready-to-go certifications — a leg up on the workplace ladder.
One student who was propelled into a job out of high school thanks to Gudenkauf’s classes is Oskar Gomez. Gomez graduated from Patagonia High in 2023 and is a mechanic at P-Town Auto and Offroad in Patagonia. He said he learned a good foundation in the auto classes. He also learned that working for a dealership wasn’t for him. For one, he said, dealerships limit the type of car a mechanic works on. Also, the scope of a mechanic’s work is limited. Brake guys do brakes. Belt guys do belts.
“In a small town you can actually look at the car in depth and get to know the customer and what is needed,” Gomez said. Working with people as well as cars is a plus for him.
Which brings us back to something else Gudenkauf is teaching — ethics.
“We had a car come in and the window wouldn’t roll up,” Gudenkauf said. The car owner had been told by another mechanic — not in Patagonia or Sonoita — that she needed a window regulator — $450 parts/labor.
“I said before we get started, let’s check the electrical,” Gudenkauf said. Turns out the plug had come disconnected from the window switch. The part that had been bought by the customer was returned through Amazon. The labor: no charge. Well, if anyone wants to bring the mechanics cookies, those are appreciated.
“If you go out and look at older garages, you’re going to see that most of the people running them are in their sixties and seventies and they’re ready to retire. But there’s no one to take over because we lost a whole generation of mechanics.”
Jeff Gudenkauf
Gudenkauf’s path to his current Patagonia post — auto guru, history teacher, Career and Technical Education Director — was somewhat predictable. He was age 16 when he got his first car — a 1966 Chevy Impala SS. His uncle Rick gave it to him. It didn’t run.
Entering the Army after graduating Nogales High School, Gudenkauf was assigned as a mechanic and tow truck driver. When a Reduction in Force came under President George H. Bush, Gudenkauf returned home to work in the family printing and towing business. By this time, he and wife Barbara had two sons. At the appropriate time he took his oldest, Aaron, to Bob Holler’s Junkyard in Nogales and pulled out a ’87 Monte Carlo SS. It was gutted and rebuilt. Trophies.
Later, son Joshua got a 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 that had been damaged by a falling tree. “I paid $400 for the car, took it to my shop, fixed the roof,” Gudenkauf said. Joshua then took over: “all the mechanical work, pulled the motor, did the paint, did everything. He still has that car to this day. It’s sitting at his house in Sonoita.”
And here we come full circle. Learning, both by book and hands-on, the 1979 Ford Ranchero student rebuild will — hopefully — be sold through the prestigious Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale. Other project cars — seven total — have been sold through county auction. The benefit of a Barrett-Jackson sale would be more money back to program coffers.
“In the 1980s and to about 2010 we forced so many to go to college,” Gudenkauf said of the value of the CTE programs.
What was forgotten was that trades are important too — people to do plumbing, electrical, HVAC and work on cars. He looks at the program as providing a career path for youth more interested in the latter.
“If you go out and look at older garages, you’re going to see that most of the people running them are in their sixties and seventies and they’re ready to retire,” Gudenkauf said. “But there’s no one to take over because we lost a whole generation of mechanics. Everyone’s got a college degree.”
