1. Brown 1
Clint Brown
Ms. Tillery
AP Literature
April 19, 2012
Senior Speech
Good day Judges my name is Clint Brown and I am a senior at Creekview High School.
My topic for my senior project was the restoration of an automobile. I chose to do this project
because I have always had a peculiar interest in the inner workings of cars and have always
wanted to work on them.
To begin, the topic of my research paper was automotive engineering, which is the design
and creation of cars for the world. Automotive engineering ties to my project by me being one to
restore an automobile and observe the different parts that makes a car work to see what is
required of me to be able to engineer automobiles for the future. Also, the product demonstrates
how engineers must think of how to make a car function with the ability to make it also easy to
maintain for the average consumer. An interesting fact involving automobiles is that an airbag
moves up to 4500 mph within a second when triggered with a force of 200g and they are
designed to explode at an impact speed of nineteen mph. The bag inflates within 40 milliseconds
of a crash. Another interesting fact is that the first known automobile was manufactured in 1668
and it was a two foot long steam powered model.
Overall, the product that I have is a 1991 Lincoln Town Car that I restored to its original
form. I chose this product because of my overwhelming love of working on cars and seeing what

2. Brown 2
they were and what they have become after being finished. For me, the car was fun to restore and
seeing the car being brought back to life is a reward to me that cannot be matched with anything
else. The process of restoring the Lincoln started out by bringing it to my shop from the place it
sat at for four years. Then I proceeded to clean off all of the dirt and filth off of the car. Later, I
proceeded to vacuum the inside and shampoo the floorboard. Furthermore, I replaced the gas
tank due to the original one having a hole in it. Then the clutch fan had to be replaced due to it
not working, causing the car to overheat and blow the air-conditioning compressor up, and
generating another issue that was later repaired. After the compressor was replaced, I proceeded
to charge it by pumping the necessary amount of Freon into it and then pumping oil to keep the
compressor running smooth while in operation. I had to then replace the ball joints on the front
of the car and buy new tires to put on the car due to the other ones being dry rotted. I then had to
repaint the wheels on the car because the paint had come off of them from sitting in leaves and
soil. Last of all, I had to put a new tailpipe on the car because the original one was rusted all the
way through the metal causing the exhaust flow to be disrupted. Through all of this, my project
facilitator was with me every step of the way showing me what to do and how to do it. My
project facilitator was Joseph Brown. I chose Joey because he has been in the inner workings of
automobiles since his childhood due to his father being a mechanic for more than thirty years.
Joey helped me through every step of the way and knew how to correct any mistake I made to
prevent damage to the car, and he was truly a great inspiration for my pursuance in the field of
automotive engineering. The challenges faced in this project were nearly overwhelming due to
the product having been older and parts being feeble and unstable, but with much determination
and the purchase of the parts necessary, I was able to accomplish such a feat as restoring this
vehicle with a great deal of appreciation in the end for my work.

3. Brown 3
Throughout this process, I learned that to be in the automotive industry, it takes complete
knowledge of how automobiles work as a whole and possess the ability to find flaws with
automobiles and better design them for the future. I also learned that when working on cars;
always work with others to ensure that safety precautions are taken and that it must be properly
stabilized before beginning any form of repair or maintenance. When it comes to pursuing this
topic further into a career, I feel as though I would not be able to do it due to my love of doing it
as a hobby more than a career, therefore restoring cars would be more of a hobby for me in the
future.
In summation, I learned copious amounts of information about vehicles and that they
must be worked on very diligently and cautiously with precise working ability. I feel as though
the process for completing this car entirely was very fun and enjoyable throughout, however, the
completion of the Lincoln was not easy by any means and took much time and effort to
complete. As I prepare to be complete, think about this, if not for people like me that put older
cars back on the road and communicate flaws with older cars, where would the world be
technologically with the automobile industry? Thank you all very much for your time and I
appreciate you all taking time out of your day to see my presentation.