On the way to her grandparents’ condo, senior Aubrey Reiter imagines possible designs for the interior of the 1971 Volkswagen minibus waiting for her in their garage. After spending half a year renovating it for her senior project, the vehicle was a childhood dream come true.
“When I was a kid, I was really into the ‘Cars’ movie franchise, and there was this one character, Fillmore, that was a [Volkswagen] minibus,” Reiter said. “I guess I asked for it a lot and would always say, ‘I really want this car.’ It just had a very nice sort of aesthetic that I loved.”
Reiter eventually got to experience the “minibus life” beyond her TV screen, taking regular summer trips to California to surf as she grew up.
“I started looking into it more in seventh grade and learning about the people who travel up and down the West Coast and live in these renovated [Volkswagens],” Reiter said. “I never really was interested in doing it myself until I met someone who had one in California and I was just amazed how they turned what was basically a piece of junk into something that they could live in full time.”
When it came time to choose a senior project idea, Reiter knew she wanted to pick a project that would be meaningful to her and reflect her long-held fascination.
Nationally recognized, the Senior Project program provides a chance for high school seniors to pursue individual passions, build new skills and gain practical experience outside of the traditional school environment.
“Senior project is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a window into something you are passionate about or really want to do,” Senior Seminar teacher Adrienne Barrett said. “A lot of times, especially with West Shore students, you’re always being told what to do. You don’t have time for self-exploration. And so I say, pick something that you want to do for you.”
When Reiter first pitched her idea to her parents in junior year, they were “surprisingly supportive.”
An avid surfer, Reiter’s father, Dan Reiter, took a personal interest in the project.
“I always thought it was a good idea,” Dan Reiter said. “[The Volkswagen minibus] is one of the coolest and most useful vehicles you can have for surfing.”
After getting her parents’ permission, Aubrey Reiter worked with them and Barrett to plan her budget and renovation process, getting project approval early to ensure she could finish in time. “I knew that even starting in July was cutting it close to my deadline,” Reiter said. “I knew someone who had renovated one for fun, and it took him three and a half years.”
Ultimately deciding on a budget of $20,000, Reiter purchased the minibus itself for $11,000.
Reiter then reached out to her tennis coach, Sak Chuntaruk, a former mechanic who had owned an automobile garage in Thailand, to be her project mentor. Chuntaruk helped Reiter to inspect the minibus, identify components of its engine, and address the minibus’s most noticeable issue: an oil leak, which, according to Chuntaruk, is normal for older Volkswagen models.
“At first, we couldn’t tell where the oil was leaking from because there was so much of it,” Reiter said. “With the 1971 minibus specifically, I learned you’re never going to entirely fix the vehicle, because they used an engine designed for a much smaller vehicle on a very large, heavy one, which strains it. It’s going to leak no matter what you do, and all you can do is minimize how much.”
Chuntaruk also taught Reiter how to drive the minibus as it was a stick shift, which was more difficult than she anticipated.
“I thought it was going to be like learning how to drive regular stick shift, and I’d just have to figure out the pedals and gears,” Reiter said. “It turned out that cars that old didn’t have the power steering we have today and I couldn’t turn the wheel. I genuinely had to go to the gym and figure out how to get myself a little bit stronger so I could actually drive it.”
The minibus’s interior renovation included fixing holes, repairing the ceiling, designing benches for seating and replacing the flooring. Having committed to McGill University in Canada, Reiter is considering reselling the minibus after making more repairs over the summer.
“I can’t exactly take it up there,” Reiter said. “I did raise the value of the car, and since these typically sell for more than $75,000, I still can make money if I do decide to sell it.”
Barrett said that watching students bring their ideas to life is one of the most rewarding aspects of the program.
“[The projects] are always super fun,” Barrett said. “ I love it, because everybody’s doing their own creative thing. It’s never boring for me as a teacher. It’s not like my job is scripted, and it’s not like I have to do the same thing over and over. There’s a lot of creativity, a lot of individuality, and I find that the kids are excited about it, so it’s exciting for me too.”
Looking back, Reiter says she’s glad she chose the minibus as her senior project.
“I think if I had done anything else, I would have felt that I missed out on not doing this because I’m not really going to get another chance,” Reiter said. “This felt like the perfect time to try and go out of my comfort zone.”
