This summer is the time when I am getting all of my really ambitious projects out of the way. I am currently taking a full class load of credits and working a couple of jobs. One of my jobs is as a writer for the local paper and all of the work is freelance so I have a lot of freedom within that work. The other job I am doing right now is on my own grant project where I am converting an old diesel Mercedes Benz over to vegetable oil. This may not seem like too big of a deal to people since right now everything that’s been going on with the energy crisis and the ways in which people are coping with it. For me it is a big deal though because I knew nothing about cars before the summer began. The last time I had opened the hood of my car was to put the oil in in a couple thousand miles before. Before that I had never opened the hood of a car. That basically tells you what kind of a mechanical background I have been coming from.

A few months ago I saw the first write-up in the paper about the conversion of diesel engines to biodiesel or vegetable oil. This article really peaked my interest and though my car is a gasoline engine I thought it would be an interesting project to create such a car. I wrote and received grant money to convert this car that has been donated to us by a professor in the environmental engineering department. Basically the conditions of my grant are that I will convert the car to the best of my ability by the end of the summer and then I will turn it over to the department for strictly study purposes. Next year they will be using this car to study biodiesel fuel uses in commercial settings. This will also be used to help generate proper rates of commercial car insurance for those seeking biodiesel auto insurance quotes . This car won’t be getting either of those though since it is technically an antique I have gotten it classic car insurance . For now this classic car sits gutted in my garage waiting for my hands to go back to work.