Oct. 25, 2011—Chief Automotive Technologies recently donated a new frame rack worth $50,000 to the Operation Comfort Automotivation program for wounded U.S. military service members.
The program was created when service members who didn’t want to participate in conventional rehab activities or sports, but instead wanted to rebuild and restore cars, trucks and motorcycles. Participants are building a 1966 Shelby Cobra replica kit car and are finishing a World War II weapons carrier body they restored and installed on a 1984 Ford Bronco chassis. Both vehicles will be on display at SEMA next week in Las Vegas.
“Operation Comfort is structured to improve the soldiers’ spirits, so their rehab is faster and more effective,” said Janis Roznowski, Operation Comfort executive director and founder. “Their lives now are a cycle of medical appointments, surgeries, therapy, rehab, more appointments, more treatments, more surgeries, more rehab… That’s why it’s so important to give them relief. I believe that if they’re working on something they really love, they forget all the trauma going on in their lives. When they’re working on a car, they’re focusing on that car and enjoying the process. By fixing a car, somehow or other, they fix something inside of themselves.”
The system that Chief donated was installed in what had been a flat bay. The heavy-duty rack boasts two pulling towers and universal anchoring stands. It has 12,000 pounds of lifting capacity. Program participants will learn through training how to properly use the equipment.
Soldiers still need other tools because Operation Comfort doesn’t have funding to buy equipment. Their needs include a frame measuring system, complete socket sets, alignment rack and equipment, as well as an air took it.
