The Auto Collision Repair and Refinishing program offers students a unique blend of hands-on training, technology and artistry, and instructor Dan LaPlant is proud to help lead the way.

“We’re a very hands-on program, but there’s also a great deal of shaping, color theory and all these other things that bring in the artistic side,” he says.

Whether he’s teaching welding, refinishing or advanced repair techniques, Dan enjoys the challenge of working with a new group of students each year and helping them find success through hard work and persistence.

Get to know Dan in our FVTC Faculty Spotlight.

What classes do you teach?

We offer both a technical diploma and an associate degree, and I teach the introductory classes. We teach an Intro to Refinishing class, where the students understand how to work with hazardous materials and chemicals and the safety of all the shop stuff. Then we get into welding, taking cars apart, putting them back together, small dent repair, large dent repair, aluminum and steel welding, aluminum and steel dent repair, and then primarily an entire semester of refinishing and painting. We do color theory mixing, how to prep the panels, how to mask the panels off, and take everything from start to finish. That’s eight different classes.

How did you get into Auto Collision?

When I was younger, I was going to a four-year college and didn’t know what I was doing. I was just taking gen ed’s and skiing every day up in Marquette, Michigan when someone pushed me to maybe look at going to technical school. I enrolled at the technical school up there and eventually transferred to NWTC in Green Bay. From there I started working in shops.

Why did you decide to go into teaching?

I was getting kind of burned out working in the shops, so after briefly considering an education degree, I started working on the curriculum side of things in collision repair. I was an on-camera instructor, as well as a subject matter expert for a collision repair company for many years. That really built me into wanting to work in teaching and education more than ever. When the opportunity opened up here at Fox Valley Technical College, I jumped on it. I’ve been here ever since.

What do you enjoy most about the classes you teach?

I think what I enjoy most is the students and how that changes every year. It poses a challenge. Each year, you feel like you’re prepared and have everything figured out, and that quickly goes away with a new group of students, and it goes away day-to-day, so it keeps you on your toes. You have to be able to adapt and overcome those obstacles and show up every day for the students.

What’s one piece of advice you have for students?

Don’t give up… you know, find that grit. Dig down, work harder.

Tell us about a professional skill you’re learning.

In our industry, as you know, in Wisconsin especially, we have a lot of corrosion and rust issues. One way to prevent that during repairs on collision-damaged vehicles is to limit the heat input or welding on the vehicles. When we weld on them, it burns off the corrosion-resistant coatings, so if we can do dent repair without having to weld something and pull it out, what we can do now is glue repair on panels and keep all of those coatings intact. That’s become pretty new in the last few years. I can definitely teach it and I know how to do it, but I’m no expert at it, so I’m going to continue to get trained on that so we can get better and better at it.

What’s one thing about you that might surprise your students?

I’ve done a backflip on skis. That’s a good one to throw in for Two Truths and a Lie.

What do you like to do outside of the classroom?

Downhill skiing. I do a lot of cycling as well.

What was your first job?

My first job was working for my grandpa, who was a tree farmer. Collecting pine boughs to make wreaths for Christmas.

What was your best job?

Hands down, my best job is working here at the college. I absolutely love it. It combines a couple of my passions of working on cars and that artistic aspect, as well as teaching and giving back to the students.

Lightning Round

Vacation: beach or mountains?
Mountains

Winter or summer?
Winter

City or country?
Country

Fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction

Messy desk or clean desk?
Clean desk

Cat person or dog person?
Cat

Morning person or night owl?
I’ve become a morning person.

What’s your go to comfort food?
Pizza

What is the last TV show you binge watched?
Slow Horses