17-year old girl wins garage makeover competition

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - Most teens would ask for a car on their birthday, but when Camelia Murdoch turned 17 she had something different in mind. Her birthday wish was to build a classic car.

"I wanted the experience, and I think it makes it a lot more meaningful and more valuable if I do it myself," Murdoch said.

Murdoch's interest in automobiles developed while watching her father work at his car dealership when she was younger. Out of her five siblings, she's the only one who picked up the passion for cars.

"When Camille said for 17 birthday she wanted to build a car. To learn how to work on cars, I thought, that was so cool," her father Juan Murdock said.

Currently, Murdoch is restoring a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. She started from scratch and hopes when she is finished it will look brand new.

"We're working on bodywork right now, pulling out dents, replacing rust and making sure everything fits good. And then once we're done with that, we will eventually get on to paint and then assembling it," Murdoch said.

Murdoch is working in the garage of a family friends, Garth and Nancy Jones. They love watching her share the same joy as they do.

"I was thrilled to see her here because as a woman who's interested in cars. There's not a lot of us," Nancy said. "And so, I see this tiny little blonde out in the shop with her coveralls and her welding mask on, and she's delightful and it's just gonna enjoy."

Murdoch entered a competition to restore a garage.

"My dad heard on the radio that Advanced Autoparts was doing a garage makeover competition or something like that I guess, whatever you would call it, and he's like, you should enter. So I was like okay, like no one ever wins you know but I'll enter for fun. So I just wrote what we are doing out here."

A couple of weeks later Murdoch found out she won.

"She called me up and she just screamed on the phone, 'we won, we won!' It was super cool. Yeah, it's gonna be fun to have the garage made over," Juan.said.

Soon Murdoch will be working on her car from home. The garage remodel is expected to be done in the coming weeks.

"So yeah, so we're getting a $20,000 garage makeover at our house. Epoxy flooring, lift cabinet set, the whole thing," Murdoch said.

Murdoch is expecting to have her car finished next March.