T1, E6: Gidget decides that the purchase of a hearse owned by King Mannix will make her independent of waiting for lifts to the beach. Although King wants $300 for the hearse, he accepts $6.23 as a down payment. When Russ points out that the old car will be in the repair shop most of the time, Gidget enrolls in the auto shop course at school. Later she learns that Jack Collins and his friends have pooled their money and bought the hearse. To prove that a girl can make it in a man's world, Gidget continues with the course, and also practices on Russ' car. Horrified by the results, Russ has a heart-to-heart talk with Jack. As a result, the boys in the class really treat her as an equal, with all the hard work entailed. Gidget struggles valiantly, but finds that the cost of equality is just too much. She dates Dreamboat, a handsome young man, after selling her share of the hearse to Jack at a hundred percent profit. After Jack takes Gidget and Dreamboat for a ride in the hearse, she decides that no woman is ever helpless as long as there is a man around and she remembers she is a woman.