10 YEARS FROM NOW…WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF THIS CAR?

by David Stuursma

Share your thoughts, stories, and photos of efforts to encourage the next generation at mossmotors.com/in-10-years.

There’s a question I’m hearing often from British car owners: How do we get the next generation ready and interested in taking on our classic cars? I know this is a concern for quite a few owners. Perhaps the bigger concern is: Who is going to work on my classic car now that my local mechanic is at (or well beyond) retirement age?

I pose the above questions to everyone reading this. I know they are already being discussed, and I also know that ideas are being implemented. I’d like to hear from you, and I hope to share the thoughts and ideas that are sent to me in future issues of Moss Motoring.

I was talking about this topic with Jake Volkers who wrote the “Kids and Cars”, and he wrote this to me, which I felt was on target for this call for ideas and stories:

Those are great questions. I bet they resonate with all of your readers.

I find myself with this dilemma, mainly when I consider things like annual safety inspections. I know I’ve got to show which way a knockoff comes off, and the special wrench to do it, how to pull off a wire wheel, access the brake shoes, etc.

My plan is to find a competent younger mechanic by visiting a few shops, ask lots of ‘find out’ questions to get a sense for ability/experience, then teach the guy stuff he might not know about my car. I follow this process most days in my design engineering job with new graduates. It works out fairly well and helps make team members more self-sufficient.

In this picture are my son Nick, daughter Carly, and their friend from church, Wesley. I invited Wesley and his older brother Ian to help out with a TR7 engine swap. I was their church youth group leader and thought they may want to get some hands-on wrench-turning experience. Ian was there until he had to leave for his job, Wesley stuck around the whole Virginia-humid July morning, and he was a huge help. I took them all to lunch afterwards as a ‘thank you.’ I’ve kept in contact with Wesley and recently he asked me to look over a used first car he was considering. We talked about some of the problems, and I left the decision to him. He was pretty excited about this car but surprisingly turned it down when considering real future ‘fix it’ issues we had discussed. Always nice to know a kid is listening when you’re talking, haha!