Sep 16

High school Auto Mechanics

With some of the notoriety, prestige, and media exposure of McPherson College and their auto restoration class, it got me wondering how many high schools still offer auto mechanics.

I used a couple AI platforms and was a little surprised that it couldn’t give me an answer. Some offered responses that focused on budget cuts and the curriculum being cut out in the last 20 or 30 years as a trend. That didn’t surprise me. I’m wondering if the majority of high school schools do not offer it any longer? High schools try and prepare young people for jobs that wouldn’t be overly vulnerable to AI influence, it got me, wondering if local high schools could pivot and do some modest version of a McPherson model with the focus on vintage/collectible cars. There are so many car clubs scattered across the country with old guys who have a lot of knowledge. The AACA reports over 350 active chapters regions. It got me, wondering if some type of joint cooperation could be stood up. Selfishly, I think it would be great for the hobby to introduce young people to these cars we love. Additionally, it might be helpful as a pipeline for employment for some of the students after graduation.

Is anybody aware of any partnership with car clubs and a high school to have an interesting auto shop class that teaches some of the fundamentals mechanically and historically?

Sep 16, 2026

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Replies (22)

· Sep 16

Back in the 80s my HS had a full blown auto shop. Lift, engine hoist, test equipment, etc. That all got gradually phased out in the last 20 years and now there is none.

· Sep 16

Same. I actually worked for my HS shop teacher as the tool crib attendant for adult ed 2 nights a week. I think I earned $40 every two weeks...

Strange but true I acquired two 32 Ford grills one passenger (still have it) & one commercial when I was maybe 14. Shop teacher was restoring a 32 pickup that was missing....the grill shell. I gave it to him.

He retired a few years back - shop budgets a constant target and kids today are sadly out of control...

John great thought might play better in the heartland...

· Sep 16

As Steve knows, on the other side of town (won't say which was better) we had Electronics, Computer Science, Home Ec. (sewing and cooking), Woodworking, Metal Shop, Painting, pottery and Art, Photography and Graphic Arts (with darkroom of course), and Auto repair with 2 lifts (I think). Now all gone except maybe computers and/or Electronics. The Metal shop lingered on for awhile too.
I think as alluded to the town got stingy on budgeting supplies and tools for these subjects and as also mentioned in an affluent suburb it became a push to graduate to college, not technical trades. My teacher/mentor and later friend would tell me about being squeezed by the education politics and finances going on behind the scenes.

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· Sep 16

John, you and I are the same age. When I was in HS in the late 70s early 80s we had pretty good metal/wood/auto setup. The autoshop had a lift and they did a lot of basic maintence on the shop kids cars. A bunch of them became mechanics. When I was a junior I was going to have them rebuild my GTO engine, which would have been free but I got a better deal from the mechanic working on my dad's cars as he was a race car guy. All of that stuff is gone to my knowledge.

As far as working with local voke schools, check out the Bennet Auto Foundation run by @parkerspackards. They work with local schools to generate interest in the auto restoration field.

https://www.bennettautofoundation.org/donor-impact

· Sep 16

The emphasis on "going to college" in the last 30 or 40 years has really done a number on all the trades including automotive. We have churned out lots of useless 4 year college diplomas and now we can't hire a plumber to come to the house because there aren't enough of them.

I hope this trend reverses itself but don't count on your local public school reinstating auto class.

· Sep 16

Amen. I went to trade school and was still expected to go to college because a trade was just “something to fall back on”. I dropped out two semesters in, pissed my dad off, went to work and never looked back. And then the biggest irony is that my wife and I just paid off her student loans for her criminal justice degree that took her 20 years to find somewhere to use it.

· Sep 17

Don't get me going on worthless "soft" college degrees. If it isn't one of STEM ones, or nursing, you are wasting your time. A business degree might be ok. But the days of majoring in poly-sci and walking in to a sales job are over.

· Sep 17

You want to talk about worthless, one of my sisters was an English major and the other has a drama degree. One works in accounting and the other is a school principal, so that was money well spent. 🙄

· Sep 17

@alsancle My sister-in-law has a very expensive degree in forensic archaeology. She works in a call centre.

· Sep 16

Sponsoring internships at restoration shops is the way to solve this problem. Not that I have the money to do that. But having kids get a taste and real skills is what will create the next generation of mechanics.

· Sep 16

It’s a very different world than it was even when I was in tech school 26years ago. Even they can’t get funding to maintain the shop courses. The auto body shop at our local tech school was able to get a new frame machine a few years back. Okay fine, but they couldn’t get enough money to also get a measuring system for it so it’s almost worthless. It ends up being a workbench. They can’t even get damage estimating software to train the students on that part of repairs because of some nonsense with licensing and security. It’s bleak.

· Sep 16

One of my recent friends was an adjuster for awhile and he showed me that that software is absolutely paramount.

· Sep 17

It really is. It’s a far cry from the old days when you opened up the “crash book” and had to write down the labor times for each individual part. It took forever. Now the insurance companies have started having AI write the estimates off of photos that the appraiser uploads, which is….interesting.

· Sep 16

I just checked the high school where we have a second home. Monticello Indiana. (Our only home now while we search for a place in Tucson for a primary residence). In 2024 they built a new career technical building. The auto program seems staffed and quite a bit of enthusiasm from online parent feedback. I’m shocked in an age of eliminating this stuff, they are ramping up.

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· Sep 17

That’s encouraging news.

· Sep 17

That is a nice looking facility!

· Sep 17

I was impressed! They built three full hospital rooms for medical technical training with the kids and they have 18 welding bases to teach welding and a six bay car auto lab. This is a small town in the Midwest that has a large agricultural base but also has two large lakes with a lot of summer tourism and second home people. I think the school benefits from a property tax base of a lot of Lake people who cut that check every year but don’t send any of their kids to the public schools because it is not their primary home. I applaud them for building facilities like this and getting the kids in there to learn something useful.

I hope it’s crazy successful and surrounding schools start hearing about it and consider investing in these type of programs. I need to go meet the guy who’s the teacher and running it. I wonder if he would have interest and flexibility in his curriculum to have a week where an old pre-war car is brought in and let the kids check it out and ask questions and put their hands on it.

· Sep 17

I graduated in 1996 and from reading other's posts I was lucky to have a good shop program.
In grade 8 our shop class was broken up into 3 units. We did a few months in woodworking, electronics and metal shop. Then in grade 9 we were allowed to chose one of the three. I took metal shop. I had a great teacher. I learned how to run a lathe, how to braze and how to make molds and cast aluminum.
Grade 11 brought in drafting and auto shop as well.
Drafting, metal shop and automotive saved my butt in Grade 11 and Grade 12. I had excellent, patient teachers.
I've managed to track down two out of the three teachers I had over the years and thank them personally for what they gave me.
When I was in school, all my teachers were convinced that you had to "learn computers" (whatever they thought that meant) if you wanted a job. Yes, I use computers every day for my job but that isn't my whole job.

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· Sep 17

That sounds like a very good program and you were definitely lucky to learn some things from multiple fields. All of the kids that I grew up with that went to the regular high school didn’t have any shop shop classes that I know of. Even in trade school, we got a brief 3 day taste of every trade (yes, even hairdressing) freshman year. Not really enough to learn much. After that you picked three trades that you wanted to do a full shop cycle in, which was about 2 weeks each. By halfway through freshman year you had already chosen your shop and focused on that for the remaining three years.

· Sep 17

Where does one go for upholstery training these days?
Not asking for me, just asking in general.
The trimmer I know who is my age was telling me there's not many new guys coming in because trade schools have dropped the program and prisons no longer teach convicts upholstery either.
Apparently a lot of the greybeards in the upholstery business learned the trade when they were incarcerated.
There's lots of guys out there who can make boat covers and hotrod seats but not a lot of really high quality trimmers left.
The guy I use is 1700km away from me.

· Sep 17

The guys I know all apprenticed with someone. The 36 year old "kid" Nick Lupien that does my work learned from the last gentleman Jonathan Chase that did my work and retired who learned from the guy that did all my dad's work for 50 years. That last guy, Henry Desantis, used to tell the guys in the restoration shop that they should quit being mechanics and bodymen and learn upholstery. Cleaner job and you make more money.

· Sep 17

A trimmer I know has a shirt that says "Real men sew".
I think we need to bring back respect for that trade.
Pleats lined up exactly and perfectly straight seams are a thing of beauty.
This is the guy I use:

https://customcreations.ca/