Need a Job Working on Classic Cars? A Collision with a Deer May Have Created Your Opportunity

For automotive shops that handle classic, exotic, and modern performance cars, finding qualified people to maintain and restore them is a growing challenge. Meanwhile, there may be a high percentage of young auto techs who would prefer to work on cars they love, rather than a steady stream of new models.

And one thing seems to be certain for both groups: Popular online job sites are not the place for businesses and craftspeople who want to bring 50-year-old muscle cars, European GTs and vintage racecars back to life. That realization came to Jeff Nowak, a marketing website and IT developer, after he hit a deer with his 1972 Fiat 500 in suburban Philadelphia. Nowak said the deer appeared unhurt and was able to run off. (Good for the deer that those classic Fiat 500s are slow and very light.) Nowak’s Fiat was not as lucky, needing some metal work and paint.

An aficionado of small Italian cars who also owns a Lancia Fulvia coupe, Nowak asked around at local car meets for references to shops that would treat his tiny but cherished classic with the proper care. He met a man named Greg who repaired people’s old cars in a single garage on weekends after putting in his weekdays doing body and paint work for an insurance shop.

“When he finished my car, I asked him why he was not doing that work full-time,” Nowak told Hagerty. “He said, ‘I’ve never had a resume. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to make the switch. Everything I’ve ever done is from word-of-mouth.’ So, a week after some research and finding that there really wasn’t a place for someone like Greg to go, I built it myself.”

The result, an online job portal called ClassicCarJobs.us, went live in April 2024. Qualified candidates can post their resumes and work on the site for free, and businesses pay a one-time $99 fee to search the database for people who meet their employment needs. 

“Someone like Greg could put his work forward and showcase the cars that he’s worked on,” said Nowak. “I just started calling shops asking if they were hiring. The answer was overwhelmingly ‘yes.’ Some classic car shops are dying for techs. I found some that were backed up five or six years with work.” 

Lots of People Want Classic Car Jobs

By early fall, there were more than 200 job candidates listed on ClassicCarJobs.us, and Nowak expects to add about 70-80 per month. He realized early on that some people needed help in filling out their profiles, and he has used that interaction to help steer candidates to open jobs that he knew about. That triggered a second aspect of his work.

“When I built the site, I really wanted to have it be just an online job board, where people could come to it and search and post the jobs to connect with each other. But then business owners began asking me to vet candidates, because they don’t really have the time,” he explained. “When it gets big enough, I’ll have to hire somebody to help me.”

As Nowak spoke to candidates using the site, he learned many were working in new-car dealerships and body shops. They shared that they would have preferred to work with classic cars, modern performance cars, or even racecars but did not know how to reach those businesses. Auto business owners, meanwhile, were having increasing difficulty finding good employees. 

“Shop owners I talked to were fed up with other online services, and they weren’t really into using headhunters,” he said. “There are auto staffing agencies, but they can charge 20 percent of the employee’s yearly salary as soon as you hire. Many shops are not able to afford that.”

Those who said they used existing online job posting sites told Nowak they would get too many applicants, most of them unqualified. Some mentioned hiring people they’d have to fire after just a few days or weeks.

Helping Techs Find Jobs

Nowak has been promoting his website at car shows, and he’s been calling auto shops all around the Northeast and beyond. He’s also applied his years of experience with search engine marketing. 

“I make sure my site ranks on Google for searches like, ‘How do I become a Ferrari technician?’ or ‘How do I get a job working on muscle cars?’ Another search question that ranks is, ‘What are options out there for educational programs specifically for classic cars?’”

Nowak has also given talks at tech schools, not just to current students, but alumni, too. 

“It’s all about telling them there is an alternative path when they leave tech school, that they don’t have to go work at a new-car dealership,” he said. “While giving a talk at one major tech school, I asked how many students had been involved in some way with a classic car, and probably 60 percent of the class raised their hands.”

Nowak was stunned that so many students had some classic car experience but were unaware of how to combine it with their education in a job they might love to do.

“It seemed absurd to me that 60 percent of the class could leave that school and immediately go bleed the brakes at a classic car shop or do strip-down down work for a full frame-off restoration. And then in five years, if they pick a specialty like paint, they could be making $45 an hour at a classic car shop. Yet some schools aren’t even telling their students that working on exotic and classic cars is an option.”

Pushing for More Education

Nowak had not yet spoken with anyone at McPherson College in Kansas, citing the school’s Auto Restoration program as having a 95 percent placement rate for its graduates. 

“People are leaving McPherson and going to work for operations like Canepa and Paul Russell. If they don’t need my help, that’s OK, but I will be in contact with them,” he said. 

Nowak said he has encouraged some job candidates to pursue further education or apprentice opportunities through organizations including The Piston Foundation and The RPM Foundation.

“That’s their mission. That’s what they’re looking to do,” he said. “I did an interview with an architect, and she told me she’s spent five years rebuilding a 1968 Camaro with her father,” Nowak said. (We profiled the young Camaro-owning architect in 2016.)

Nowak acknowledged, too, the changing meaning of “classic” and “old” affects what students can expect in the market.

“They’re not working on as many Model A’s as they are, say, 1980s IROC Camaros. It’s a different world, and it will be evolving constantly.”

He also noted that EV conversions of classic cars could be a growing field and noted that, aside from EV experience, such work will also requires traditional restoration and fabrication skills for the classic-car shell, chassis, and interior.

For the future, Nowak sees himself branching into handling automotive staffing for shops. He also wants to use ClassicCarJobs.us to keep building the community of mechanics and shops. 

“There are so many jobs out there. Everyone needs another set of hands,” he said.

What Shops Say

We spoke with two restoration shops that found much-needed experienced employees through Nowak’s service. Joe Dutkiewicz, owner of JD’s Auto Restoration Center in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, hired Greg Sonders, an autobody restoration mechanic, after having no success using existing sources. 

“He’s a good worker,” Dutkiewicz said. “We’re extremely busy. I’m still looking for a metal fabrication guy and a mechanic.”

Before speaking with Nowak, Dutkiewicz had tried the job site Indeed.com for several months, and before that, he had relied on word-of-mouth. “But there’s nobody around anymore,” he said. “Regular mechanics, maybe, but not for restoration. Most mechanics on Indeed are for the newer cars. They don’t want to do carburetors, points, ignition, ball joints, and stuff like that on the older cars.”

Dutkiewicz noted a specific need for “patience and common sense” in people he hires. “We’re getting aftermarket parts that must be modified for proper fit. A lot of people don’t have the patience to put the quarter panel on three or four times before they weld it. We see a lot of cars come in where somebody just welded the stuff on, and the fenders or rear quarter panels and decklid don’t line up.”

Nowak reads every candidate profile posted on ClassicCarJobs.us, and he said the one for Nick Antonio really jumped out at him.

“I saw that Nick was a master mechanic and a McPherson College Auto Restoration graduate (2007) but had been working at Lowe’s for the past two years. He told me he had moved from California to Pennsylvania to manage a restoration shop but lost the job soon afterward when the business changed ownership. He couldn’t find work after that, so he ended up working at Lowe’s to pay the bills.” 

Nowak called a few Pennsylvania shops and said all wanted to meet Antonio.

“He connected with Jon Clerk at Steel Wings, a very high-level Aston Martin restoration shop in Warminster. Nick started on September 30 and now has his life goal of being a master mechanic back on track.”

The shop employs seven people and works on all Aston Martins, but with a specialization in restoring the classics. Clerk, co-owner of Steel Wings, told Hagerty, “We have him doing some assembly work on a DB5 convertible right now. I’m very happy with what I see. I hope he stays with us for quite some time.”

Clerk echoed what Dutkiewicz said about finding good workers.

“It’s been hard finding younger people who want to work and take pride in what they do,” he said. “We’ve relied on word-of-mouth finding people over the years, but that’s getting harder. I tried a recruiter, and he found me a guy who started a few months ago and lasted three days. He came from a new car dealership and had major issues tightening things properly.”

Notably, Clerk said he was not necessarily looking for people with specific Aston Martin experience.

“I think the challenge is finding talented people who are passionate about what they do that just have that natural ability and all the ingredients necessary to excel.”