Ask anyone in the collector car world what keeps them up at night, and you will usually hear the same answer. The industry is running out of skilled hands to restore or repair the classics. The technicians who can rebuild a carburetor, hand-form a body panel, or coax a worn-out straight-six back to life are aging out, and the pipeline behind them, sadly, looks thin. That is the problem Jeff Mason is trying to fix.
(Picture Above: Jeff Mason and Chris Mason rallying at the 2025 Targa New Newfoundland.)
Mason runs the Piston Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit now in its fifth year, and his pitch is refreshingly direct.
"Piston is creating a career path for young enthusiasts to get into the collector car industry," he says. "That career path has three big hurdles in it, and these are the things that have been keeping young people out."
The first hurdle is awareness. Many young people who love cars do not realize they can turn that interest and passion for cars into a career. The second is cost. As Mason puts it, "technical education is expensive no matter how you do it, no matter where you do it, when you do it." The third is access. Even the kids who get the training often cannot find their way into that critically important first job. Piston tackles all three of these problems.
The foundation's scholarship program funds students enrolled in two- or four-year automotive technology programs who have a serious interest in working on collector cars. And if numbers tell any story, it's that there are plenty of students interested in what Piston Foundation is offering. This year alone, the application pool hit 365, the foundation's largest yet, and Mason is hoping to award 60 scholarships, which is double the number from last year. But scholarships alone are not the end goal for the Piston Foundation.
"Education is great, but if that's the end result, that's not enough," Mason says. "It's got to be converted into opportunity."
That is where the foundation's next chapter comes in. The Piston Jobs program, currently in development, will connect Piston Scholars directly with shops, private collections, and specialty businesses looking for knowledgeable and capable hands in the shop. The idea is to close the loop between training and employment, building what Mason calls a flywheel that pulls young people in, gives them the resources they need, and places them in roles where they can build a career.
Mason knows the shape of that path personally. College did not work out for him the first time around. After moving to Colorado from New Jersey, he enrolled at a trade school for graphic design, worked full-time during the day and went to class full-time at night, and turned that associate degree into a 25-year career running his own marketing agency.
"I have personal experience in what it is to take some technical education and build your career off of that," he says. "I have a lot of affinity for what they're going through."
He also pushes back hard on how the industry has historically talked about young people in the trades.
"Let's stop talking about these students as kids. Instead, I'm going to introduce you to the young people that we're supporting, and I'm going to let you talk to that person," Mason says. "You're going to discover very quickly how passionate, knowledgeable, and skilled they are. They might know more than you do."
That generation, he points out, is showing up at the shop door with a different toolkit than the one their predecessors carried. One that's filled with many tricks older generations are unaware of. With the vast majority of these students being digital natives, they come through Piston Foundation's doors fluent in SolidWorks, CNC, additive manufacturing, and vacuum forming. They are bringing those skills into shops alongside traditional handwork, not in place of it, giving them an ace up their rolled sleeves.
"Suddenly, Celicas are saved," Mason says, pointing to how vacuum forming is bringing back dashboards that were considered unfixable. "There's a breed of new tech that recognizes the value of hand fabrication, handwork, and understanding the history of the mechanical function of cars, and they're ready and willing to absorb all of that and pull in digital tools and new methods of manufacturing."
The result, he believes, could be a quiet renaissance in restoration, one where a single talented young person with the right tools and the right training can keep entire eras of cars alive.
"I just hope that there's a renaissance out there about to happen," he says.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
The Piston Foundation operates on what Mason describes as a partnership model with four groups: students, enthusiast donors, employers, and automotive brands. Each one has a role to play.
For anyone who wants to support the next generation of collector car talent, the foundation makes it easy. You can donate directly online, sponsor a specific Piston Scholar, donate a collector car, pledge a future gift, or donate stock. Shops and businesses can also sign on as employer partners to help shape the Piston Jobs program as it builds out.
