There are still plenty of vintage cars on the road. But mechanics who can maintain and repair the classic cars are becoming rare. And young new mechanics with knowledge of old cars have to be completely searched for, because old car technology has not been taught in motor vehicle courses for more than ten years. A garage that does not have that problem yet is that of Eddy and Jesse de Jong from Ruinen.
Not that son and successor Jesse is so interested in old cars. Jesse is more of the modern technique. “I didn’t get that knowledge at school more than ten years ago.”
But garage De Jong has two young mechanics who like to tinker with classic cars. Stijn Oostveen, age 18, is one of them and he is following motor vehicle training at the Deltion in Zwolle. He himself drives a Ford Escort from the 1980s. “No, we don’t get this technique at school either. You have to learn that yourself from the internet or from people like Eddy de Jong who likes to take the young mechanics in tow to teach the old techniques.”
While son Jesse bites into a rotten job -repairing the manifolds of a still reasonably modern Nissan with zero workspace under the hood- father Eddy and Stijn get started with the MOT of a 2CV or Duck.
“Modern cars have fuse balls, but such a Duck has fuse pins and they have to be lubricated and checked by hand,” explains Eddy while Stijn connects an old-fashioned grease pump. Stijn already knows the trick: the car has to be free of the bridge with its wheels, otherwise the weight of the car will press so heavily on the grease still present in the fuse pins that it seems as if they are already full. But in reality you cannot press against the weight of the oldtimer with the hand pump.
“You don’t just have to be interested in it, you also have to like it, because tinkering with classic cars still really gives you black hands. And most young people don’t want that.” Apart from the fact that it is almost impossible to find young mechanics with old-timer knowledge, Eddy sees that it is very difficult to find good car mechanics anyway. “You see that as a result, specialist garages are being created with only old-timers or a brand of classic cars.”
As long as father Eddy, who is already over 60, continues to work, the old-timer knowledge and transferring it to young car mechanics will be fine. “But if he ever stops, it will also be a problem here, they can no longer learn from me”, son Jesse must confess. “Then that part of the profession will also die out here.”