Classic Car Restoration Program For Students Being Organized by La Grange’s Sam Wilson

Sam Wilson gave a presentation to the La Grange Rotary Club last week about a classic car restoration program he hope to launch this fall that will provide local students with career pathways.

Wilson founded the nonprofit organization Tach-Tech3 Foundation.

The program targets students in Fayette County ages 15-18 with an interest in automotive technologies. Wilson said the program would include about 10 students per cycle, and they would restore a classic vehicle over the course of about 10 months. Students would develop technical skills such as welding, fabrication, body work, mechanics and paint. They’d also undergo entrepreneurial training.

“This is not a remedial shop class for kids who don’t show up, get Ds, and don’t have the drive for advanced placement (AP) instruction,” Wilson said. “This is quite literally an AP-Restoration Technology program. Here, our team will take a rusted, broken, and tired old car and produce an exquisite $150,000 restoration.”

At the end of each cycle, students would sell the car. Proceeds would fund the program and pay the students a stipend for their work.

Any student in Fayette County can apply for the program. Each cycle, the selected students will serve in business roles such as CEO, Quality Control Lead, Parts Manager, and Technical Director, just to name a few.

Wilson said the program will not just be about workforce training. He wants to provide students with the knowledge and skills to one day launch their own business.

Wilson noted that according to La Grange ISD, about 70 percent of their students enter college. But according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, only about 40 percent of college students graduate in four years.

“That leaves you with 28 percent of our students graduating college,” Wilson said. “The other 70 percent don’t have a career pathway. That’s what this is about – giving students a career pathway. And that’s going to be even more important as AI and other things like that come out.”

Wilson said he needs about $200,000 in seed money to launch the program, and he has already secured $160,000 in commitments.

He’s looking to hire an executive director to run the foundation, and he also needs to lease a shop to house the program. Ideally, Wilson said, the shop would be centrally located to make it accessible to students from across Fayette County.

For more information, visit the Foundation’s website at Tach-Tech3.org. Prospective students and anyone interested in assisting Wilson with lease space and funding can contact him at: Sam@Tach-Tech3.org