A vintage car museum in Ohio is closing after the retirement of its longtime mechanic exposed a growing challenge for classic-car owners: finding professionals who still know how to maintain carbureted vehicles. Snook’s Dream Cars in Bowling Green, Ohio, is ending its run as a “living museum” because it could not find a successor for its mechanic, Terry Stetler.

Why Snook’s Dream Cars Is Closing

Snook’s Dream Cars is a vintage car museum featuring a wide range of vehicles from the 1930s through the 1970s. The museum is described as a “living museum” because all of its cars are kept in working order.

The collection belongs to Bill Snook and is operated by his son, Jeff. Stetler has been a key part of the operation, serving as the mechanic responsible for keeping the museum’s fleet running.

However, Stetler is retiring, and Jeff Snook was unable to find someone to take over his role. As a result, Snook is also retiring from the car museum business because there was no one available to continue the work Stetler had started.

Without a mechanic capable of maintaining the vehicles, the museum could no longer operate as a living collection of working classic cars.

The Decline of Carburetor Expertise

Carburetors have largely become a relic of the past. Although new carburetors can still be purchased to keep vintage cars running, finding people with the knowledge to properly maintain older fuel-delivery systems has become increasingly difficult.

Snook pointed to a lack of knowledge among some younger mechanics entering the industry after trade school.

“Kids that come out of auto trade school, they don’t know about carburetors and old car stuff. There’s just a lack of knowledge out there because I think it’s harder and harder to keep old cars on the road without qualified, skilled, professional mechanics,” said Snook.

The Drive picked up the story from the Toledo Blade, which spoke with Snook about the museum’s closing and the challenges involved in maintaining older vehicles.

15 Cars Put Up for Sale

With the museum preparing to close, 15 of its cars have been put up for sale through Hagerty. The vehicles include pre-war American cars, iconic models from the 1940s and 1950s, rare European roadsters from the 1960s, and other classics.

The 15 cars being sold are not the only vehicles in the museum. The collection can also be explored through a virtual tour.

The Last Carbureted Cars

There are several possible answers when considering the last carbureted car sold in America. The definitive final models sold with the classic fuel-delivery system were the 1994 Isuzu Pickup or the base Subaru Justy from the same year.

However, the last car to receive a brand-new carburetor was the Lada 2107 in Egypt, which ended production in 2014.

For Snook’s Dream Cars, the shrinking availability of carburetor and classic-car expertise has now become a practical reason for closing a museum built around keeping those vehicles running.