High School senior Riley Schlick is rebuilding carburetors and started hoer own business doing just that at 13 years old. Schlick originally started tinkering with cars at just three years old, while helping her dad in the garage. Schlick and her team at Riley’s Rebuilds were invited to go to the SEMA automotive trade show. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021 women only made up 9.7 percent of the total number of employees in the automotive industry.
Schlick says, “They are kind of just parts,” pointing to a carburetor adds, “That’s the hat. This is the body.” “And we have the pink gloves to match the whole girly facade, which we love,” said Schlick. She added that the way they work on a carburetor is to first “break it down, soda blast it, ultrasonic tank it and rebuild it.” She also said that her business works on 20-25 carburetors per week and that, “It’s a lot of people sending us their carburetors and us sending them back when they are all done,” she said. Her team is made up of all girls, many who were new to the industry prior to working for Riley’s Rebuilds. She hired her friends, Elain Zdancewick, Katie Burgess, Dagney Van Aken and Amelia Sabo.
Schlick believes that being a minority in the industry is going to be something used to her advantage and that, “It brings attention. It almost is like, ‘Wow, we are slamming a foot into the door,’ and it shouldn’t be like that now in our century, but it is.” Besides the business she also attends school and plays soccer, and after graduation, she plans on going to Connecticut College and competing on the soccer team there as a goalie.
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