She figures she's rebuilt carbs from all 50 states, "including a couple from Hawaii." She and her co-workers try to restore the carbs back to stock condition, "but some of them are really messed up." So she's always on the lookout for spare parts, like choke flappers, linkages, rods, and jets.

Riley is a busy kid. She often gets up at 5 a.m. to surf before class. "With soccer, school and this, I really had no social life," she says, and it was easy to tell her friends, "'Come in the garage, make some money, and we can have a social life those nights. Talk about boys and drama in here, play some music, and you can tell people you work as a mechanic, because it's really cool.' And that's how we all came together."

Riley's boyfriend, who also thinks being a mechanic is really cool, lives two minutes away, and he's a regular visitor to the garage. Riley's dad is often out there answering carburetor questions, and her mom brings drinks and snacks to the workers and their visitors. "It's a big family," Riley says, and parents know where their kids are at night.