Getting to Know Faye Hadley of "All Girls Garage": Old Toyotas, Chickens, and Makeup Tutorials
"All Girls Garage" co-host took an interesting path to up-and-coming MotorTrend star.
On Friday, November 27, 2020, David Freiburgerand Brian Lohnes are subjecting six of your favorite MotorTrend hosts to a series of holiday-themed automotive challenges that you, almost certainly, have never seen the like of before. But before all the Holiday Hooptie Challenge starts, let's get to know one of the lucky contestants fromAll Girls Garageon the MotorTrend App andPistons & Pixieduston YouTube and Instagram. Meet Faye Hadley.
Pistons & Pixiedust isn't just the name of Faye's YouTube Channel—it's also the name of her ASE-certified general repair shop outside of San Antonio, Texas, that specializes in Toyotas. With no mechanical or technical background to speak of, this tiny ball of energy, laughter, and tattoos may not be what you expect to see when you bring your Camry in for a tune-up, but she delights in the process of not only fixing cars and solving mechanical problems but helping people in the process, too.
From Harvard Psychology to Toyota-Certified Technician
Growing up in the Northeast in a family of academics, Faye always knew she was happiest solving mechanical problems, but wanted to please her parents and do what was expected of her—go to school, get a degree, join the workforce—and she did that. In 2010, Faye graduated from Harvard with a bachelor's degree in psychology and even worked as a therapist for a year. She didn't feel she was a right fit for the job, even though her bosses told her she was and that they wanted her to stay, but she knew it was time to pursue her undeveloped (at the time) passion for cars. Despite school loans and no mechanical skill to speak of, she packed up and move to the other side of the country to start over as a mechanic.
"I love helping people, but as a therapist you just jump into people's lives, it was too intense for me. I want to help people; with a car, I can just jump in right away— I can change an alternator and make a check-engine light go away!"
Restoring a 1989 Toyota Supra and Pretending Not To Be a Celebrity
Faye is one of the few automotive enthusiasts lucky enough to already own her dream car, a 1989 Toyota Supra she is lovingly and painstakingly restoring. It started with a full mechanical rebuild and refresh, completed in 2015, but the problematic 7M-GTE stock engine never ran correctly after the rebuild. Faye, lacking confidence in her own abilities because of her limited background refused to believe it could be the result of someone else's poor work and started tearing apart the car, trying to find where she went wrong.
Turns out, it was poor machine work on the head—work she had outsourced. But that started her on the journey of restoring her Supra, piece by piece. "I'm crazy, I spent three hours hand-sanding the fuel rail trying to get it just right. But why rush the process, why not take the time to enjoy it?"
If it's getting the scratch lines just right on a fuel rail or keeping her beat up old 4runner running, Faye loves doing the work. She only wants to be a mechanic. The YouTube channel was started out of a desire to help women educate themselves about cars so they don't get taken advantage of, but MotorTrend'sAll Girls Garageand the Holiday Hooptie Challenge came into her life.
"I don't feel like I belong on TV, don't feel like a celebrity. I never wanted to be on TV or an actress, I just wanted to go out be a mechanic and everything just fell into place. IfAll Girls Garagewasn't on TV, I would still do it, the celebrity status doesn't appeal to me at all. I never wanted to be a part of this world, I just want to be myself, the person who fixes your everyday Toyota."
