Folks Of Interest Professional Mechanics

Most people don't quit bad jobs, they quit bad bosses.

 

Andy, listen to Jakes38! I started as a mechanic in the early seventies and retired in 2012. I luckily found a good spot. I joined the fire dept in my town and became the master mechanic for them. Twisted wrench’s, there, for 33 years, retired with all fighter fighter benefits as a Captain.
I had a good job, but... I hang out with two guys that worked for Cat. The money they made , places they went, the things they saw, the people they met....WOW!
One specialized in boat engines and like other equipment, downtime cost money. The owners don’t care what it cost, they just want it fixed. He would tell me when he got to one of those fishing boats , he already had the parts shipped there and the owner would have a whole crew at his disposal to get the job done quickly.
During both of those guys careers, the flew all over the world.
Working for a company that uses their equipment daily to make money is different than working on Joe Blows car!






Bones

 

I always wanted to be a Bikini Trimmer for College Cheerleading Squads , so I could have cleaner fingernails etc.etc.

 

Dave;
That is an interesting career choice! Me likee - until you get to the Orca-betties... ;( .
Marcus...

 

Andy on another note..... about in the middle of my career I accidentally started a company...yes accidentally/ spur of the moment... in order to save a few bucks on tractor parts for my self. Got that done... forgot about it for a while.. had a guy call me to order some tractor parts. I actually had forgot about my “company” lol. I made a phone call, had parts shipped, customer came by , picked up his parts, paid me, I paid my source .... and I had $100 bucks. Basically for a phone call and a letter! A light bulb came on in my head! This beats working! This was the about the time cell phones were becoming available and the internet was coming around.
I started searching out other venders and venders began to find me . I did this while working at a 40 hour a week job and turned it into a good business.
What I learned doing this, was if I had it to do over, I would never work for the man ! I would work for myself.






Bones

 

I started out in an independent shop 30 years ago. Went to a couple dealerships, worked on heavy trucks and equipment for a few years. 20 years ago I built a new shop and have been working there ever since. My wife runs the office, and I run the shop. Have a few employees. Would I do it again, absolutely! Being in business for yourself has its challenges, but if you are motivated, well worth it.

 

My answer, when they say "I've got to have my car.", is "The only car that 'has' to run is mama's."
I got hooked by the 'Beach Boys coupe' on the cover of the July '61 HRM. Had an opening in my schedule senior year and filled it with Auto Shop. Army recruiter said "we'll send you to mechanics school" so i turned 18 on the rifle range in basic, then 2 &1/2 years in Germany replacing major assemblies in trucks with an occasional job on a track, all while Viet Nam was heating up. Got out and the last thing I wanted to see was another truck so I naturally wound up as the truck mechanic's helper. Finally got on the line and started making good money when I realised I didn't want to fix other people's cars the rest of my life. ( Never tell that to my students. Its a decision they have to make for themselves.) Got my vocational certification before my degree and got hired on that. Coming from industry it was a revelation that you could get sick and take the day off and still get paid. Had good time for 27 years and retired in 2002. Knew it was time to go because things that used to roll off my back were starting to bug me and if I'm not having fun neither are the students. Plus their ability to make your life miserable far exceeds your ability to make their lives miserable. Along the way I got a part time job at community college that became full time in '06. As much fun as high school was, the college is died and gone to heaven. We get students ranging from 13th graders to retirees with all kinds of backgrounds and reasons for taking our classes. This is my 45th year of teaching and next year will mark 30 total at the college. I'm 74 and every now and then I think about retiring, but as long as I like the people I work with, enjoy the students, have time for mama and taking care of the house and yard, and have time to play with my toys it probably won't happen any time soon.
One of the qualities of good job is that it gives you challenges that you can meet and occasionally one that stretches you.

 

Been doing this for over 20 years
17 as a automotive mechanic
Independent shop
Jaguar rolls Royce Aston Martin Bentley
Mercedes
Toyota
Got sick of flat rate “feast or famin”
Got sick of the dealer ship opra high school bull shit
But most of all got sick of the low pay for what I do.

Red seal licensed tech
15 ase certifications ( needed them when at jag working on the British crap to excel and do there schooling )
Air condition listened
Emission testing and repair licenses.
And forking over money to all those governing bodies to keep all this valid
Plus tool costs .
I said screw it
7-8 years ago I got into forklift and heavy equipment .
Great pay
Benefits
Pension
Company truck
With fuel card and toll highways paid
Running the shop now with 4 guys under me and 15 road techs
In the shop or in the road it’s a great job and the skill set roughly transfers over so you will get your same pay.
Not like having to relearn or train in a new field and start right at the bottom

 

being a mechanic today is a bunch different that 30 years ago. I figure with all that learnin' and learnin' again when new stuff comes out a young person would be better off learnin' something they can do inside without the carcinogenic chemicals. computers maybe.

 

It'd have to be better than Il.!

 

Yup, lousy tax & political situation(s)/etc here, but better than IL. One of my best friends lives in IL, many yrs, well aware of "situations" there. Let's just say I couldn't survive there... . Not to drag "banned convos" in to thread, so hint(s) will suffice.
Marcus...

 

I’m a flat rate tech at a private shop in Pennsylvania. I’m the head tech. We service all makes and models. 1920’s to current. I’ve been there 18 years. Started as the oil change kid and worked my way up to HNIC. Some days suck but others are awesome. I work hard and get payed very well! The hardest part about fixing today’s cars and trucks are the junk aftermarket parts industry! Just gotta remember it’s called work not fun...


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Sounds like time for a change
May require a move.
I started teaching 9 years ago. Pay stinks but the hours are great.
Have fewer body aches.
Almost got out totally in the early 90s but found a great place to work. Stayed there till 07 then got a gig at a hot rod shop then the teaching job cane up.
If ya love what ya do, stay at it but somewhere else. If ya hate what ya do, change. Life is too short to be miserable

 

Worked in garages and body shops for 20 years. One day took a good look at a car dealership. Licensed mechanics that served a 5 year apprenticeship, written a series of exams (this is in Canada) and had at least $20,000 invested in tools. They were sweating their balls off in an un air conditioned shop, walking on hard cement floors all day, working with harsh chemicals, risking injury and going home worn out for $15 an hour. On the other side of the wall were the sales people, walking on carpet in an air conditioned office, wearing white shirts and making more money than the mechanics. You get to be a salesman by calling yourself one.
This was an important lesson in the relative value of doing actual work vs bullshit. It goes on right up the line. When you get so high up you can't explain what someone does, is where the big money starts. The people who do the actual work that keeps the world running get the least money and respect and the most shit and abuse. Pick your career accordingly.

 

I've worked at a GM dealership and at 2 ford dealerships. First ford dealership changed owners 3 times and the second one did the same. You will kill yourself working flat rate. I always turned 3 times the hours of anyone in the shop so that pissed people off. They'd walk around with a cell phone in there hand. Any crap job or something no one else couldn't fix or just didn't want to mess with went in my bay. I worked on diesels for 16 yrs also. Got to having health problems, doctors kept saying find an easier job, slow down but this was all I knew. With all this crap on these new cars now I wouldn't recommend anyone going into this trade. Find something that you can use your brain more than your back.

 

I was a mechanic in three Harley shops and worked with a vintage repo parts manufacturer as well as other jobs related to Harley over 24 years beginning in 1967. The whole time I continued taking classes to get my undergrad degree. I graduated in 1993 and went to Law school. I had a very active law office. At times I had three assistants working with me. I am now licensed and semi-retired, but spend 95% of my time in my shop.
I enjoyed the mechanical motorcycle work, but couldn’t see a happy ending way out. My wife was a professional and encouraged me, but didn’t push. I enjoyed school at night because it was different. When I got close, I stopped work and went to school full time. I really loved it. It was so different and it just clicked.
Actually the years as a mechanic and working in the trades made me a better lawyer. After a interview at Ole Miss, the interviewer wanted me to go enroll because of diversity of a veried workplace that the kids just out of college didn’t have. They even offered a small scholarship. I made good money as a Harley mechanic, but a law practice paid much better. I did not get rich, but I am comfortable and can now afford to build the hot rods I wanted.
Try a few night classes and see how it fits. I may give you a whole new vision. Never give up.

 

I was a mechanic for about 10 years. I was a car crazy young man who really never considered doing anything other than working on cars. I think that is the biggest problem with being a auto mechanic or technician, the guys who do it have a passion for it. The guys who go into other skilled trades don't have a passion for it the way car guys do. How many plumbers get excited about 4" PCV piping? How many electricians have great memories of their first 100 amp service box? But all car guys have certain cars that make their knees go weak and tend to like them all. So I think that is why the auto guys don't make the money the other skilled trades do. I think the market place has required most skilled trades went the journeyman/ trade union route, whereas the auto mechanic was stuck with flat rate.
--- After I got fired from a small Chrysler dealership in 1990 (which about destroyed my confidence in myself, but was actually the best thing that ever happened to me), I applied at a large utility company and was interviewed as a mechanic. I didn't get the job but impressed the HR man enough that he asked the employment office to interview me for a meter reader opening. I got hired and left the auto repair field.
-- I have been asked by a few young men and I try my best to steer them clear of the auto repair field.

 

And dealerships sucked. The warranty pay was awful and usually run my morons.
Loved the independent shops.

 

Started at a Dodge dealer in about 1976, transferred over to the Datsun (now Nissan) side a few years later. ASE certified master tech, one of the first dozen Datsun certified master techs in the U.S. Stayed with them for 15 years, left and opened my own shop. About 15 years later my body was telling my very strongly it was time to do something else. Got into the auto parts business so I could use what I'd learned over the years. Still doing that 14 years later. Money is not as good as turning wrenches, but my back thanks me.

 

I worked at an AMC dealership in the body shop then moved to the parts department when Chrysler bought them out I think Lamborghini was acquired at the same time and (strangely) Renault (yuck) was in there somewhere. I didn't like the idea of being a mechanic for a living, though I thoroughly enjoyed working on my own stuff. It may sound crazy but "turning wrenches" is like my golf game. If I had to do it for a living, I don't think it would be possible to enjoy it as a hobby. Hats off to those who ply the trade to put beans on the table.

 

Cliff, Pratt Whitney in Jupiter Florida??


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55 years old and still at it. Been with the city for almost 13 years
Far cry from professional Motorsports Porsche team, but needed a secure job with benefits. Truly miss the travel and the teamwork. Government employees after 25 years have extreme sense of entitlement. Don’t know what the word hustle means
At 3:00 they drop whatever they’re doing and head for break room
Wouldn’t last a week thrashing all night long before a race or flat rate chaos trying to make 40 hours
Side work s must to make ends meet. Luckily I’ve got a nice shop to work out of, as long as I maintain Bill’s Collection along the way


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Thought I wanted to be a mechanic. Went to a JC, even went to the Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest in 1964 if you remember those.
Don't know how it happened but went to Standard Oil of California and ended up an electrician/lineman. Left there to be a Maintenance Electrician in all types of power stations. I could fix just about anything.
My advice.... Be a lineman $200k in a bad year. My son and now grandson are.

 

I thought I wanted to be a mechanic from the time I was about 13 but in actuality I wanted to be a hotrodder with professional skills.
I took three years of auto mechanics in high school and then went to an auto mechanics only trade school for two years. Just after I took my apprenticeship test I got drafted and ended up in the army. I ended up doing the maintenance on our generators for our platoon in Nam and with the help of a couple of other guys swapped the head on the rather beat up jeep we had some how commandeered. Pulled the head, hauled it to some maintenance outfit where they did a valve job for a case of beer and a carton of Winston's and swapped the old head gasket for a new one and put it back together and it was still running when I left..
Worked in independent shops, tire stores Dealerships and a Ryder truck shop in Texas and then after going to school in the morning and working in a friend's independent shop in the afternoon got in two years of Jr college with the intent of getting a business degree. Moved back to Washington and after a stint trying to sell life insurance I worked in a muffler shop and a dealership then taught auto mechanics in the same school district that I had graduated from.
I would probably have stayed at one of the jobs I had in Texas in a tire store until I retired if I had had a boss who would get out and sell and promote rather than try to cut corners to keep costs down. He ran the store into the ground rather than doing the business it was capable of.

Like a lot of guys my age, the advance in automotive technology grew faster than I could keep up with. I'e got one out in the driveway now that has a thousand page book just for troubleshooting the electrical components. Diagnostics is entirely different now than when it was in the 70's. On the other hand for a smart young guy with a high reading and comprehension level and who can understand electronics who does like to work on cars the opportunity to make a seriously good living is out there. My dork ex brother in law was making around 80 K a year and not overworked working in a pep boys shop.

Right now though If I was 20 years younger I'd just get me a good valve grinding and head work setup and a good brake lathe and set up a cubby hole shop and do valve jobs and turn rotors and drums. There is a real market for that here locally as The farmers would keep you in business with valve work and the locals would bring a steady stream of drums and rotors.

 

Wood Group Pratt Whitney in Bloomfield, CT.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Be your own boss and be really picky about who you choose for customers

 

I got my first "real job" through my high school auto shop instructor. The local Standard Chevron Dealer had come to him to find someone willing to learn and work hard. I was always a gear head, still am. I quickly became the "night man". What that job taught me was, I liked working on my car, friends cars, families cars, but I hated working on "customers cars". Then the draft lottery awarded me with a very low number, and my career USAF Father got me into the USAF. There I got my introduction into healthcare; I'd rather work on/with people/patients than cars. After my discharge, I went to X-Ray school, and that became the career I was really meant to be in. But, 32 years in X-Ray/CAT Scan beat my spine up, lead to 9 spinal surgeries, and that lead to a full workers comp disability. I'd do anything to be able to do my job again, I loved it, and everything about it; even the self serving physicians, nasty nurses, lazy coworkers, the drunk/obnoxious patients, all of it. I miss it every day. Now I'm back to working on my own cars, and NO ONE elses! Bosses are pretty much the same in every line of work. I can't say just how many X-Ray Dept managers/directors/supervisors I had over the years, but they were ALL very good representatives of the Peter Principle; that states, "people are promoted to the level of their incompetence"; there's also no where for those folks to go, but out the door as they usually only last about 2 years before they're fired.
And since so many here have mentioned bad bosses:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Shortly after GOD created man, all the different parts of the body wanted to be the boss of the body. The brain said he should be boss since he controlled all the bodies functions. The eyes said they should be the boss because they guided the body everywhere it needed to go. The hands said they should be boss because they did all the work. The legs said they should be boss because they took the body wherever it needed to go. And on and on it went, with all the different parts of the body applying for the job of boss. And then, the lowly asshole applied for the job of boss. Well, all the other parts of the body thought that was pretty funny, ridiculed the asshole, made all kinds of fun of him, and ultimately, pissed the asshole off. In fact, the asshole got so angry he closed himself off, and refused to do the job he was designed to do. After a few days, the brain got foggy and confused, the eyes were crossed and droopy, the hands trembled, and the legs could't support the bodies weight. After a few more days, all the parts of the body relented, and voted to make the asshole boss. And then, after a few more days, things improved for the other parts of the body as the asshole was doing his actual job again. Well, every story has a moral, and the moral of this story is; you don't have to be a brain to be a boss, just an asshole. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I can’t thank you guys enough for all of the responses. I have thought a lot about hanging out my own shingle working on trucks. I even have a building in mind for it. The problem is I don’t have any idea how to get started. You guys that have done this have any suggestions? Once again, this is why the H.A.M.B. rocks!


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Star auto shop student in HS, went to tech school one week after graduating, had a good job at a hole in the wall shop while attending trade school (as well as working Burger King for extra $) "deans listed" all my courses and got perfect attendance. After I graduated trade school I went right to work for the local Jaguar/Rover/Triumph dealer, after six months I was let go as the British cars weren't doing too well in the early '80s. I bummed around for a while working for a couple little shops, one where the "boss" was robing the owner blind and sticking it up his nose, after a while I decided I didn't really like working on cars all that much (for other people). Then I happened on a job in an automotive machine shop, started out as a grunt doing tear down and clean up, moved inside to do valve and head work, the shop bought a new crank grinder and put the "new kid" on that machine and I was off! Been in automotive machining for 34 years now and I own the shop, I love it. It wasn't always the best money but I had co-workers who went on to "better" things and hate their jobs. I do alright and enjoy my life, it's not for everyone but if you find the right place and/or people to work for you may find your "lifes' work". Good mechanics are getting harder to find and the pay is getting better. Someone once told me "if you want to get rich, be the first or the last to do something". I don't know if I'll ever get "rich" but I'm happy in a dying trade, not many do what I do anymore and all the young guys are going to collage for great carriers in philosophy so that will leave openings for guys like you and I to make a good living in a worthwhile trade.

 

Sometimes you'll hear advice like "Find something you love to do, and figure out a way to get paid for it." Maybe, but there's only so much demand for history teachers.

Everybody has had it drilled into them they have to go to college and get a degree, the statistics show that people who graduate from college make more money.

Well one of the things they also teach in school is "correlation is not causation". A better angle is to find what are known as "unmet needs", find some thing or some service, that isn't being provided or is in demand and find a way to do it. It does absolutely no good to go $100,000 in debt for 15th century Lesbian poetry hermaneutics. That's why so many Ph.Ds sell coffee as a barrista. Everybody wants to drive the train, nobody wants to shovel the coal. College is a pretty dirty racket at this point. If someone is intelligent for Engineering and Physics, hard sciences that's a different matter.