Register now to get rid of these ads!

Folks Of Interest Professional Mechanics

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Truckdoctor Andy, Oct 10, 2019.

  1. I also have made money selling things. I will buy almost anything if I can get it at my price. So far this year Ive sold a lot of stuff on the Facebook Marketplace. We bought a tax forfet house at auction for $417.00 and sold it for $3500.00 never did anything to it. If you can buy ay your price. then you can sell at a low enuf price to leave room for the next person.
     
    da34guy and Truckdoctor Andy like this.
  2. Yes its nice being your own boss. However dealing with customers is no fun. A one man shop you can easily become overwhelmed. and then who wants to put up with employees? you also have to deal with comebacks, paperwork mail the sales tax every month . maintain a building ect. Its very soon no fun. If it not fun why do it? And turning wrenches for a living ruined the enjoyment of doing it for myself. There is a Guy on U Tube Mustie 1. He simply piddles and plays. He mostly works on stuff that he owns and resells it. Much he gets for free on trash day. Some he purchases at a bargain. Squirrel gave good advice to not incur debt. Myself I avoid debt like the plague. We even paid cash for our corner where we live. Never bought any car or truck on payments. always paid cash. Back in 2000 I made money here fixing flats and selling new and used tires. Then the tool box factory shut down and the customers vanished. Its impossible to make money from folks who don't have money. And if you want money you gotta go where its at. Its almost impossible to entice money to come where your at. Location Location Location.
     
    Boneyard51 likes this.
  3. I am absolutely overwhelmed by all of your responses. You guys have all given me so much to think about. I really appreciate all of you personal experiences in your life. I feel like a whole new world of opportunity has been opened up. You guys are the greatest.


    Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     
  4. 2OLD2FAST
    Joined: Feb 3, 2010
    Posts: 5,217

    2OLD2FAST
    Member
    from illinois

    3 folks that I can think of who have done very well started in a service business , one in HVAC , one in waste removal , one in manufacturing . But the REAL money came to the first by investing in a motel chain , the second buy selling his business for multiple 7 figures with a 5 year non compete clause ,then he started another co. , and the third by inventing a simple product and getting a patent BEFORE he ever sold part one ,then selling the rights for multiple millions . All these folks made money by selling or investing , not fixing . Oh yeah , you think selling not where the money is ? Ever see a poor car dealer ,how about a poor real estate developer ? ,How about a poor franchise owner ?? Moving money is what makes money !!
     
  5. Barn Hunter
    Joined: Feb 15, 2012
    Posts: 1,514

    Barn Hunter
    Member

    A great mechanic is like finding a great dentist. You don't want to ever have to switch to another. On the other hand.... monkey.jpg
     
  6. Ziggster
    Joined: Aug 27, 2018
    Posts: 1,697

    Ziggster
    Member

    Had two ex mechanics in my engineering class. Both were still very young but we're already tired of working on cars. Especially up here in Canada in the winter months with melting snow and slush dripping on your head and back. They both finished, and did very well.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2019
    Truckdoctor Andy and Boneyard51 like this.
  7. I think If I had it to do over again I would have gone into HVAC. If you cant fix it you get to rip it all out and sell them a new unit. everyone has to have Heat and air. Get a electricians license along with it and you would be golden.
     
  8. stanlow69
    Joined: Feb 21, 2010
    Posts: 7,348

    stanlow69
    Member Emeritus

    Self employed auto upholsterer. My shop is behind my house. Overhead is cut to a minimum. A one man shop. Used to travel 50 miles one way to work for 11 years. Got fed up with bosses and the commute. Plus with no benefits. Location is only needed if you do routine work. Be specialized and they will find you. Carry little debt, getting the work and doing it is the easy part. It`s everything else that consumes your time. And health insurance will cost more than expected, and it will go up every year. But first off, sit down with your boss and tell him what you think. If that doesn't work, talk to his boss. For special ordered parts, require money up front. If they can`t pony up. They can`t afford to have the job done.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2019
  9. In the little town of Ravenden Springs 9 miles from me. there is a 3 bay shop ran by a father & son. They are excellent mechanics. And they stay busy. Parked around the place are about 50 cars setting & rotting. Belong to customers. I asked what is the deal. I was told that it cost too much to fix them so the customers didn't pay what the tow bill & diagnosis was. The customers just went and bought another used car on payments. And since they owed money on the one at his place there is a used car dealer that has the title. And the dealer will not pay whats owed. So they set and after a time he can auction them off for the bill and storage. but that involves filing a lien. advertising in the paper. and having papers served ect So he just lets them set there.
     
    Truckdoctor Andy and 2OLD2FAST like this.
  10. 2OLD2FAST
    Joined: Feb 3, 2010
    Posts: 5,217

    2OLD2FAST
    Member
    from illinois

    And in some locality's you need a plumbers licence too
     
    Truckdoctor Andy and Old wolf like this.
  11. 2OLD2FAST
    Joined: Feb 3, 2010
    Posts: 5,217

    2OLD2FAST
    Member
    from illinois

    With the changing refrigerants , recovery equipment ,EPA licencing and bookwork , like my buddy said ,good time to sell the business and move to somewhere else !
     
    Old wolf likes this.
  12. I was a Chevrolet Master Technician , then a Auto body Tech. and unto Service Manager , then unto my own State inspection station and garage .
    I liked anything mechanical when I was a kid and stayed with it , the profession served me well !
     
    Truckdoctor Andy likes this.
  13. stanlow69
    Joined: Feb 21, 2010
    Posts: 7,348

    stanlow69
    Member Emeritus

    Like I said, be specialized. Do work no one else will do. I am currently working on 3 different cars. All of them are from over 60 miles away and beyond.
     
    Truckdoctor Andy likes this.
  14. Crosley
    Joined: Mar 3, 2001
    Posts: 1,099

    Crosley
    Member
    from Aridzona

    Interesting comments. I've worked on cars, bikes, etc for decades. Tried to get away from mechanic stuff. Getting away from mechanical stuff never worked out, I came back to what I know. Worked on automatic transmissions for decades. First T-400 in 1975. Still build them as a job.. Most are ultra high HP transmissions. Drag racing , off road, land speed, monster trucks. Anything under 2k horsepower is light duty transmission to me. I retire soon with a bad back , bad hip, most of my hearing gone. The MRI report on my back is near 2 pages of shit wrong. LOL .. Mom wanted me to get into computer stuff in 1971.. smart lady. She died in 1975
     
    Truckdoctor Andy likes this.
  15. dana barlow
    Joined: May 30, 2006
    Posts: 5,115

    dana barlow
    Member
    from Miami Fla.
    1. Y-blocks

    "Comp Tech" was my speed shop from 1969 to 1999 Miami Fla. Never had to put up adds,100% word of mouth an too much too do. Retired now,before that just worked on my own, an friends hot rods an race cars. Oval,drag,sports cars. Designed,built,drove some,crewed some,won a lot !
     
    Truckdoctor Andy likes this.
  16. I did a 2-year Automotive-Diesel AAS degree right out of HS. I had worked in independent shops before that in the summers. One guy, what a crook! He would come up short of $$ on paydays, he torched his own shop for the insurance claim and left me with 3 weeks unpaid.

    Like I said earlier, I got into it at the wrong time when the economy was sucko. The injuries I had in '78 put me into another direction, machine shops. I took a 5-month PAID course through the county in '81 and was the top student in the class. We started out with around 40, at graduation around 24. We even got a Kennedy box and basic tools. One guy in the graduating class, he left his job.. wasn't cut out for it and left his tools there.

    The shop I got in with was a huge company, Eaton Corp. They had multiple shops in the area, I wound up in a R&D shop. At age 26, I was the "kid". Most of the guys were between 45 and 65. It was a challenging place to work, tough precision jobs. The first thing they gave me, I had to do on a Van Norman mill. No DRO and the handles were .250/revolution, not .200 like the Bridgeports. But I literally cranked out the job. It turned out to be a test, to see if I could do it.

    Like any other place, the talented young person was perceived as a threat. Old timers were reluctant to show you much. People would sabotage what you were working on. Fun times.
     
    Truckdoctor Andy likes this.
  17. gimpyshotrods
    Joined: May 20, 2009
    Posts: 23,264

    gimpyshotrods
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Don't conflate selling services with selling service work.

    That's the 20th century model. That is not where we are right now.

    Let me clarify: I used to work for the a multi-hundred-dollar global manufacturer of computer networking hardware. In fact, they are, to this day, by head-and-shoulders the largest out there. We made, to our specifications, all of out hardware, and installed, to out specifications, everything that we sold.

    By the fact that you are reading this right now, I can guarantee you that you are engaging the use of thousands of pieces of this company's hardware, including ones that I designed.

    We put the extra time and effort into building our equipment so it would not fail, and installed it in a manner that we had rigorously tested, so there would be no site-related issues. We also mandated all of the electrical and HVAC specifications, and made sure that they were built, and monitored.

    That hardware accounted for the least of our revenue streams, and we were raking in tens-of-billions.

    How does that work, you might ask? How were we making that amount of money, even after dumping in that much on the front-end?

    Two words: service contract.

    If you build your product well enough, install it well enough, and exempt acts-of-nature or individual, you never will go out on a service call, for the life of the contract. You literally get to keep all of the money.

    For acts-of-nature or individual, it was all time-and-materials.
     

  18. Want synergy???
    Combine service with pseudo product.
    Garbage removal. BIG MONEY.
    Excavation and other dirt merchants moving earth around. BIG MONEY
     
  19. Boneyard51
    Joined: Dec 10, 2017
    Posts: 6,442

    Boneyard51
    Member

    That’s what I’ve told all the young men in my circle......only my grandson took my advise. He studied it in high school and went right to work for a company learning the trade. He plans to open his own business when the time is right.
    I know several guy that do HVAC, doing real well for their selves!
    People will spend their last dime to be warm or cool! There will always be work! Unlike the internal combustion engine, which is on its way out.






    Bones
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2019
    Truckdoctor Andy and Old wolf like this.
  20. You will starve to death around here doing dirt and excavation. everyone and his brother has a dump truck , backhoe & bulldozer. They all try and under bid each other. I also have two dump trucks a backhoe and 5 bulldozers . all paid for. and they set because there isn't any profit in working them.
     
    Truckdoctor Andy and trollst like this.
  21. I think a auto upostery shop around here could be viable. There was one at Ravenden however the woman was in her 80's and finally retired. I enjoy watching Jonathan W on U Tube he just started doing his own interiors. Does pretty good for a novice.
     
    Truckdoctor Andy likes this.
  22. Yes indeed just today I had to replace the Squirrel cage fan that circulates the hot air from our outside wood stove. It was down in the low 40's last nite. and My chilly willy wife gave me a good incentive to fix it. A epic griping out tongue lashing
     
    Truckdoctor Andy and Boneyard51 like this.
  23. 2OLD2FAST
    Joined: Feb 3, 2010
    Posts: 5,217

    2OLD2FAST
    Member
    from illinois

    What , no insulation , it was 28 here this morning , it's 52 right now , where I'm sitting it's 70° no furnace on yet ...
     
    Truckdoctor Andy and Old wolf like this.
  24. I always tell our students that there are more opportunities once you have a trade then being the guy doing the grunt work, there is getting into management, being an instructor, owning a business. Hell the dean of the college I work at is a journeyman mechanic.


    Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
     
  25. I teach in a county where the median income is around 40k. The auto repair industry is a great way to get out of that
     
    57 Fargo and Truckdoctor Andy like this.
  26. Heck no. My home is a 1967 house trailer bought new and moved here . than a few years later it was roofed over and three rooms added on. single pane windows. cheap materials. its now termite riddled. Spend all the money you want on it and after your done you would still have a 1967 built on house trailer. We have a well built heavily insulated 1600 square ft block building right next to it that was a country store. We plan to convert it into a home this winter. and tear this structure down.
     
    Boneyard51 and Truckdoctor Andy like this.
  27. X-cpe
    Joined: Mar 9, 2018
    Posts: 1,959

    X-cpe

    You need good manual dexterity and an analytical mind to be a good mechanic and those two traits will take you a long way in a lot of different directions.
     
  28. The lack of that analytical mind leads to creating a “parts changer” and more than 1/2 of the bassackwards troubleshooting threads and even more of the asinine comments.

    An analytical mind and good manual dexterity is the raw materials for a surgical interventionist.
     
    Truckdoctor Andy and warbird1 like this.
  29. We are currently trying to get in front of as many high school teachers and guidance counselors as we can to try to explain to them that we want top students entering the trade and they shouldn’t be discouraging these students from the trades, I hate the stereotype of if you aren’t doing well in school you can always go into trades....bullshit! When I get a chance to talk to high school students I tell them to get the best marks they can and they can do anything they want. We have dealership techs around here making well over $100,000 a year. Cars are getting more complex and more technical, so greater diagnostic abilities are needed. It’s somewhat true that we don’t repair as much as we used to but that doesn’t mean it’s mindless parts changing. Far from it.


    Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2019
  30. X-cpe
    Joined: Mar 9, 2018
    Posts: 1,959

    X-cpe

    Amen! I spent 27 years listening to "He's not good academically so we have to give him a trade". They give you more than your fair share of knotheads and your unspoken job is to keep them out of their hair. Your shop is as far away from anything else as it can be and still be on campus. If you keep them out of the admin's hair, they pretty much leave you alone. The first year I taught I had a student who told me his counselor told him he was too smart to take auto shop. Never mind that he now has a P.H.D. and last I heard is a dean of students somewhere in Carolina. He also spent time racing stock cars. The last year I taught they had to have C average and good attendance. We could actually go beyond 'suck, squeeze, bang, blow'.
    At the college we have some evening apprenticeship programs run by the unions. (Hard to find parking after three.) Their posters and applications make it clear that you need math and reading skills.
     

Share This Page

Register now to get rid of these ads!

Archive

Copyright © 1995-2021 The Jalopy Journal: Steal our stuff, we'll kick your teeth in. Terms of Service. Privacy Policy.

Atomic Industry
Forum software by XenForo™ ©2010-2014 XenForo Ltd.