May open a Do-t-Yourself Garage. Any thoughts?

I'm not sure if it's more cons than pros, or if the cons are just so... coniful...

 

There is one in in plano,
http://www.jackjunkies.com/index.html

 

Now that I think about it, there's one of these DIY shops for motorcycles in one of my books.. You could talk to the owner and get some tips and stuff on how his has been successful. That is, if it's still open..

 

Mike and Nuri Wernick's Rising Wolf Garage..

http://www.risingwolfgarage.com/

You do have to keep in mind, motorcycles take up a lot less room than cars. Especially when blown apart.

 

I was looking into starting a shop that rented out a spray booth. They did it in SoCal. Worked really well. Charged $300 a day. No sanding, or prep work other than prep required for paint. Bigger demand for paint than mechanic work IMO. Most paint & body shops don't want the project cars anymore. I got a quote to paint my 51 Merc for $12K, did it myself for lots less.

 

there was ado it yourself body shop here but it ran into problems over property ownership or something so it closed i was a member it was a great idea but could of been ran better

 

What about modifying your business plan and focusing it to a specific aspect? How about opening a U-Blast-It? Have several large capacity blast cabinets and a couple of booths for larger projects. The customer buys their blast media from you (like in a paint ball place) and they use your equipment to blast their cars and parts clean. Less liability, less people leaving their non-running projects at your place too long, less dangerous equipment (welders, torches, lifts, etc.). You can offer several types of blasting media and equipment ranging from sand, glass, walnut shells, soda, etc. and whatever.

Andy

 

insurance should not be bad with a release of liability form, fluids drained would work well for a waste oil heater to keep it warm in the winter...or sell back to oil companys that supply your oil that you could sell to customers? i think its a win win idea

 

Here are some places out near me just for example.

http://diyautorepairkc.com/

http://www.sprayboothrental.com/

 

If everyone thought like this...there would be very little new businesses.

I say go for it. It doesn't matter if previous ones have failed. You dont know how they did things, if the owner was a drunk, etc.

 

In the eighties a do it yourself/rent a bay, repair shop opened near here.

In the three months they were open, they had two cars fall from hoists, several injury claims and a fire.

Liability insurance cost would be an idea killer. I can't let customers past the front desk due to insurance.

Some people should not be allowed to work on cars!!!

 

Seems like this was discussed a while back,,insurance would be the deal breaker. HRP

 

Yeah the ones on the army bases were the bomb. Great for the young soldiers. Living in the barracks all the brass frowned on us working on our cars in the parking lot. But trying to run one in the civilian sector would be challenging with all the legal liabilities. But if someone really planned well, I don't see why it couldn't be a successful business. Goodluck young man, it's good to see that people like you are around to entertain ideas like this.

Sent from my DROID device using the TJJ mobile app

 

Well don't think about it to long or ill throw you on your fuckin ass!!!

 

The biggest problem you would have is dealing with idiots. Like someone said, one welding, and another next to him changing and spilling gas. I think renting a paint booth would be a whole lot easier to manage and may even turn a profit. Painting cars in a back yard is getting harder every day, and never turns out as good as it could. Anyone can wrench in their back yard, or a friends garage. But to do a good job painting a car you need a spray booth. That's where I think you should spend your time and money on for a business.

 

Adult daycare anybody?

 

might work if you look at it more like renting individual garage space to someone. different spaces could be outfitted with different options. you could have a tool rental on site. security deposits etc. people will want to keep their stuff safe and everyone should be responsible for cleaning up their mess. would be expensive but it might be a little cheaper than what the avg hobby guy could get elsewhere. just think - when they miss a rent payment you can landlord lock up their shit and sell it on the hamb OR... get your own reality show.

 

"A full service oil change elsewhere would cost $25-$60, but costs only $1o for space rental at SSG."
$10 for the rental + the cost of the oil & filter + getting dirty?
The general public would just assume pay the $25-$60 and sip a free coffee while they watch someone else get burned by hot engine oil.

 

That actually sounds like something doable if one could find an old run-down storage place. The issue would be outfitting each individual stall with ample power to run their own air compressor and enough lights. You could knock down a wall in between every other stall to efficiently make them a 2-car stall, provided they're wide enough.


Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Great Idea, and it has been done... I watched a special on a motorcycle DIY shop in SanFran called MotoShop. http://www.motoshopsf.com/

I think you'd have to make it a members club to avoid certain "customer based" liabilities (not all of course)... you know, where everyone pays flat rate per month, then a reasonable fee per hour. A bunch of hot rodders hanging out in a garage full of lifts, like a "club" atmosphere. Having individual bays, and even offer tools/equipment storage options.

AZ & CA & NV would be great states for this; with all the track homes, and new construction, most don't have a couple acres with a separate garage like Midwest & Northeast & South. (not to mention bull$hit HOA's fining people for using power tools!)

If they had this in Phoenix, I'd totally be a customer... I've actually looked into "what it would take to do that..." as you can see from the pic below, I NEED to rent a garage bay with lift. Neighbors practically live on top of me!

 

Obviously you have never tried to collect club dues before.

 

I don't about Texas,but I know of two different guys who wanted to do something like that. Like mentioned already,the insurance killed the idea. If you own a shop,you're insured or bonded in case of accidents,damage etc. With anybody being allowed to work there,the insurance co said they couldn't cover non-employees who couldn't be held accountable. I wouldn't want to be responsible for some guy who works dangerously,or won't take precautions by me,the owner.
There's a shop near my house called 401k motors(i think) that started who some buddies who wanted a place where they could all work on their own cars,then ended up working on customer cars also. Pretty sure a few of them are HAMBers.

 

They had one in Chandler a few years back, took longer to get the building set up than it did to close the doors.

 

Observations:
1. The hobby shops on a military base are heavily subsidized and are running essentially with free facilities, free utiliities, free insurance and free tools. The nominal charge covers the attendant and the tool theft/breakage.
2. To start a reasonable shop with perhaps six bays would require a MINIMUM of $100K to get going....
3. How do you keep bays full 7 days a week? Weekends would be busy, week days slow...no matter how much you wish
4. Have to pay for an attendant....1 person cannot cover all day, 7 days
5. See the Plano Texas rate sheet. Are you willing to pay $300 a day for use of a lift? Most people will lay in the parking lot instead.
6. Paint booth? IF you are legal and in CA, you cannot charge enough to make it pay.

What MIGHT work is some way to allow freelance mechanics rent space so they can take on work....kinda like a barber shop renting a chair to a barber. They hustle the customers, they do the hassle of payments, they do the work....you only rent the space....that way, a group of lone wolf mechanics can do work in a garage environment. Hmmm...need to think more

 

I think the idea to open this kind of shop, so customers would have access to tools and equipment to repair their own cars, has probably occurred to a lot of us. On the surface it seems like a great idea, but as a lot of people have mentioned, there are some major obstacles to overcome.

The insurance thing would be a major one, for example. It is one thing to have people coming into your shop who are regular employees, who are covered by OSHA and those sorts of programs, but it is a whole nuther animal when you start letting non-employees access to things that can hurt or kill them. Even if insurance were available the cost would be huge.

Then there is the matter of dealing with non professional people in a professional setting. Lots of people THINK they can fix cars, but as we all have seen, some people can't turn a screwdriver without help. Those people would be tying up the lifts and floorspace, keeping other people waiting for a spot or piece of equipment. Pretty soon the non running cars would start using your garage as a storage facility.

Finally, as most of us have learned, you DO NOT loan tools to anyone. Think how bad it would be on your tools to have total strangers having complete access to them on a daily basis. The breakage and loss rate would be staggering, I bet.

This plan might have worked in the 1950's, but there is a whole different business environment today. The days of Darnell's Garage are long past.

Don

 

There is place in my area that has been doing it since 2011. Other then that I don't know anything else about. Here's a link about it. It's in Chanahon Illinois.

http://channahon-minooka.patch.com/...e-auto-shop-is-the-first-of-its-kin872d40b94a

Sent via Illinois Bell Telephone Company's Car Radiotelephone

 

haha this post reminded me of Darnell's also!
<mytubeelement data="{&quot;bundle&quot;:{&quot;label_delimitor&quot;:&quot;:&quot;,&quot;percentage&quot;:&quot;%&quot;,&quot;smart_buffer&quot;:&quot;Smart Buffer&quot;,&quot;start_playing_when_buffered&quot;:&quot;Start playing when buffered&quot;,&quot;sound&quot;:&quot;Sound&quot;,&quot;desktop_notification&quot;:&quot;Desktop Notification&quot;,&quot;continuation_on_next_line&quot;:&quot;-&quot;,&quot;loop&quot;:&quot;Loop&quot;,&quot;only_notify&quot;:&quot;Only Notify&quot;,&quot;estimated_time&quot;:&quot;Estimated Time&quot;,&quot;global_preferences&quot;:&quot;Global Preferences&quot;,&quot;no_notification_supported_on_your_browser&quot;:&quot;No notification style supported on your browser version&quot;,&quot;video_buffered&quot;:&quot;Video Buffered&quot;,&quot;buffered&quot;:&quot;Buffered&quot;,&quot;hyphen&quot;:&quot;-&quot;,&quot;buffered_message&quot;:&quot;The video has been buffered as requested and is ready to play.&quot;,&quot;not_supported&quot;:&quot;Not Supported&quot;,&quot;on&quot;:&quot;On&quot;,&quot;off&quot;:&quot;Off&quot;,&quot;click_to_enable_for_this_site&quot;:&quot;Click to enable for this site&quot;,&quot;desktop_notification_denied&quot;:&quot;You have denied permission for desktop notification for this site&quot;,&quot;notification_status_delimitor&quot;:&quot;;&quot;,&quot;error&quot;:&quot;Error&quot;,&quot;adblock_interferance_message&quot;:&quot;Adblock (or similar extension) is known to interfere with SmartVideo. Please add this url to adblock whitelist.&quot;,&quot;calculating&quot;:&quot;Calculating&quot;,&quot;waiting&quot;:&quot;Waiting&quot;,&quot;will_start_buffering_when_initialized&quot;:&quot;Will start buffering when initialized&quot;,&quot;will_start_playing_when_initialized&quot;:&quot;Will start playing when initialized&quot;,&quot;completed&quot;:&quot;Completed&quot;,&quot;buffering_stalled&quot;:&quot;Buffering is stalled. Will stop.&quot;,&quot;stopped&quot;:&quot;Stopped&quot;,&quot;hr&quot;:&quot;Hr&quot;,&quot;min&quot;:&quot;Min&quot;,&quot;sec&quot;:&quot;Sec&quot;,&quot;any_moment&quot;:&quot;Any Moment&quot;,&quot;popup_donate_to&quot;:&quot;Donate to&quot;,&quot;extension_id&quot;:null},&quot;prefs&quot;:{&quot;desktopNotification&quot;:true,&quot;soundNotification&quot;:true,&quot;logLevel&quot;:0,&quot;enable&quot;:true,&quot;loop&quot;:false,&quot;hidePopup&quot;:true,&quot;autoPlay&quot;:false,&quot;autoBuffer&quot;:true,&quot;autoPlayOnBuffer&quot;:false,&quot;autoPlayOnBufferPercentage&quot;:42,&quot;autoPlayOnSmartBuffer&quot;:true,&quot;quality&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;fshd&quot;:false,&quot;onlyNotification&quot;:false,&quot;enableFullScreen&quot;:true,&quot;saveBandwidth&quot;:false,&quot;hideAnnotations&quot;:false,&quot;turnOffPagedBuffering&quot;:false}}" event="preferencesUpdated" id="myTubeRelayElementToPage"></mytubeelement><mytubeelement data="{&quot;loadBundle&quot;:true}" event="relayPrefs" id="myTubeRelayElementToTab"></mytubeelement>

 

I worked part time at a rent-a-bay operation in South Windsor Ct. in the mid 70s ,it was set up as a complement to a well established auto parts business you could only us it to install parts bought there, got free hours if you spent a lot next door. Lot of rules to try to foolproof the operation like we set up and operated the lifts no welding in the bays, customer responsible for clean up in bay or time went on till cleaned up. didn't make a lot of money by itself but great complement to parts business.

 

It's now a NAPA and an independent mechanic operates his business out of the rental bays. That should tell you something about this type of idea.

 

One twist on this might to be sort of a brokerage business; Arrange rental of existing shop spaces (maybe just the lift and air) for days the shop is normally closed (probably just Sundays). As a broker you just take a cut of the rental and maybe provide centralized monitoring of the rental bays for all participating shops via internet based CCTV. User participation could be through a club membership as well; so you have a vetted user base and maybe the club itself carries liability and other insurance to make it an attractive proposition to the shop owners.

Possible Win/Win? You have no outlay for a shop or equipment and the shop owner fully leverages their assets.