Quote:
Originally Posted by rwd4evr
Why the hell would you want to do that? Then you have to deal with a bunch of junk that people have "kept running" until the Band-Aids and bubblegum catastrophically come off.
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My hero. . .
Interesting that those in this thread that have / had actual businesses or are self employed get it. Others complain that there are no good shops but refuse to open one to serve the ripped off masses even-though it seems like a sure money maker.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rwd4evr
You've got an answer for every situation. Do you work on Mercedes for a living?
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I never specialized in Mercedes. Had a fin tail in the early 80's then got the 97 SL320 and 97 C280 round about 2011 / 14. I tend to research systems on cars I have before things break and have piles of parts at the ready.
Having built countless engines of most makes I've seen lots of failed parts and this knowledge translates to other makes. Built / restored a number of race cars along the way too.
I look at a car from an engineering perspective. If one understands how the world behaves, how the world works, one can figure everything else out. Cars were convenient machines that I could get my hands on.
From the late 80's to late 90's I had a repair shop focusing on heavy engine , transmission , electrical repairs. Made good $ rebuilding ' difficult " carburetors like the Mikuni on the Chrysler / Mitsubishi 2.6 and Ford Variable Venturi VV 2700 / VV 7200 .
Closed the shop for a number of reasons: saw that it wasn't something I wanted to do on a regular basis until retirement , the area was / still is in a long slow decline , it only takes a few bad customers to make things not fun any longer.
I did have a decent core of customers, engineers were my best ones because I could talk engineer to them. In fact, one was nearly in tears when they found I was closing. His wife told me directly that hubby would not have been this broken up if she had left him. While this was one of the high points, the emotional roller coaster of problem customers got to be too great.
Post shop I was working as a machinery tech in industry and later as an engineer. This is far easier and cleaner than the auto repair biz even though industry carries a higher "status". At 55 I pulled an early semi retirement and am occasionally consulting for a transmission shop and a machine / fabrication shop just to keep skills current.