Ok, I understand now.

__________________
1998 Ford Escort ZX2 5 speed - 279,000 miles My Daily

1992 Mercedes 300D 2.5 202,000 - Pure junk
2000 Mercedes E320 Black - 136,000 miles - Needs repair

Don't forget to grease the screw and threads on the spring compressor.

The only thing I would be scared about is if something went really wrong. For example a brake job. Assume you did the job perfectly and I mean perfectly but as a coincidence a line blows out as the customer drives home and no brakes and there's an major accident. Good luck trying to prove it was not you ... I would feel horrible knowing that happened and always second guessing myself. OR--

You could get sued but then again, if you don't have insurance to chase after, not many lawyers will take the case since there's no payout. That is why I am thinking of only getting $25,000 minimum coverage and a million dollar rider. A lot cheaper and if you tap a bumper, the turd who got hit won't be trying to screw over the insurance company for minor stuff. Folks who get tapped face the worst of the worst medical crisis in that person's life yet film them at the bar, or the game, or in the stores and they are great shape. Go to the deposition, and he is on life support. One of my kids just went through this. My video was entertaining. The person and that person's scumbag lawyer had a tough time explaining how Mr. Dying can play softball, dance like a spinning top at the club, and carry 50 lb bags of dog food, yet at a deposition they are using a walker, claiming they can only use a walker to get about and zero physical activity ever. Do you want to waste easily 40 hours filming the so-called injured?

BUT, in your area, are there criminal laws which require some sort of licensing, et cet? If so, the cops might be knocking on your door.

All forms of costs and regulations make many things impractical today. You are far from the first to ask about this ideal. On the net I have seen it discussed extensively.

Technically like a brother in law of mine. You can buy cars with issues sometimes as in his case very cheap. In many cases they have a problem an owner cannot deal with themselves or just does not want to pay a fortune for a garage to repair.

He does whatever is needed and resells the car. Like all business the primary profit will remain in your astuteness at buying. In fact he was by a couple of days ago with a nice little Honda crv.

It did not really need that much done so he will do well with it on resale. His skill is he is very good at buying. Plus evaluating what he is buying. Perhaps his approach bypasses many requirements that would otherwise be needed in selling a mechanical service.

In our rustbelt area for example many cars will not pass safety if it has any rust issue. Taking them to a body shop is out of the question. Even if pretty minor for the owners.. I am not talking about a rust bucket. Just vehicles that need a couple of hours for a body patch or patches. He does no major body work.

I source parts for him on request often. Many times it is just for a brake parts package. If the local parts places want say 450.00 for the parts. I can usually get them here in two days for 125.00 including the courier cost for him.

He has been at this for a lot of years now. There is no constant. From the time of buying a car in most cares it will have moved along to a new owner in less than thirty days. Last month he did a couple of liberty jeeps. Plus a gm 4 wheel drive product in a small suv package. I forget the name.

There are a lot of things working in his favor today. There is no doubt that he is a car flipper but so is a used car dealer. He just repairs vehicles he gets very cheap and seems to do okay with it. While staying below the radar. About half his volume is in 1/2 ton trucks.

The people asking me to do work are usually broke assed tightwads that can't afford their car let alone a shop labor rate. I was helping 1 acquaintance for free and he got pissed because his clap trap rigged 240D wouldn't go back together with the broken parts I had to take off to get to what was broken. He didn't want to buy the needed parts and his wife wouldn't stand for the cosmetics to be off.

I decided - never again. I always get into more than expected even on a simple job because I don't want to put it back together knowing that everything is not fixed and that I won't have to go back in. Other people just want pads slapped on and to drive. Don't mind that the brake lines are all cracked and that the fittings are rusted. Pads only and drive. Oh, by the way, it's not their fault when the brakes fail and ....boom.

Shops have lifts and lots of tools and go by flat rate for a reason.

What will you do about the learning curve when you do it over because what you thought didn't work. You need another job if your current job is paying so low that a brake job = 12 hrs.

__________________
85SD 240K & stopped counting painted, putting bac together. 84SD 180,000. sold to a neighbor and member here but I forget his handle. The 84 is much improved from when I had it. 85TD beginning to repair to DD status. Lots of stuff to do.

Also, I forgot to mention my car selling experience of a few years ago.

I bought and sold 6 cars within approximately 6 months. HOWEVER, in South Carolina, if you sell 5 cars a year, you are considered a "car dealer". I got a nasty letter and had to call to 'explain' myself before I had to pay a visit to some agency. Got a turd on the phone who gave me a 10 minute speech on his great resume and how great he was. I asked two simple questions: Does my situation have a rebuttable presumption of car dealer? After a long BS speech, I got a "yes" ... then next question is do I just have to prove by a preponderance that rebuttable presumption? Finally got a "yes" from Mr. Smartazz. So, I explained 2 kids in HS, tickets, and other issues and I am guessing he got really bored with me and said that will suffice with a stern warning to not let this happen again. He really could care less about my explanation other than where I got my info? He asked if a lawyer was helping me. I said no. I Googeld this issue and these 2 issues are what you folks look for. I am not the first person down this road. So, if your state is the same, limit your car sales to whatever the limit is per year because it's not worth the headache dealing with some government clown regarding how many cars you sold in a year.

My own 2¢:

Unless you're a shop or you're an independent mechanic doing the work as your livelihood, you shouldn't be charging labor rates. You shouldn't be working on anyone's car but your own, or maybe a family member or friend's to help out (not actually do the work yourself, but make them invest some sweat equity and lend a hand).

If someone wants to pay you, great, accept it and be happy. If they want free work or bust your balls about it after you're done, chalk it up to a learning experience and NEVER help them again. I'm usually happy with someone buying me lunch as payment.

If you're doing it for the money, get ASE certified and go work for a garage somewhere or open your own. It's worth it to make sure the person paying is getting their money's worth too, that means you being competent and doing a good job "by the book".

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Never a good idea to take money under the table. Get you into trouble with the IRS.

The above should be a warning to those that want to do car work on the side or start a repair business.

Ethically and morally, our guy should not have paid for any of the repairs since apparently he did nothing wrong to cause the blow out.

Legally ( or in the eyes of the car owner ) he could be on the hook for cost of repairs , lost of vehicle use and maybe diminished vehicle value. At minimum he would have to appear in court to defend himself.

There have been several instances posted on this site where a shop did nothing wrong yet the car owner ( and other posters ) wanted to blame the shop.

While the OP sees car repairs as an interesting challenge, the average car owner sees the breakdown as costing them money because of that evil business owner that rips them off. You really need to reconsider if this is the path you want to go down. I've got 40 + years in and around the car business , had a shop for 10 and got out of day to day work 20 years ago because of this and other issues.

If you want to do car repair for a living then you need to do it the proper way with all the licenses etc. However, there is nothing wrong with helping out friends and relatives and charging them for your time. Obviously you have to be cheaper than the shop before they would give it to you. I would refrain from doing brakes as it involves safety, unless you supervise and they do some of the work. You can offer changing out radiator, fenders, ac, head gasket etc.

__________________
Not MBZ nor A/C trained professional but a die-hard DIY and green engineer. Use the info at your own peril. Picked up 2 Infractions because of disagreements. NOW reversed.

W124 Keyless remote, PM for details. http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-used-parts-sale-wanted/334620-fs-w124-chasis-keyless-remote-%2450-shipped.html

1 X 2006 CDI
1 x 87 300SDL
1 x 87 300D
1 x 87 300TDT wagon
1 x 83 300D
1 x 84 190D ( 5 sp ) - All R134 converted + keyless entry.

Examples of those that immediately blame the shop , mechanic , last person that touched the car.

Our guy has no idea how a torque converter works and is ignoring that the shifter won't move to R or P. Any yes, to fully inspect a TC out of the car, it needs to be cut open then rebuilt.

Torque Converter Ripoff??

This guy repeatedly ignored my very specific questions and explanations that there was absolutely no way this damage was caused by the oil change place using a different oil filter. Like in my post 35.

The engine was failing before he installed it. There is no way any lack of oil could have damaged the piston tops yet left the connecting rod bearings in good condition.

Post 43 had the pics, the link is dead however I saved them, see below.

how could my om617 be compromised so quickly?

More

Met the supreme diesel penny pinching MORON

More

Friggin shop says there is no way to replace hose on oil cooler lines !@#$%^&*


A few I can't find links to right now.

There is also one where a person took a car to the dealer for electrical repairs and the trans failed in the lot when the dealer tried to move it. Car owner blamed shop and was asking how to sue.


Another one was where a valet moved car and trans failed / would not shift out of first. Car owner went to valets boss and told them what happened even before car was looked at. Boss was willing to pay for " damage " valet caused. Turns out that a spring in the governor / rear pump got jammed in the gov / pump causing it to fail.

Car owner later went to valets boss with results but you can pretty much guarantee valet was immediately fired after car owner reported problem. Even if valet was not fired, at minimum he was put through grief worrying if he would lose his minimum wage job.

Attached Thumbnails

   

This guy was not blaming anyone and was asking for help. If this occurred to a non car person, they would be coming back screaming that you blew up their engine.

Fix One Thing Then Something Else Breaks, E300

Just some anecdotal info:
I've been running my own shop for right at 2 years now, doing general repair. I'm a one-man show, no formal secondary education in mechanics but my track record and reputation gives me some confidence that it wasn't a necessity for me. I don't have shop insurance yet so I bear that in mind in what jobs I do and how I do them - I'm fortunate in not yet having had any event that shop insurance would have been needed. Not to sound unduly proud or cocky, but I do it myself, independently because I've yet to find another shop that ran their business in a way I'd want to be affiliated with - this way I am responsible for everything, but can also make my own calls and treat the customer and their car the way I believe they should be treated. In return I have a good number of customers that, after our first transaction, bring all their work to me - even families in some cases. Which is one of the reasons I do it: to give people an honest person to entrust their car to, that fixes it correctly, with honest feedback, without excessive cost.

My shop rate is $60 and hour, but I often don't wind up billing that for *my* time investment because sometimes my lack of experience or just the right tools costs me time that isn't fair to send on to the customer. I did rear calipers/pads/rotors plus E-brake gear (including backing plates - ugh!) on a 2006 F350 diesel this week, and for close to 10 hrs. work I only made about $150 profit - I told the customer a figure before I figured up all the parts and realized how involved it was to get the backing plates off, but stuck to it because I still made enough money to consider that day a success and I want him to continue coming back with his bro-dozer. Other times if the job starts getting more involved and the price starts going up, it's just a reality I couldn't have foreseen and I make the customer aware of that mid-project.

Anyway, just keep a couple things in mind: as a mechanic, you're the doctor of the automotive industry - 90% of the time you're telling people they're going to have to spend money they don't want to spend and in some cases, don't see the point in spending. Also, don't work for less than $40 per hour of good, productive work. You're going to have jobs where you spend way more time than planned and chase your tail, hence make less per hour - but when you can be efficient, you deserve compensation for it. (Incidentally, I almost always wind up charging 1.25-1.5 hr. for pads/rotors on a single axle, which includes cleaning and lubing slide pins and bleeding the brakes.) Even if you have a single Craftsman 180 pc. toolbox, you still spent money to be prepared to do the work, and a substantial amount of time gaining the knowledge to do the work on their car correctly - for whatever reason the customer doesn't want to or can't do it, they aren't, and instead they hired you to do it so they can part with their hard-earned cash to reflect that. Even among friends. And there will be tasks you're better off not tackling - if you have to say "I'm not equipped to do that" to a certain job, and they don't understand, that's not your fault and you were probably better off not stringing yourself out into a precarious agreement with them anyway.

I could write more about it than anyone's going to read, but I hope some of this was helpful.

__________________
'82 300CD
"Pearl", the very first turbo diesel 123 coupe
Totaled 11/23/18, rebuild in progress.
'85 300TD, "Artemis".
'78 300D euro, "Ol' Red", mostly retired.
'85 300D, "Gandalf".

Generally speaking, mechanical favors for friends are paid with drinkables or smokables. Mechanical favors for family are free with the exception of food.

My family home is one of a few on the street where the neighbors all have a skill set and help each other with projects. One guy welds, one guy does carpentry, etc. There's lots of bartering, returned favors, etc. Jack Daniels is an excellent currency for neighborly help.

You choose your customers. "Cash only, up front, and you were never here". A customer who recognizes your experience and skill level (particularly if we're talking diesels which most shops won't touch) and understands what a good deal they are getting for your artisan quality work has no problem with this unwritten policy.

Edit: Agree with Mongoose: for good friends and neighbors payment accepted in adult beverages, and for family, a hot meal.

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1998 E300 turbodiesel

America's Rights and Freedoms Are Not The Enemy!

Sell the parts to him at cost + $400 and “help” him put them in for free