Badger Krome finger rest

[Robbyrockett2]

working on a few select import cars when I turned wrenches for a living.

This still makes me cringe a little, I hated working daily drivers. Thankfully I only did that for about three months, then I switched over to a bike shop.
I think Honestly if I ever had to work on DD's again id just be a tire guy.

 

[Mr.Micron]

This still makes me cringe a little, I hated working daily drivers. Thankfully I only did that for about three months, then I switched over to a bike shop.
I think Honestly if I ever had to work on DD's again id just be a tire guy.

I am with you on that , The new POS's are for the young parts changer to handle. Old school Mechanic work is a lost art , I bet a lot of folks do not even have a clue what points and condenser are LOL
But I only work on my own cars now a days I will work on my mom's and sisters if I have the time if not I do have a friend in the business that will fix their cars for an affordable price.

 

[Robbyrockett2]

I am with you on that , The new POS's are for the young parts changer to handle. Old school Mechanic work is a lost art , I bet a lot of folks do not even have a clue what points and condenser are LOL
But I only work on my own cars now a days I will work on my mom's and sisters if I have the time if not I do have a friend in the business that will fix their cars for an affordable price.

For me it's more the fact that I have zero interest in bringing years of experience plus $20-30k worth of tools So I can work for $16 an hour out of the $70-$90 the shop is charging. Nope. My tools will sit in the shed while I work a couple extra hours at taco bell for the same money.

 

[Mr.Micron]

For me it's more the fact that I have zero interest in bringing years of experience plus $20-30k worth of tools So I can work for $16 an hour out of the $70-$90 the shop is charging. Nope. My tools will sit in the shed while I work a couple extra hours at taco bell for the same money.

Yep I agree with that , my home owners insurance made me itemize all my tools it came up to over 200k counting all the special tools for Porches and Benz and yes even ones for those big rigs like Jurien drives,, The local shops here charge 110 an hour and all the mechanics work flag hours so if they are good they can make good money but if not they are just wasting time LOL.
That is why I now work for a University , No stress and I only work on cars if I want to.
Oh and most shops around here try to get away with paying 12 and hour LOL I guess that is why there are more owner ran shops popping up .

 

[Robbyrockett2]

Yep I agree with that , my home owners insurance made me itemize all my tools it came up to over 200k counting all the special tools for Porches and Benz and yes even ones for those big rigs like Jurien drives,, The local shops here charge 110 an hour and all the mechanics work flag hours so if they are good they can make good money but if not they are just wasting time LOL.
That is why I now work for a University , No stress and I only work on cars if I want to.
Oh and most shops around here try to get away with paying 12 and hour LOL I guess that is why there are more owner ran shops popping up .

Yep I mean its been almost 15 yrs since I worked in a shop but then it $15 flat rate with $12 minimum. On a good week id average out to like $16-$18.
On a bad week it would be $13. Problem is the pay rates havent changed since then but the shop rates have gone up $30 or so.
Of course the "good ones" the top paid guys. Did it by doing things like oh just throwing away the new in tank filter and saying they did it. Then noone wondered why they could do a four hour service in 1.5 hrs. Dealers didnt care. They were getting paid the same and the bay was open for the next job.

 

[Mr.Micron]

Yep I mean its been almost 15 yrs since I worked in a shop but then it $15 flat rate with $12 minimum. On a good week id average out to like $16-$18.
On a bad week it would be $13. Problem is the pay rates havent changed since then but the shop rates have gone up $30 or so.
Of course the "good ones" the top paid guys. Did it by doing things like oh just throwing away the new in tank filter and saying they did it. Then noone wondered why they could do a four hour service in 1.5 hrs. Dealers didnt care. They were getting paid the same and the bay was open for the next job.

Yep that is so true , I was heavy line so mainly engine rebuilds , Down side to them was waiting on parts or thing to come back from the machine shop being when I worked for the dealerships none of them had a in house machine shop.
When I ran my own shop the machine shop was my neighbor so turn around time was a lot faster. But this was 20+ years ago .

 

[Jurien72]

I have the socket mounted one too but I have had them snap-on me pun intended due to they were made by snap-on tools LOL .
The T handles ones I bought for working on a few select import cars when I turned wrenches for a living.

I have several sets of the socket mounted ones... Harbor Freight, Craftsman and some brand I don't remember (its a red package at Sears) If I'm working on the truck they are the cats meow as far as I'm concerned! Not to mention all my Torx bits and I have several other bits as well. Those ball hexes are the bomb for working on RC cars. I have never been able to find any that fit a screwdriver bit thingie unfortunately. But yeah for working on something small like an airbrush, nothing beats the L shaped Allen key!

 

[Jurien72]

So the shop is charging $100-$120 an hour and the grease monkey is only making $12? no wonder the shop bill is several thousand dollars and the truck is just as broke down when it comes out as when it went in! Thats why my boss likes to do stuff ourselves- we can screw it up just as well for a lot less money! My passenger seat is now a 6 drawer toolbox and I usually get $100-$200 for helping to fix stuff. Did a motor rebuild that got me over $1000. It helps to justify my Snap On ratchet collection

 

[Robbyrockett2]

So the shop is charging $100-$120 an hour and the grease monkey is only making $12? no wonder the shop bill is several thousand dollars and the truck is just as broke down when it comes out as when it went in! Thats why my boss likes to do stuff ourselves- we can screw it up just as well for a lot less money! My passenger seat is now a 6 drawer toolbox and I usually get $100-$200 for helping to fix stuff. Did a motor rebuild that got me over $1000. It helps to justify my Snap On ratchet collection

Thats the gist of it. Most of the shops end up with like one guy whos been there forever that they actually pay well and whole bunch idiots from UTI or some such BS that are just happy to be working on cars but just barely understand which way to turn the wrench and how to torque things to spec and not much else. Theyre paying mcdonalds wages, so they get mcdonalds workers who just so happened to spend 40k on tools and 30k to have someone supervise them fake torquing bolts on a motor thats been reassembled so many times it cant actually be torqued.

 

[Robbyrockett2]

That said, If they havent given up before their loans start coming due and they get through some of the manufacturer training. That is actually pretty good training.
Between it and the experience they may actually make it to be good mechanics.

Big trucks you can still find places that pay pretty decent. I might go do that one day. I am probably one of the few people youll find with certs on CAT ACERTS that don't work for CAT. They occasionally agree to train a few army guys. Otherwise they do a lot of trade secret type stuff and only CAT is capable of really fixing it right.
Some of their specs are geniously designed for that exact purpose.
Well and to foil chinese attempts to copy their equipment.
Most of my other big truck experience is on some outdated engines like detroit 8v92's because it all came from the military and they like to use 30-40 year old tech.

 

[Robbyrockett2]

Yep that is so true , I was heavy line so mainly engine rebuilds

I gave eup on the shops long before that. Almost nothing goes to a machine shop anymore. It's cheaper for them to just replace an entire head assembly than pay a machine shop to work it, and then a mechanic with a clue to assemble it all properly.
But I ended up supervising a section of depot level rebuild in the army.
We had in house machine shop of course. Which being what the vehicles are it's usually cost effective. Cost effective or not though you cant have an avenger down waiting for parts so....

 

[Robbyrockett2]

And for fun.... @Jurien72 You should tell your boss you need one of these.
That abrams is a few shades over 80 tons and the trailer has 40 wheels on five rows of axles.
Those tires are roughly twice the diameter of a normal truck to give you a better Idea of the size of that monstrosity
Little over 6ft to the bottom of the door I think

 

[Robbyrockett2]

oops

 

[Jurien72]

Oh yeah, those things look like fun!

 

[Jurien72]

When I was in the Air Force we didn't really diagnose anything- we just figured out which component was causing the problem and swapped it out. We let backshop deal with repairing the broken unit. Like you said, when there's a war on we need that jet out dropping bombs! No time for us to tinker around with it.

 

[Robbyrockett2]

When I was in the Air Force we didn't really diagnose anything- we just figured out which component was causing the problem and swapped it out. We let backshop deal with repairing the broken unit. Like you said, when there's a war on we need that jet out dropping bombs! No time for us to tinker around with it.

So if it had been army basically you sent it to me.

 

[Robbyrockett2]

And for fun.... @Jurien72 You should tell your boss you need one of these.
That abrams is a few shades over 80 tons and the trailer has 40 wheels on five rows of axles.
Those tires are roughly twice the diameter of a normal truck to give you a better Idea of the size of that monstrosity
Little over 6ft to the bottom of the door I think
View attachment 52031
View attachment 52032

We didnt have a lot of these around, but i did have to road test them a couple times. It's an odd feeling looking down at semis

 

[Jurien72]

I seem to remember seeing a lot of them at Camp LeJeune. One day I drag raced a deuce and a half down LeJeune Blvd in my dump truck. That was fun and we were neck and neck all the way down!

 

[Robbyrockett2]

Haha, if it was an old 5 ton youda smoked it
Gah those things are helpless.

 

[Jurien72]

I was driving an 87 359 Pete with 2 million on the clock- Im glad the guy didn't smoke me!

That reminds me of zipping through traffic in my Fiero with a fighter pilot in a Porsche about 6 inches off my bumper. I got snagged up and thought he would just blow by me- but he flashed his lights and waved me over, so then it was on! I always wondered if he was from the 334th - he was a damn good driver!