Hands On

I once bought a paint gun to paint a hood on a jeep I was restoring. I found it fun, and it looked amazing when I was done. But I also value my time, so I pay the $350 to let the body guy next to me do it.

A wise man once told me if you can not make your money Monday thru Friday, you are doing something wrong. I found the people that would "show up" on a Saturday were usually people that could not afford to have their car well maintained. I do take calls after hours and on weekends. If someone calls and they push 2 to leave a message, that goes right to my cell phone. If they push 1 and get my voicemail, I get an email that I can choose to respond to , or not.

What an amazingly beautiful shop you have. I wish I could put something together like that. Maybe in 5 years after I finish off some more debt, maybe. I am nervous to make another leap like I did when I first started out. Great work.

I am slowly getting used to the changes, but what they had before worked great, and to log into a complete re design that makes things harder to read was very frustrating to say the least. I ended up checking out demos of ShopBoss and AutoLeap, as well as identifix. I want to say Autoleap was the closest, but they all lack one or two functions that seem to make tekmetric the leader. I did not check protractor, but I only need 3 computers, so if they have a tiered pay schedule and it hits all the marks it might be worth checking out.

Tekmetric re-designed the appearance and I can not stand it. I refuse to pay $399 a month for software that gives me a headache to look at. Anyone have a good alternative to tekmetric with all the same functionality that either has a tiered pricing schedule that makes sense for smaller shops, or is less then $399 a month, or looks like tekmetric used to and costs about the same? The only integrations I use from tekmetric are parts ordering and the built in labor catalog, I do not use any of the marketing features so those are not important to me.

Am I the only one in the forum preparing my shop for EV services? Maybe I will not have much competition?

M-F.

I bought a Nissan Leaf. I love my little EV and do not miss the stops at the gas station. I am anxious to see what my first vehicle repair expense will be. 6 months in now, I have had to add washer fluid. I installed a charger at my shop, so I drive to work and plug in. I can show up at 5% battery left and leave at 100% by the end of the day no problem. I let me service writer use it to drop off customers and run errands. I am saving over $600 a month in fuel, more then enough to cover the 3 year note on the car. It is faster then most ICE on the road, I love to floor it at every light. If the battery hits 50% capacity in 10 years I will still make my daily commute with out an issue. With the ~140 mile range, I have been able to leave the shop, run errands into the mountains, across towns, head home, and still have battery enough to make it back to work. Stage 1 chargers are the 110 volt plug in, takes 12 to 16 hours to take my car from 5% to 100% <-- I have this at home for emergencies. Stage 2 chargers, the 220 volt consumer grade. Takes maybe 5-6 hours to go from 5% to 100% <------- This is what I had installed at the shop, you can also find a few free ones in my area. There are free ones at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. Stage 3 Super Chargers. These are the big boys that can charge you from 5% to 85% in 15 minutes. Charging past 85% on a super charger is not advised, and that last 15% can take longer then the first 80% These are what you use for road trips/ long day trips. They cost money, and sometimes have a wait time. I think the most important thing is going to be technicians that are good with electronics. I imagine a good chunk of the repairs on these vehicles will have to do with the electronics. I bought my leaf so we can play with it and learn what we might make money on. I have not put it up yet, but I want to see what fluids it may use, see what brake service looks like, ect. I figured best way to find the money in an EV is to own one for shop education purposes. Now I want another. The only thing I think EV is not ready for yet is Towing. Someone mentioned EV vs ICE and carbon footprint. There are some studies out there that look at how long you have to drive the EV before you reach parity on carbon footprint to an ICE. Opinions vary between as little as 8k miles, to as much as 93k miles. Some of how long the parity takes is based on how your electricity is generated. My power at home comes from a hydro plant, so if I charge at home, I reach carbon parity very fast. I think my shop is fed from natural gas power, so that will take longer. The real benefit shows once you reach and drive past that parity. Once the initial production carbon footprint is offset by the zero emissions of the car itself, your now lowering the over all carbon footprint of the vehicle over the lifespan of the vehicle. Solid state batteries are on the way which will help increase capacity and lower production carbon footprint. BMW sources components for their EV in a more humane way. For example, they use a brushed motor, instead of brush-less, which lowers the amount of (I think cobalt) that they need. Regarding the original topic. I think, assuming your client list converts to EV at any significant rate, you will need 3 EV customers to replace one ICE customer. Just a rough guess, but I am assuming that EV will require about 33% of the work of an ICE.

My lead tech took the 4 day work week option. My other two guys did not want it.

Since no one answered your question, I will give it ago, how about you take his pay for the three weeks prior to his vacation, use that to generate a daily average pay at that time, then pay him that daily average for his days off.

I paid the dealer around the corner from me $550 to fill a 2017 pilot. I was going to put myself at $499 for the service for now, and continue to monitor the market.

https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B00EVPN3AO/ref=acr_dp_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=one_star&reviewerType=all_reviews#reviews-filter-bar I don't know if it has been fixed. If anyone has any real world experience with a R1234yf machine please let me know, thanks.

My R134A is robinaire. I found complaints online that robinaire can not get replacement parts for their 1234 machines.

I am reviving this thread. I had my first R1234 car in, we replaced an engine. I paid the dealer $550 to recharge it for me. that is 10% of a machine cost. I am considering pulling the trigger. I was hoping to find some reviews on machines. 10lb bottle is under $600

I am looking for a building to lease I north west Colorado. My reviews are excellent. Hands On Auto Tech 80504

Customer: But my cousin says he can do it in 4 hours Me: Why are you wasting the good oxygen in my office.

He folks, hope everyone is doing well. I run a quality focused shop. I am coming due on a new 55 gallon drum of washer fluid. I have two choices, Rain X or Krystal Clear. Can anyone tell me if they saw a good reason to go with the Rain X over the Krystal Clear. I do not want to buy a name brand if there is not a clear improvement over the generic.

What starting pay got you the bites? How much did you spend for the radio spot?

I was wrong, green is parking lamp/license plate bulb. If you go back to 2017 identifix has diagrams.

I need to make this a regular thing for myself. We do a "pre 1971" about 6 to 12 times a year. I have a 1960 Nash metropolitan in my shop, I set at I think at 229 an hour. Customer balked at first, but Noone else wants to work on it. He begrudgingly approved the work, then told me his wife is making him sell it now. The 1966 mustang that was in at the same time had no issue at all with his bill, he was prepared financially for his hobby. I just bumped to 144.95 at the end of the year. I think I will go for the $149.95 on Monday. It 8s way easier to find customers then employees. If I can get up to $175 an hour I will put out an add offering $55 an hour for technicians. Maybe I will find one.

I always add at least an extra day to big jobs, often bill at a higher rate. I also include options, for example used engine, I will have an extra optional job called re seal. 6 hours to re do all gaskets on the used engine. This way the client understands if he declines that job, we are not going to cover his oil leak 6 months from now. If they walk because the price is too high I am pleased as punch. If they decide to move forward I am still profitable that week.

I started with tekmetric late last year. I never had a customer say "I really like your RO system" until I started with tekmetric. Now I hear those words a couple times a week. I never thought my RO system could end up being a customer retention tool, without actually being a customer retention tool.

I do not even bother with the insurance companies estimates. I tell the insurance company "this is what it costs to fix, if you do not want to pay it, call your client and explain that to them". I get my money. I also do not bother with the insurance companies electronic systems. I use tekmetric. I send a link to the adjusters e mail. I make sure to tell them there is $35 storage fee per day while waiting for them to figure out my system to authorize the repairs. When they try to tell me they do not pay storage for vehicles being repaired, I remind them they need to explain to their client why the bill is not covered. I do not work for the insurance company.

I think one thing should be mentioned in this thread for anyone still considering. The first step for me would be to make sure the town/municipality would allow it. Just because someone built a paint booth once, does not mean it is legal.

Are you trying to reply to a topic? You started a new thread, and it looks like you are talking to yourself, or in the middle of a conversation...