Doing it in the army for 6 years and with some sort of ford fleet for the past 5 years (dealership and private fleets) I've learned 2 things...
1st, your own shop would be bad ass just as long as you can control the clientele coming through the door as much as you can and have people you trust working with you.
2nd, It is a hard but rewarding life at times, but if I had my way I would be taking my time just rebuilding engines from the block up and selling them from there.
ArthurDent wrote: I like my automotive stuff being a hobby/interest. I pick it up and do as much as I feel like. No deadlines. Not sure if it was also my job if I'd have the same passion still.
This. I flirted with the mechanic idea in the middle of college. A few 3AM panic wrenching sessions to get my buddies' track cars unbroken made me realize it's a hobby for me, not a vocation
N Sperlo wrote: My father talked me out of being a mechanic. I'm very happy he did so. Unfortunately his good career advice pretty much ends there.
Ditto!
My dad was a mechanic, and it's all I ever wanted to do. He tried hard to talk me out of it, but I managed to get a job as an automotive apprentice in a corner garage. I then realized how much fun it was working on my own cars, and how much I hated working on other people's junk. I left that and got a job in a factory, worked my way into the maintenance department and got my millwright license. Now I make more than the engineers, and get to work on cool stuff that's not other people's junky daily driver.
I have two friends, and a relative who each own their own performance/custom automotive shops, and they all have more work than they can handle.
In 1961 my high school guidance counselor recommended that I go to a little business school in Pittsburgh and study a new curriculum they were just starting. My parents went ballistic, I was going to go to a 4 year college/university and study something that would get me a "real" job.
So I went to college and became a teacher(same as most of my parents generation on both sides of the family). I still wonder what would have been if I had been allowed to follow that counselors advice.
That little business school is now Point Park University and the curriculum is something called Information Technology!!!
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