I thought I found a better shop for the Merc
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@415s30 You're lucky being both in CA and large population area, there will probably always be something. Even in Seattle it wouldn't be impossible - but taking the car on a 600+ mile round trip for maintenance would be tough to live with. There's also a local dealer, but I am fearful due to labor rates and the age of the car vs techs. I suspect modern MB dealers don't have many 50+ in the service ranks.
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@RallyWrench nice! Not sure if I can swing that budget wise, but if there’s a serious-ish opportunity we’ll look into making it work
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@AMGtech totally understood, that’s true in almost all jobs, unfortunately. It’s just very sad that we don’t have enough of a safety net to let many people develop skills they’re passionate about even if they don’t pay well at first.
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@save_the_milanos I'd love to present you with one, I'm currently working on starting my own operation to service old cars that I actually like, since local options are almost nil. Newer cars are my bread and butter now, and there's no joy in them.
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@RallyWrench Insurance is not fond of classic cars either, premiums are at least 50-70% more depending on what you do. On the autobody side most Insurance companies won't bother insuring a company that touches older cars regularly, too much liability. (This based on the fact I've been trying to secure Insurance for the past week it's not been straightforward. They are very specific about what gets worked on)
16 Miata, 84 f250 IDI, Locost
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@sony1492 I was thinking of switching my insurance for the Z to Haggerty but I can only do that car because it lives in an enclosed garage. They won't accept covered carports etc.. I have all my vehicles with State Farm and they seem to be the best I could find with older cars. My wife drives the Mercedes around here locally and we take it out to the beach etc.. for family outings, Sylvie doesn't mind that car, she hates the Z.
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@sony1492 interesting… I I’ve never had trouble with insuring my pre-1990 cars, years ago I just called geico and said “I bought an Alfa Romeo Milano, what’s it gonna cost to insure?” At the time I had no other car or insurance, ended up paying like $50-75 a month. Since then I just log in and add another whenever I buy one, to the tune of maybe an extra $100 per year per car. No questions asked about the status of the cars, where I keep them, if they run, etc. Just “is this car for business, commuting or personal use?” And “how many miles a year do you drive it?” (Most of my cars don’t even have working odometers. So I can answer anything I want, yet I still consistently over-estimate mileage)
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@save_the_milanos Yeah I have State Farm for my vehicles. I haven't had any issues, in fact my Z got a bump from someone and it bent a support piece in the back so I got to have insurance restore the back of the car, then I paid for the rest.
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@RallyWrench well when it starts to come together, let me know, I’ll be out in Nevada and California large parts of June July and august, and would happily make the trip to SLO to check it out.
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@sony1492 though sounds like you more mean commercial/shop insurance. None of the body shops I’ve known have ever mentioned working on old cars being more expensive, most seem to prefer it because it’s actually bodywork, not mostly sensor programming and the like.
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@RallyWrench This is the biggest problem I routinely encounter with owning my Thunderbird. I tried to find someone to install a radio for me not long ago and they wouldn't touch it. The most recent time it was at a shop was only because my family has been good customers there and they agreed to work on it only when they didn't have other projects... so it was months before they fixed one of the things on the list, at which point I was tired of waiting and took it back.
There's one other indie mechanic who's a bit of a car wizard type and has fixed my 'bird before, but he's a bit far away and often swamped because he's a good guy who doesn't charge a lot. There are the usual hot rod shops of course, but they want boomer money, and I don't have boomer money.
Pretty much most of what I've learned about car repair over the years has been out of necessity because nobody wants to work on 60s cars anymore
But even then, when I encounter something I don't know how to do, it's especially hard to find someone to teach me. -
@save_the_milanos Honestly you sound like the type to have a very successful independent shop working on pre-2000s cars. There's still a market for older car repairs, as there are plenty of old cars in need of repair that the owner just doesn't want to do or doesn't have the skills to do. If something like that was available in my area they'd get all kinds of business from me.
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@save_the_milanos I think the main fear people have with working on old cars is the "Pandora's Box" effect. Once you start digging into it you discover more and more things it needs, and the tab keeps growing, the car's stay keeps extending, and sometimes things break while you're working on them and the owner gets mad and wants you to fix what you broke.
Doesn't matter if I reassure shops that I know all of this and will understand if some little thing breaks, it just happens... And I'm just interested in fixing one thing at a time... some places just don't want to deal with classics as a rule.
The other challenge is parts availability. Even if the parts for a particular car are available, finding them is not as straightforward as it seems like it should be. Some places feel like it's not fair to take longer looking for parts for old cars, so they just don't work on old cars. Again, I understand it takes longer to find parts... I've had to find my own parts, I know what it's like...
The bottom line is, working on old cars is different. Not an entirely bad different per se, but different enough that when you're used to working on newer stuff, the old stuff is weird and intimidating. Like... you can't plug a scanner into a carburetor to check for fault codes! How do these work without computers, some kinda witchcraft? You gotta tune things by ear and feel, that's crazy...
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@awesomeaustinv sure, and I appreciate the confidence in my future success, but it’s the leap of trying to start that I’m nowhere near ready for. I ran my own business for a couple years and even though it went rather well all things considered, there’s a reason I don’t do it anymore! Plus I’ve got no actual experience in how a shop business runs, so at the very least I need to find a shop to learn from before starting myself, so far I’ve been unsuccessful in finding that place to get started.
Also, you’re totally right on all the concerns about working on an old car. I ci find it hard to believe there’s that many old/obscure car owners who don’t understand that things are expensive and take time compared to a Chevy with OBDII and dozens of stores stocked with parts all over town. I’ve found most specialty parts places are able to overnight things if needed though, so if a customer is mostly motivated by time, there are often answers. Even Jesse could “overnight parts from Japan” 20+ years ago, and it hasn’t gotten harder (assuming the parts still exist! There are plenty of cars I wouldn’t recommend owning without an extra parking space for a parts car or shelving unit for parts hoard)
Plus you need to accept that old things wear out, and sometimes aren’t worth fixing. Short of a museum or Jay Leno style collection, fixing every little thing is just not a realistic goal. Keeping the car running well with all the major functions intact is enough. One of the headlight wipers on your w124 isn’t wiping anymore? Maybe not worth fixing until you’re already working on something else in the area. But AC leaked all its r12 and the car is now a pain to drive in summer? Get that converted to r134 tomorrow, no questions asked!
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@save_the_milanos Yeah commercial. I doubt a shop would turn down work over insurance issues but if they know classics are what your working on the prices go up.
Imo classics are funner to work on but not easier, something like aligning a "new" door or bumper could mean adding shims to the body mounts, figuring out exactly where to place the shims or why xyz dosent line up is not always intuitive which means it can take time.(and panel alignment is ALWAYS an issue) With moderns cars the chassis is built to a higher standard and aligning a new panel is just a matter of bolting it down in the right spot and/or finessing the mounts a little (replacement parts often do not fit 1 to 1)
if the shops busy, taking on a few classics will just slow cycle times and tie up your better techs. I feel this is the main reason many shops don't want to bother with classics.
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@awesomeaustinv Seems like all the shops have multiple older cars here in the Bay Area. Petaluma is a hotbed of old car restoration and modification.
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@RallyWrench My uncle lives there, it seems like a pretty chill place, I can't move there because there is no work for me but I liked it.
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@Tripper that guy is my favorite character in Wall-E
