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I don't understand the powerstrip hackjob on that truck, a cheap inverter is like what $30? A good one is maybe $100. That...that doesn't make any sense....
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May 28, 2014 13:46
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iwentdoodie posted:He'll be on A&E in a year. Galler posted:Welp, DrPain, better get good at slamming doors, throwing tools, yelling at your father-in-law in an overly dramatic fashion, and scamming the ever living gently caress out of customers. I find reality TV to be insufferable, and fake as hell. It pisses me off that "Horny Mike" the gimmicky painter bro from that god awful "Kounting Kars" show now has a line of branded merchandise and his own following of fans.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQEVgbMqq7o Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money is made! DrP GARAGE, THE FLAMETHROWER!!!  c355n4 posted:Did newguy shape up after the talk? He did indeed. I cautioned him that although I'm not a micro-manager, do not mistake the autonomy I grant you as apathy on my part, because I am watching. I'll allow mistakes to happen and not jump in the middle of your poo poo immediately on purpose to see how you handle yourself, because I believe in self reliance. We hold ourselves accountable here, and it starts with me. cursedshitbox posted:I may not speak for him, but I enjoyed the arguments. It depends on the day, but I enjoy trading barbs with the old man most of the time. I like to keep him on his toes. BigHouseOfBooty posted:You know those gigantic new toyota minivans that take cartridge filters and special 0w20 oil (or similar)? how much do you charge for an oil change on one of those? I do not know, year/make/model and I will find out though. We run 5/30 in most of our vehicles unless otherwise specified by the vehicle or customer request. BrokenKnucklez posted:What's some of the rarer cars you have had in the shop? (astons, rolls, etc) Our insurance broker has a Lamborghini, but we've never worked on it. I'll ask the old men. aventari posted:Sup mang, I live like 20 mins away in Escondido.! if you're ever around again, we could go for a drive, you could try out the NSX or something. Holy poo poo petcock hell yeah I wanna drive your NSX!! I'll pm you the next time I'm planning a trip out to your neck of the woods.    Huggable Bear King posted:I don't understand the powerstrip hackjob on that truck, a cheap inverter is like what $30? A good one is maybe $100. That...that doesn't make any sense.... I'd say you understand it just fine. Juuuust fine. 
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May 28, 2014 17:37
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aventari posted:Sup mang, I live like 20 mins away in Escondido.! if you're ever around again, we could go for a drive, you could try out the NSX or something. I'm in Pacific Beach and will drive your NSX for you any time you need. You can roll my jeep or something.
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May 28, 2014 17:46
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Petcock. My junkman's "nice" truck is a '93 Chevy C1500 4.3L V6. He's been meaning to retire the old C10 for some time, but never seems to. He had a chance to buy a low mileage '88 K2500 with a 350 V8, which would have been perfect for his jobs, but he declined and my father-in-law bought it instead because it was such a hot deal. Mark is just and old Chevy boy like that, his fleet now consists of the '98 Suburban K2500 454 4x4, the '99 Tahoe 350 2x4, and now that '88 K2500 (Silverado? Were they calling them that in the 80s?) pickup. Now junkman has this piece of crap V6 half ton that he overloads with scrap iron, because in his mind that will somehow get better fuel economy than a 3/4 ton pickup with power to move it.   It's also in for, you guessed it, A/C work. This one has a dead compressor. When the compressor clutch engages it hammers and rattles terribly. I've got the approval to flush the system, remove and replace the compressor along with the drier and orifice tube, and finally evacuate and recharge it full of refrigerant. '93 was the first year of R-134A, but there must have been a model year split. This '93 has it's A/C service ports retrofitted with R-134A fittings, it was originally designed to run R-12. This job is scheduled for early Friday morning of this week.  I took the time to even his tire pressures out, naturally.   This '97 Lexus ES300 came in for an oil change, tire rotation, and complaints of a clunky shifting.  The tires are wearing unevenly because the left rear strut is bent. You can see here there is almost no space between the sidewall of the left rear tire and the strut.  Pictured here is the right rear tire/strut, for comparison. We performed the oil change, played with our new tire gauge, and wrote an estimate to remove and replace both rear struts.  It's got a few dings from kissing the curb on the front tires, I'm also going to recommend a string line alignment with the struts. The shifting complaint was not internal to the transmission, rather it's got a bad transmission mount. We included that price in our quote with the rear struts. ...and that's my Wenesday. We're painfully slow and it sucks. I was expecting a big push for the holiday weekend like we did last year around this time. I need the summer heat to hit 110 and radiators to start popping, like a week ago. The GMC and Forrester from yesterday got billed out, but other than that we've been deathly slow. I've called around to a few buddy shops in my area and they are slow, too. Even the parts drivers I'm friendly with say the parts stores are slow, so it's not just my shop. That's a moral victory, I guess, but it doesn't pay the bills.   
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May 28, 2014 23:10
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DrPain posted:
Yep. Worked in a small computer shop. Same thing. When it rains, it pours. When its dry, everyone suffers. Hope things turn around man! Lovin this thread too much 
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May 29, 2014 00:45
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Siochain posted:Yep. Worked in a small computer shop. Same thing. When it rains, it pours. When its dry, everyone suffers. Hope things turn around man! Lovin this thread too much It will. It's just a matter of floating on some credit till it does. Cars do funny things in extreme heat, and we get some spectacular failures. Last summer we had to replace a section of fuel line that popped on some old piss cutter when the fuel started boiling inside it.  A 2007 Dodge Ram 1500 came in with an inoperable A/C complaint. While Mark was showing Newguy the basics of testing & inspecting an A/C system (push schrader valve to see if system is empty, check return line to see if it's cold, check to see fans are running, etc...) I got out my new toy.  Thank God I did! This particular customer decided to inflate their tires to the max PSI reading on the tire, not what the door jam tire sticker indicates. Even though their complaint had nothing to do with tire pressures, this is a very easy service to perform on every vehicle and saves the customer a lot of hassle down the road. I do the same thing with oil/all fluid levels and condition, regardless of complaint.  Anyway, the problem was found rather quickly, the condenser fan motor had given up the ghost. You can see in this picture here the condenser on this particular truck sits off to the side of the radiator and removing it is a fairly simple procedure. The condenser fan is installed as an assembly with the condenser, so removing it first requires recovering refrigerant (awesome accidental alliteration, alright) out of the system.  Here you can see the condenser removed from the old fan assembly, the old fan in the middle, and the new fan assembly at the top of the work bench.  Although it is possible to replace only the motor in a condenser fan, it's faster and more profitable to replace the whole assembly.  The condenser mounts right into the new fan shroud, easy peasy.  And then bolts right back in place where the OE part once sat.  Once the wiring to the fan is reconnected, it's just a matter of charging the A/C system with the customer's refrigerant that we recovered earlier, and testing the vent temperature. Here you can see the vents are blowing a nice and cool 50F.  A very well kept 94 Mustang GT rolled through for a smog check.  It's an OBD1 system, but has the OBD2 port. It's so well kept, in fact, that Mark didn't notice it was a 94, and attempted to OBD2 smog check it. OBD2 smog started in '96, and this vehicle therefore passes smog via tailpipe gas analysis. I'll be giving him poo poo about this one for a while. He even had written the VIN down on a timesheet, neglecting to note the 10th digit indicating a '94 model year. This is almost as good as that time he smog checked a trailer by mistake.  No matter, just hook up the tach lead and two gas probes (one for each exhaust pipe) and see what the machine reads.  Bingo! It'll pass with flying colors, no adjustments needed.  This 2009 GMC Sierra 2500 Duramax/Allison belongs to another retired cop. They tow a 5th wheel travel trailer or a toy hauler depending on the weekend, and had some problems with the trans overheating coming downhill last weekend.   So they went out and bought a deeper transmission pan with additional cooling fins, and have asked us to install it after a transmission service and oil change today.  The stock pan will be returned to the customer and saved for spare parts.  They're also a Mason, we've got a few of them in our flock, all very nice reasonable people. I enjoy working for Masons. DrPain fucked around with this message at 01:41 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 20:39
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YOU LET YOUR GUYS WEAR SHORTS!!!? gently caress I'm jealous.
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May 29, 2014 20:40
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Preoptopus posted:YOU LET YOUR GUYS WEAR SHORTS!!!? Did you miss the part where we hit 120F in August?
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May 29, 2014 20:44
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DrPain posted:Did you miss the part where we hit 120F in August? drat! For us its more the humidity that kills you. Weve begged for shorts but apparently they are "not professional"
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May 29, 2014 20:47
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Preoptopus posted:drat! For us its more the humidity that kills you. Weve begged for shorts but apparently they are "not professional"
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May 29, 2014 20:57
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Preoptopus posted:drat! For us its more the humidity that kills you. Weve begged for shorts but apparently they are "not professional" Some places say insurance too and or osha poo poo. gently caress. them. flash swampass and pressure cooked balls while fighting a shitbox is no fun whatsoever.
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May 29, 2014 21:02
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I love this thread. One day having all this documentation and these pictures is going to save you a ton of hassle when a customer gives you poo poo for some routine job and you just happen to have the whole thing documented from start to finish because people like my lazy rear end love learning the most mundane things via osmosis.
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May 29, 2014 21:07
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DrPain posted:
Did you zero the zero zero or zero the zero zero zero?
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May 29, 2014 21:40
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Alighieri posted:Did you zero the zero zero or zero the zero zero zero? It zeroes itself, usually at the worst possible time when you've got the engine adjusted perfectly to pass smog.
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May 29, 2014 21:43
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In general how much income do techs bring in from doing smog inspections and related work? Ether flat rate, Commission or otherwise. Interested in the gravy Im missing out on. edit: My state does not require them.
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May 29, 2014 21:58
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Preoptopus posted:In general how much income do techs bring in from doing smog inspections and related work? Ether flat rate, Commission or otherwise. DMV sets the maximum fee for an emissions inspection at $42.00 for light duty vehicles. To perform inspections we must purchase "books" of "VIRs" (Vehicle Inspection Reports) to load into the smog machine. They call them "books" but they are just a digitized certificate these days, bought over the internet via a specialized DMV web portal, and loaded into the smog machine instantly. Each VIR costs me $6 from DMV, and books are sold 25 VIRs at a time. The market rate for a smog in town is about $20 to the customer, including the $6 VIR, so my profit on a no-adjustment smog is $14, which I split with the tech who does the inspection, so my guys make $7 per smog check. That's peanuts, of course, and the real money is in failed smog repair and adjustments. We charge a half hour to adjust '95 and older cars to pass smog, and on '96 and newer, failed smog repair can spiral into some serious money depending on the parts and labor it needs in order to pass. That's when it really pays to be a G2 Certified Smog Test & Repair Facility, as once a vehicle is reported to DMV as failing a VIR, ONLY a G2 Certified Smog Test & Repair Facility may perform the repair and pass the vehicle. DrPain fucked around with this message at 22:20 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 22:15
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How much do those finned pans actually help? They always seemed a little snake-oily to me, just gut feeling based since the cooler has actual flow through it and a fan blowing on it instead of relying on fluid swirling around the pan and airflow from driving, but I could easily be wrong. We used to see the "fill tires to the max on the sidewall" thing once in a while. It's great if you want to preserve your tread depth at the shoulders and risk a blowout, but not for much of anything else 
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May 29, 2014 23:39
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kastein posted:How much do those finned pans actually help? They always seemed a little snake-oily to me, just gut feeling based since the cooler has actual flow through it and a fan blowing on it instead of relying on fluid swirling around the pan and airflow from driving, but I could easily be wrong. Yeah I'm not sure if the cooling fins on the pan have any real benefit, but it is deeper, and holds a greater amount of fluid, so I could believe that would provide some benefit. Cooling fins sure do look cool though, and now his trans pan matches his differential cover
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May 29, 2014 23:56
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Yeah, the added fluid capacity certainly helps, especially with handling hills. More heat capacity in the fluid = longer time (or more work done in the same amount of time) before the temp rises as much. I can believe the diff covers help since they add a significant amount of surface area to the diff and the fluid in a diff really gets moving when the ring gear spins.
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May 30, 2014 00:10
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DrPain posted:Although it is possible to replace only the motor in a condenser fan, it's faster and more profitable to replace the whole assembly. Serious question. When you say faster, does that mean you save on time and that helps reduce labor costs for the customer, or does it mean the customer pays more for a part that you make more money off of and also you bill for the same amount of time making it more profitable? I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm just curious how that works.
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May 30, 2014 00:26
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BoostCreep posted:Serious question. When you say faster, does that mean you save on time and that helps reduce labor costs for the customer, or does it mean the customer pays more for a part that you make more money off of and also you bill for the same amount of time making it more profitable? A fan motor is $60 less than the fan assembly, but would add more than that in labor to replace, so it benefits both the customer's wallet and our workflow (time is money, but kind of a moot point when we're slow) to install the assembly. It also makes any warranty situation very easy. VVV Fucknag put it much more eloquently VVV DrPain fucked around with this message at 00:56 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 00:49
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BoostCreep posted:Serious question. When you say faster, does that mean you save on time and that helps reduce labor costs for the customer, or does it mean the customer pays more for a part that you make more money off of and also you bill for the same amount of time making it more profitable? Either way they (the customer) are paying to remove a broken condenser fan, and install a functioning one. So that's a fixed labor cost. What you have to look at is the higher part cost of buying a whole new fan assembly, vs buying a cheaper single component but dealing with the increased time to replace it on the assembly (which the shop does usually bill increased labor time for). Doing it yourself it can be a good decision to replace just ie the fan motor, since unless it's your daily driver and it needs to be fixed now, taking a bit longer to replace a cheaper part isn't all that detrimental. With shops it's a different story. It saves labor cost to the customer, yes, but that's made up for by the higher part cost, so it's effectively neutral from their point of view. The reason the shop wants to do it that way is because that 30 minutes spent swapping a new motor into the fan before reinstalling (as opposed to having a new one on hand to install without delay) is a half hour not spent getting another car out the door and their money in the register. One car doesn't make much difference, but make the time-intensive decision on 10 or more cars a day and it starts adding up, to the point where A) you're turning customers away because you just can't get them in the shop today, and B) customers get upset that their car is taking so long to fix (their time is valuable, too, after all) and won't come back next time. Both of those eat into profits, now and in the future. Given all that, it almost always makes sense to get a new assembly in a shop setting, even if it would be vastly more expensive on a personal project.
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May 30, 2014 00:52
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DrPain posted:A fan motor is $60 less than the fan assembly, but would add more than that in labor to replace, so it benefits both the customer's wallet and our workflow (time is money, but kind of a moot point when we're slow) to install the assembly. It also makes any warranty situation very easy. Fucknag posted:Either way they (the customer) are paying to remove a broken condenser fan, and install a functioning one. So that's a fixed labor cost. Excellent answers, thank you. That's what I figured, I was just curious. I've spent such little time in a shop like this that I literally have very little knowledge of how they work. I just assume I'm getting ripped off at each turn, but it's very refreshing knowing that there are honest shops out there.
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May 30, 2014 01:03
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BoostCreep posted:Excellent answers, thank you. That's what I figured, I was just curious. I'd be incredibly loyal to a shop like yours, DrPain, but every single experience I've had out here has been the opposite.
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May 30, 2014 01:13
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Move to Las Vegas!
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May 30, 2014 01:35
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I love these 94-95 Mustang GT's. My neighbor had a brand new one when I was a kid that looked exactly like this. It was a 5-speed and he let 10 year old me sit in the drivers seat so I could pretend I was driving (and hot poo poo). The fantastically 90's wheels are awesome.
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May 30, 2014 02:07
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Krakkles posted:The only thing that bugs me is I can't find one in my (our) area. I found a shop in Silverlake that had a good reputation on Yelp. They charged me $230 all in to diagnose a non-start issue on my old 06 Grand Cherokee Hemi and then replacing the starter with a new unit, all in about 5 hours. I thought that was pretty decent considering their lot was PACKED with customer cars and the cheapest I could find a starter at the time was around $120.
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May 30, 2014 02:19
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kastein posted:We used to see the "fill tires to the max on the sidewall" thing once in a while. It's great if you want to preserve your tread depth at the shoulders and risk a blowout, but not for much of anything else That's been a bugaboo for me, with a 1966 car sold new with inner tubes & bias plies...factory tire pressures are something like 28psi front 25 rear. I'm running radials, tubeless of course, rated to 44psi. No idea where I should set them; I have 'em at 35 at the moment. VV I would love to say that I learned that when I was a kid, and forgot. That's so simple, it's brilliant. VV PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 03:49 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 02:58
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PainterofCrap posted:That's been a bugaboo for me, with a 1966 car sold new with inner tubes & bias plies...factory tire pressures are something like 28psi front 25 rear. I'm running radials, tubeless of course, rated to 44psi. No idea where I should set them; I have 'em at 35 at the moment. Find a nice clean parking lot. You put a chalk line across the fronts and rears. Drive a bit, look at what is missing. If it's just the outsides you need more air. If it's just the middle you need less. Repeat until you find the right front/rear pressures.
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May 30, 2014 03:10
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DrPain posted:
2011+ Toyota sienna minivans. The cartridge filter comes with two o-rings and a plastic drain spout.
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May 30, 2014 03:14
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DrPain posted:as once a vehicle is reported to DMV as failing a VIR, ONLY a G2 Certified Smog Test & Repair Facility may perform the repair and pass the vehicle. I keep thinking there is no way this can be true, and the DMV seems to agree with me: DMVNV.com posted:Repairs can be made by the owner or any facility the owner chooses. However, vehicles in Clark County must be repaired by a 2G Licensed Authorized Station to be eligible for a waiver. See our Online Business License Verification for a list of 2G stations in your area. So it seems you only need to use a G2 facility if you want to be able to have failed repair attempts qualify you for a waiver. Am I missing something? \/\/\/ I understand that, hence the sentence before the one you quoted. But DrPain seems to be suggesting that once a car fails nobody but a G2 facility is allowed to touch it, which doesn't seem to be the case. SlapActionJackson fucked around with this message at 04:03 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 03:57
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SlapActionJackson posted:Am I missing something? Yes, money. You don't bother with a non G2 facility if you want your repair money to count toward the maximum spend of the waiver (assuming this is the same as in my state). Because once you hit that amount, you get the waiver whether it's fixed or not.
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May 30, 2014 04:00
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SlapActionJackson posted:I keep thinking there is no way this can be true, and the DMV seems to agree with me: Owners of vehicles which fail smog can try to fix it themselves, but they usually gently caress it all up. A smog waiver starts at $450, not counting emission testing fees, or catalytic converters. If you spend $450 at my shop in parts + labor for the purpose of failed smog repair and still fail, you become eligible for a 1 year waiver, pending a physical inspection of the vehicle by DMV smog lab to confirm the work on our invoice was indeed performed. It is then at the discretion DMV weather you are granted the waiver or not. I had a customer come in with two cracked exhaust manifolds on some manner of van, and to replace them both came to well over $1k. He elected instead to do one exhaust manifold for $500-ish bucks and try to get a waiver. DMV denied his waiver, because duh, idiot, you have two broken manifolds go get them fixed. Waivers generally apply to mystery diagnosis type cars which ought to run right after spending the required $450, but still do not for an as yet un-diagnosed reason. The Hispanic shop next door will not touch a failed smog for fear of DMV heat coming down upon them. The majority of shops not in the smog program operate this way, because although the letter of the law states any shop may perform the repair, DMV's enforcement of it is open to their own interpretation. They consider shops who perform smog repairs but are not part of their smog program to be skirting the legal edges of the law and try to gently caress them in other ways for it. So when I say ONLY a G2 Certified Smog Test & Repair Facility may perform the repair and pass the vehicle, what I guess I am getting at is only a G2 shop ought to perform the repair. It's gay as hell, and I'll be the first one to tell you how incredibly overzealous-ly ridiculous NV DMV is. DrPain fucked around with this message at 06:00 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 04:52
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To add to Dr.pains gay rear end smogger post. you can NOT legally swap engines here. gas to diesel, or diesel to gas, or even going form a v6 to a v8. not. loving. allowed. oh. 1968 and newer and it has 4 or more wheels? It has to smog. your 1970 mercedes 220D? yep. your 69 camaro? yep.
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May 30, 2014 05:01
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Krakkles posted:The only thing that bugs me is I can't find one in my (our) area. Seems you're in LA. Eurasian Automotive in Pasadena, very solid shop. Not really cheap, but Ara knows what he's doing, has yet to get a diagnosis wrong, and is all around great. I still take my Z4 to him even though I moved to dtla.
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May 30, 2014 05:12
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Krakkles posted:The only thing that bugs me is I can't find one in my (our) area. My dad was a firefighter and seemed to have luck going to mechanics that did work on the fire engines. Idk if that's a common thing to do fire engine work and personal cars at the same shop but it was always cheap, honest and fast service. Try asking local LEO's or firefighters where they get their work done, maybe you'll stumble onto a good shop.
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May 30, 2014 07:13
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PainterofCrap posted:That's been a bugaboo for me, with a 1966 car sold new with inner tubes & bias plies...factory tire pressures are something like 28psi front 25 rear. I'm running radials, tubeless of course, rated to 44psi. No idea where I should set them; I have 'em at 35 at the moment. Sorry to derail but can you tell me about automobile tires with tubes? I take it that used to be a common thing? Are they a bitch to install?
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May 30, 2014 07:16
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cursedshitbox posted:To add to Dr.pains gay rear end smogger post. Thank god for living in fly over states!
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May 30, 2014 10:31
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DrPain posted:Owners of vehicles which fail smog can try to fix it themselves, but they usually gently caress it all up. A smog waiver starts at $450, not counting emission testing fees, or catalytic converters. If you spend $450 at my shop in parts + labor for the purpose of failed smog repair and still fail, you become eligible for a 1 year waiver, pending a physical inspection of the vehicle by DMV smog lab to confirm the work on our invoice was indeed performed. It is then at the discretion DMV weather you are granted the waiver or not. I had a customer come in with two cracked exhaust manifolds on some manner of van, and to replace them both came to well over $1k. He elected instead to do one exhaust manifold for $500-ish bucks and try to get a waiver. DMV denied his waiver, because duh, idiot, you have two broken manifolds go get them fixed. Waivers generally apply to mystery diagnosis type cars which ought to run right after spending the required $450, but still do not for an as yet un-diagnosed reason. If life has taught me anything it's that policies which make it unbelievably costly to own and run a motor vehicle are usually coupled with useless public transport. I'm going to guess public transport in your area is beyond hopeless, leaving people no choice but to spend a massive chunk of income keeping their jalopies legal?
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May 30, 2014 10:37
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Milquetoaste poo poo posted:Sorry to derail but can you tell me about automobile tires with tubes? I take it that used to be a common thing? Are they a bitch to install? Tires with inner tubes are still very common on bicycles and some motorcycles, but aren't used on cars anymore. The principle of operation is the same across all of them, though. If you run spoked wheels, you have to use an inner tube*. If you used a tubeless tire instead with no tube, the air would leak out where the spokes go into the rim. Compared to alloy wheels, spoked wheels are stronger and they tend to flex or bend rather than break outright. This is especially beneficial in off-road situations, which is why all motocross bikes and most "adventure" bikes run spoked wheels. You can run tubes inside tubeless motorcycle tires, it just adds a bit of weight. Another benefit is that if you get a puncture, you can just patch or replace the tube instead of the whole tire. I had a puncture a week ago on my motorcycle, and instead of having the whole (nearly new) tire replaced, I just had a new $25 tube installed. Of course, you can put plugs in tubeless tires, but it costs more and it's harder to do properly. Running tubes does add a little bit of labor to the tire mounting process, since you have to fit the tube inside the tire while the tire is halfway on, and you have to make sure you don't pinch or twist it. On the other hand, you don't have to worry about having enough air capacity in your air supply to seat the bead. On a tubeless tire, the air can escape before the bead is seated, with the tube even a bicycle hand pump is sufficient (if you've got the patience and arm muscles). Of course, there are drawbacks to using tubes. In case of a puncture they tend to lose air faster than tubeless tires. They add unsprung weight. They can make it harder to balance the wheel correctly, since they aren't marked indicating their heaviest spot like tires are, so you may have to use more weight to compensate. They're also more expensive than pressed steel wheels and require manual labor to build and to periodically tighten the spokes. So because steel wheels (and later alloy wheels) are both cheaper, easier to manufacture, don't require any servicing and allow you to run tubeless tires, thus saving money on the tube and installation labor, tubed tires became obsolete on cars for 99,999% of the driving population. * Unless you have fancy tubeless-compatible spoked wheels like some BMW motorcycles. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 11:30 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 11:23
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