Just to give you guys an idea of what goes on around here, here's a few cars I recently finished up.
The yellow TT we got from MI without a tranny, clutch, a tire, radio, and desparately needed a paint job. The car looked like it spent a lot of time in a barn or something as it was very muddy and had a few creatures living in it. We had a rebuilt 6-speed in the shop already to go so I spent a day hunting down every single bolt needed to install it and put it in. The next day, I pulled all the body pannels off and preped it for the paint booth next door. We got it back a couple days later and reassembled it. Em & Hans cleaned the interior and installed a radio while Dave detailed the tims pieces while I got to work on another car. She sits with 74K on the chassy and runs and drives like it.
I wish I had the $$ for that car.
The white first gen Stealth right next to it is a customers car. It came in and needed a new pass. axle and throw out bearing. 8 hours later, I had those put in and he picked up his car earlier tonight.
The white VR4 next to it is Audible Silence's car which he got without a motor in it. Hans built the motor and I installed it. The car kinda lives at the shop as Mike doesn't have a garage and he periodically calls me and tells me he has more mods to put on it. Latest mods were new struts and intrax springs. I think he will be having me install 15G's soon on that car.
The pink car (Porche Rose is the name of the color) came in with a slue of issues. Clutch slipped, tranny grinded, leaked coolant & washer fluid, ABS and Aero lights were on, and had low oil pressure. Took me some time, but I pulled the tranny and gave it to Hans to rebuild, while I took care of the 120K stuff and other issues. b.t.w. This car used to be green too.
There's a couple other cars not pictured. I installed a new transmission into a black 1G VR4 for the guy in the shop next door. He purchased the car with a bad tranny (which had a huge hole in the bellhousing) and I had that together and driving for him in a day. The car has a couple other little issues which I think he will have me fix in the near future.
Em has a beutyful white 94 VR4 which also came in with no exhaust, tranny, driveshaft, rear end, or t-case and the interior was a wreck. I had a tranny in that car in a day and the exhaust and interior swap took another 1/2 day.
Currently, I'm finishing up a very nice black 95 Eclipse GST which got a used motor and a restoring a red 91 Stealth TT (the car is a heep). When it's finished it will have a 2G rear (the bumper from my car), 4-bolt motor, hybrid ecu swap, 6-speed swap, and ATR downpipe with an HKS catback. Once again, I'm spending most of my time hunting for missing parts/bolts. Got this car running yesterday. Tomorrow I need to tackle the starter issue and begin cleaning the body/interior. This car was a major puzzle but I look forward to giving it a test drive first thing tomorrow.
These aren't even 1/2 the cars I've worked on since I got here. Many of the cars that come in, leave the same day, or I get them done the day I get all the parts to fix them. Business is doing good so far and Hans tells me this time of year is usually the slowest!
We might hire another mechanic for the summer if things really explode, but I'm doing a good job of keeping up so far though.
So far, I love my new job.
Every day is a challenge. Some days are tougher than others, but with Hans' help, we get things figured out. Sure beats working out of my garage.
NO WONDER!