Do It Yourself Auto Repair Center

[dkroth]

I've seen people in various fourms ruminate on having access to a place like this. It's the first one I've ever seen (online).

Anyone in NoVa have any direct experience? $18/hr for a lift bay seems reasonable.

http://ditymechanics.com/index.html

 

[NJHandyGuy]

god i wish we had that in nj

 

[Red Green]

I wonder how big their insurance bill is? Seems like a cool Idea though.

 

[mrholeshot]

I thought about doing that at one point until I saw how much the insurance was. Staggering is an understatement. I'd love to open a shop like that. Sadly because of lawsuits I won't even consider loaning out my home lift to friends. I have people offer to rent it all the time. Can't risk it

 

[blue dog]

In the past i had a business plan that involved a large space with woodworking machinery and a separate space for metal working and fabrication. You would join and pay a membership fee, then a monthly fee with a year contract,and you had free use of the facility and all the machines from 7 am to 10 pm. Due to osha and liability insurance, it was not possible to have a profitable business. I wanted to have classes every night and sell consumables as well as rent space to store on going projects. In the end, rent on space, overhead of employees, power, insurance, cost of leasing or purchasing machines was just to much to make it profitable.

 

[Avender]

The guy working next to me said the same thing. He says once upon a time there was one in NJ and he also rented out his personal lifts. He stopped right quick when he knew someone who got sued bad doing the same thing.

 

[gc11090]

There is a place like that that just opened up here in NC. A fellow autocrosser just opened it a few months back.

http://www.fiygarage.com./

 

[sberry]

I had a bud that had one, really turned into a major PIA, long list of reasons but it isn't something I would personally want to do, deal with a lot of others problems, most of which they create for themselves.

 

[littlekillertoad]

I'm not in that area, but we've got something like that down here. If you work for the government, you can take your car out to Patrick Air Force base and work on it for something like $6/hr. They provide a garage/lift and tools.

 

[canuckian]

I used one of those back when I was a student. Their way around the insurance and risk was for everyone to sign a waiver form - the car owner and any helpers/friends they brought with them. There was also a disclaimer that covered any damage that would be done to the car (fall off lift, get dented driving in and out, etc). The only things they provided were a lift and a garage bay. you had to bring your own tools.

 

[wornoutoldman]

They had one of those kinda places 30 some years ago when I lived in Glen Ellyn, IL. It was like $6 an hour and a great place to do any job where you really needed a lift. It's a teriffic idea. I hope more places find a way to provide this valuable service.

 

[otis66]

I've seen people in various fourms ruminate on having access to a place like this. It's the first one I've ever seen (online).

Anyone in NoVa have any direct experience? $18/hr for a lift bay seems reasonable.

http://ditymechanics.com/index.html

I was thinking of doing this exact same thing. Wow.

 

[padronanniversary]

its going to be interesting seeing the cars fall off the lifts. I wonder if the shop has to lift and lower the lifts for them.

I can just imagine people spilling oil and waste all over the floors in places like this, as well as not getting cars fixed in the time frame they rented out, and not having cash to pay.

 

[mrholeshot]

I used one of those back when I was a student. Their way around the insurance and risk was for everyone to sign a waiver form - the car owner and any helpers/friends they brought with them. There was also a disclaimer that covered any damage that would be done to the car (fall off lift, get dented driving in and out, etc). The only things they provided were a lift and a garage bay. you had to bring your own tools.

In SC the waiver isn't worth the paper it's written on. You can be sued for so many differant reasons it's unreal, floor is to slick, improper instuction on equiptment use and any number of reasons you could make up. It's a great concept and would be nice but my lawyer told me that it would be very risky. The first time the company had to pay out a 1,000,000 claim you would have to shut down. The guy who ends up with his car hung up on a lift for a week is going to threaten you with a lawsuit. This is something I would absolutly love to do but it's just a magnet for lawsuits. I had such a problem keeping customers out of my shop that I had to keep chains up across my bay doors. Still a challange

 

[padronanniversary]

What is interesting though is places like costco you essentially waive your rights.

Had a coworker get injured in costco (not working at costco) but as a member and could not do squat about it. Legit injury too, but no lawyer would even touch the case due to membership. Makes you wonder how those big companies get away with it

 

[Grogan14]

There's one not far from me - http://www.udoitautoworks.com/ . I believe it's $30/hr for a bay with a lift, and $15/hr without.

I'll stick with the backyard, thanks.

 

[scott37300]

That's pretty neat. Pretty sad that you would have to worry about someone sueing you if they do something stupid. I could see some guys that don't know much about cars do something dumb. Wonder what kind of "training" they do for lift operation and even tool usage that they offer. I could see a ratchet giving way and someone slaming their hand and cutting it and instead of just accepting that is part of the game they sue. Or using something like a strut spring compressor wrong and causing serious problems. Sounds like it would be a babysitting job constantly.

 

[Homoudont]

If they had something around Baton Rouge I'd be all over that.

 

[nhmercracer]

There's one not far from me - http://www.udoitautoworks.com/ . I believe it's $30/hr for a bay with a lift, and $15/hr without.

I'll stick with the backyard, thanks.

That place was a muffler shop 20 years ago. I used to drive by it all the time when I worked in Nashua.

 

[griff99]

I work on an Air Force base and they have a "Hobby Shop" that is staffed by some mechanics where you can rent a lift by the hour. You need to provide your own tools and anything that requires shop equipment, including raising and lowering the car, requires one of the mechanics to do it, but it is extremely reasonable, actually they are ridiculously cheap... here is the link...

http://www.hanscomservices.com/AutoSkillsCenter.asp

 

[griff99]

There's one not far from me - http://www.udoitautoworks.com/ . I believe it's $30/hr for a bay with a lift, and $15/hr without.

I'll stick with the backyard, thanks.

I had no idea something like that was this close, but since I can do this same thing so much cheaper at Hanscom I probably would opt for that if/when I needed a lift. But definitely good to know. Thanks for the link.

 

[dankicksass]

A car club I belong to used to have a warehouse rented out with a couple lifts where any member could come down and work, use storage, or pump in the gym in back. It was a heck of a setup for a small club with low fees, but it was subsidized by a magazine sponsor and yada yada yada. It wasn't open to the public but we had an open meet once a month and a cars-and-coffee thing too. Long story short we had to give it up. The magazine folded and our funds weren't going to cover it, especially the insurance premium. We got rid of the lifts, paint booth and other equipment pretty quickly to minimize the payment, locked the door a few months later. Very expensive stuff, that insurance.

 

[vssjim]

They do have full time mechanics that work there to help people and oversee the things like lifting cars. I have never been to the place but they advertise at a race track we run at every month as we are a touring group. They also are a sponsor of a radio show put on by some friends of ours and they told me it it kind of do it yourself with supervision so you can get but so far off.

 

[tulenutn2o]

I thought about doing that at one point until I saw how much the insurance was. Staggering is an understatement. I'd love to open a shop like that. Sadly because of lawsuits I won't even consider loaning out my home lift to friends. I have people offer to rent it all the time. Can't risk it

you worry about friends and lawsuits? Some friends.

 

[volvo420coupe]

I remember the "auto hobby shops" they had on most every base in the Navy, I loved them and used them all the time, they can afford it though since there's not much liability when all of your customers are enlisted.

 

[Lkdelta]

... as well as not getting cars fixed in the time frame they rented out, and not having cash to pay.

The shop owner has a system to put a padlock on the "lift safety lock" and keeps the keys in his pocket. A renter has to pay the rental fees before the lock is opened or the vehicle is impounded?

 

[Garage Yourself]

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