I was wondering if anyone in the Baltimore MD area knows of a good DIY shop. I found one in Glen Burnie, but they are only open M-F 9-5. I was hoping to find one that has hours on the weekends.

 

These really exist? I always thought it would be a good business to start.

 

i only know of one in boston and it was kinda shady b/c youd bring you car there and sometimes you would come back and part would be missing

 

I know they exist on Ft. Meade, but that might be only for employees and residents.

 

Just about every sizable DoD base has such facilities; they exist primarily for the use of active duty, reserves & retired military. Most bases allow DoD civilian employees to use them as well. When I lived in NJ, I used the facility at Ft. Monmouth all the time, and now I'm using the one in APG. APG charges only $5.00 per hour to use a lift bay.

 

These would be a fabulous business idea except for one thing: What about the guy who gets his car in there, get's it on the lift, then can't fix or even get it back together... essentially getting the car stuck there undrivable until he get's a part, get's money for a part, or figures out how to get his car back together. I would think it could be a real nightmare when dealing with amateur mechanics of unknown skill and motivation.

 

Still gott pay the hourly fee, right?

 

In theory.

But you know how repairs go. Get the car apart, and it's apart for a month unexpectedly while you wait on a part you didn't know you'd need, or time to work on it. Paying for lift time eight hours aday for several days would go beyond people's budget QUICKLY.. then what do you do? Try and haul a half-together car off your lift, and have it flatbedded someplace at your initial expense and then try to collect THAT cost from your customer alongwith the lift rent they can't pay, and trying to gather up their random **** and get rid of that too.

I'm just saying, I see it getting really messy really quickly, and costing the business owner a HELLUVA lot of time and headaches and calls to credit agencies, etc.

 

I think there used to be one in Arlington, it might still exist. It was operated as a Co-op. Those places usually offer daily/monthly storage for cars with work in progress, either inside or outside. They don't leave cars on lifts.

Here's another idea:
http://www.mscw.com/tech.html

 

You can leave your car at the shop, if need be. Gotta take it off the lift but there is a storage area to park it for the night. Not many use it anyhow. No storage fee to my knowledge.

 

Interesting, you just need alot of DIY's in the area to make money off of it.

 

There's another problem with trying to run this kind of business... the cost of liability insurance would eat up any chance of turning a profit. Think about it: A bunch of amature mechanics of unknown skill/qualifications operating lifts & using other potentially deadly equipment & chemicals. If you can even get liability insurance for such a business, it won't be cheap!

 

Have them all sign waviors!

 

In theory that would be fine... BUT there's always that litigous idiot who will do something stupid and try to get rich off of it via the courts, signed waiver or not. It's irrelevant if they have a legitimate case or not; as the business owner, you would still be at risk of having to legally defend yourself and pay your own attorney big bucks to do it. Even though most such cases end up getting settled out-of-court, it still sucks away profitability. Furthermore, the banks & lenders who might be willing to finance such a business realize this and they would either be unwilling to loan the start up $, or if they do, they would charge interest rates out the wazzoo because of the risk of the business failing.

Bottom line is there are too many pitfalls to a business like this to make it a profitable operation. That's why you don't see any, and the ones you do see tend to be non-profit operations (e.g., co-op's that cater to a pay-to-play membership only crowd).

 

The liability can’t be any worse than skydiving companies. Their waver was a small booklet. Just make ever person watch a shop safety video b4 their allowed on the shop floor, and make them sign a life waiver. Similar to the one u get when you go skydiving

Just like everyone mentioned above, have a holding area for the “works in progress”

It takes a lot for you not to be able to roll a car off a lift, even if it’s missing an entire suspension from one wheel you can still put it on a dolley w/3 wheels

and only have 1 person (licensed Tec) allowed to put the car on the lift, this way the kids cant screw it up and drop a car off a lift

 

All fine in THEORY, but waivers don't do you any good as stated above because a waiver doesn't prevent you from SUING, it may only prevent you from WINNING. It's the defense of the suit that costs.

I think all the factors add up to why it's always done as a co-op, or membership-based thing... because then you can only accept people you feel are responsible and financially solvent. You open up a storefront, you can't just turn away people at the door because you don't like their looks. Every dumbass with a monkey wrench and POS honda will be there, and you've gotta treat them like a customer.

The only way possibly around THAT is to make it really expensive.... and then you're cutting down your potential market. People with lots of money are generally going to have their own garage and not need you.

 

I completely agree, Just playing devils advocate

I couldn’t imagine owning a shop and having 17 year old kids coming in with pep boys parts, working under a lift when they think vice grips and channel locks are proper tools to use to remove nuts and bolts..trying to figure out how to do a brake job “who needs shims”... wanting to have their friends come help them…listening to them revving their engine… ohh god it would drive me nuts. And you know they would be bugging the other people for help… I got to use to working in a shop with all Certified Tec’s made me spoiled LOL...

 

couldnt you just have a mechanic overseeing everything and operating the lifts?

 

the hobby shops on the navy bases(cant say for other services), you have to have the title or registration for car before you can do anything, again depends on shop and how close they stick to the rules, also they have all the tools you need or want. You check it out, fix car and put back. That works great and all, but since it is owned and operated by the government, it cuts way down on people who can sue. But to try to do it in the private world, would be great, but the libility issuse would be high, plus all the up front costs in equipment and overhead. Now a way around this would be opening an co-op by the car club. Charge a membership fee and use fees to make it work, just my two cents

 

Is there anything specific you need done?

I go to the one on Ft. Meade as an absolute last resort... only once when I did my suspension swap as I thought the base police wouldn't look to kindly on a torn apart car in my dorm (yes, ex-AF... we call them dorms) parking lot. And still suspension related when I needed a pickle-fork for something. And tire installations...

Some times it's not bad... but most of the time if you are doing anything other than normal maintence they can get a little testy... even if you know WTF you're doing... because when you go over their heads they can't help.

 

I need a few things done to my 7 and lots done to my Probe GT. It's not just the lift I am intrested in. I'd like a place indoors to work on the car. With plenty of light and heat. OOO and pneumatic tools! =)

Matt|ttaM

 

Man Im desperate for a place like that. Any place for non Military folks? I dont care how ratty it is if it has a lift and some air.> I need to get at my suspension (new struts) and replace my mounts, and its tough doing that crap curbside..