Youth Breaking In

In the automotive industry everybody has to start somewhere, whether it's sweeping floors or at a quick service station. To the young minds keen on entering the automotive industry, I would recomend getting your "foot in the door" as soon as possible. Shop owners want fresh workers who are enthusiastic and eager to learn. Starting at the bottom, an entry level position, gives you the opportunity to not only learn from the pros but to understand the industry as a whole. Entry level employees tend to do simple but necessary tasks and a lot of these things are basic, common sense things such as: cleaning, organizing tools, vaccuuming cars, and of course sweeping floors. Learning to do these things first and on a consistant basis will make you a better more efficient technician in the future. And better techs make more money! Speaking of making money, an automotive technician is no longer a blue collared employee. Starting technicians make $35,000 to $40,000 a year and once you've got a few years under your belt senior technicians bring in more than $80,000 annually. But these salaries don't come easy! There is a lot of hard work involved. There are however a few specific things you can do to boost your career.

The automotive industry offers opportunities for people who choose not to go on to a four-year college. I strongly believe that school alone is not the best way to become a technician. It is only a small part of what you need. To become a good automotive technician you need to understand the problems and dilemas that only come from working in a shop environment. However by attending a trade school or an industry specific program you will learn the newest technology and general information and theory on how cars work and the best repair practices. So if getting an automotive degree or certificate is something that you are interested in, you have multiple options. You have probably seen the commercials on TV for automotive trade schools, where in eight months you'll be ready to start your career in the automotive industry. In reality, this type of fast track school can only give you the basic tools you need to begin your career. 8 months is not enough time for students to absorb the information and then to put it into practice. Move over! These schools cost about $20,000, without living expenses to attend.

The other educational option for inspiring technicians is to drive down to your local community college and take a look at the programs they offer. Community colleges are structured and cater to the working-student, so the programs they offer will be half-day classes either mornings or evenings. This schedule allows students to maintain a job, and gain practical experience. The certificated programs take about 2 years to complete, which is 3 times longer than a trade school. This allows students ample time to learn and practice skills in a controlled environment. Community colleges cost $26 per unit bringing the total investment to roughly $2,500. Ideally, you will have been working part-time at an automotive business and you will have paid your expenses by semester end or as you go.

In just 2 years you can gain the confidence and skills you need to succeed in a dynamic industry. And most importantly, 2 years will confirm your desire to enter the industry, and expand your business network which will open doors into the workforce.

If you love cars, are motivated and think you would like to work in the industry there are opportunities everywhere, so get looking!

New Years Resolution

The new year is quickly approaching us and it's that time again for us to set our New Year's Resolution. Each year I try to set goals for the new year. I write down a list of goals that I want to get accomplished during the year, then I go through and number three goals that are pretty big and may need some extra effort put in. Then, I number 5 or so little goals that can be easily accomplished. The top goals that I chose, will be posted on my refrigerator, in my car and/or at my office desk, so I am reminded of them daily.

Here is 5 steps from ehow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_12077_new-years-resolutions.html) to achieving those goals.

1. Be realistic by setting achievable goals. Winning the lottery, for example, is out of your grasp.

2. Describe your resolutions in specific terms. Instead of "I don't want to be lazy," opt for "I want to exercise regularly" or "I will cut down on my television watching."

3. Break down large goals into smaller ones. For instance, commit to losing weight by resolving to join a gym and improve your eating habits.

4. Find alternatives to a behavior that you want to change, and make this part of your resolution plan. So you want to quit smoking but you smoked to relax yourself? What other forms of relaxation are available to you?

5. Above all, aim for things that are truly important to you, not what you think you ought to do or what others expect of you.

Now on your list every year you should have regular vehicle maintenance on it. Your vehicle, is the number one thing used everyday by people to get to and from the places they are wanting to go. If the vehicle breaks down, you will be out of a vehicle for a awhile and some money. So, before anything major happens to your vehicle, have your tires, windshield washer fluid and lights checked every month or do it yourself. Every three months have your oil, oil filter, and fluids checked. about Every 6-12 months you should replace your windshield wipers (earlier if they have been baking in the hot sun during summer), have the brakes, spark plugs and suspension checked.

If you need any of this done, come on by to Autobody Specialists and we would be more then happy to help you out. 530.893.2222

Good Hiring Decisions

Many business are starting to hire again, sense the economy is slowly making it's way back up. Insight of this, it may be a good time to review your hiring practices and procedures to make sure you are getting good employees and that you are doing the best job you can to select the right person for the job and for your company.

While hiring someone who remotely matches your requirements may seem the wise thing to do, if you don't consider skills and qualifications, it will probably come back to haunt you, costing more money in the long run.

Start with a good job description, you and the applicant need a clear understanding of what the job entails. A good job description will describe the duties and responsibilities specifically. Have a good application, a standard job application from an office supply store may not comply with current employment laws and will not help you get information specific to our industry.

Interview carefully. Standardize your interview questions so that each applicant is asked the same set of questions and keep good notes about the interview. Is the applicant prepared for the interview? Ask questions such as, "what do you know about this company"? If the applicant stumbles with answers, it will be obvious that they are unprepared. Ask about what it is the applicant has to offer for your business and look for specific qualities in their answers. Look for goals, remember that without goals of some kind in place, the applicant probably has no clear direction for success.

Does the applicant appear professional? First impressions really count, so if the applicant doesn't present well, or is unable to dress the part, it's a safe bet that they may not fit in with your team. Check references, by law it is okay to give out information if it is true and related to the job. Ask about the job the former employee is applying for, and only comment on his or her ability to perform those types of duties. Look to see if the applicant insist on bad-mouthing a former employer, listen politely and then gracefully end the interview.

There are many tips, tricks and methods that will aide you in making a good hiring decision and while these steps won't guarantee you hire the right person for the job, they will prevent a lot of hiring mistakes.

Perfect Shop Plan

Most all business' work better as a team, atleast that is what I have come to learn. With great team work, comes great result, with great results comes happy costumers! Don't we all like happy costumers?


Here are ways on how to start improving your shop or grow larger then you already are, to increase revenue and create better communication within the shop.


Creating a detailed plan is the very first step to start your trail to success. A plan that calls for landing more jobs, becoming more efficient and improving communication between the front office and the shop floor. Without a plan, the shop operators tend to get stuck in the day-to-day operations, often overlook key changes in the industry and lag behind competitors.


Creating and having regular meetings with employees can reduce the stress level, in the shop and cut the employee turn over by more than 50%. In the meetings include strategies to get employees on board with the changes that the plan requires and what expectations you have.

With a future of consolidation of the shop, technology, and social media comes challenges and makes repairers start to think of what do next. There is a basic acronym to follow, SWOT; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your business. To see how all of these enter twine into your business start by identifying your values, looking at the important aspects to up-hold like honesty, integrity, and teamwork.

Create a vision plan, basically specifically defines and describes the future of your business that employees see and hear on a regular basis. Set goals, and not just in your mind. Write your goals down atleast 3 at a time, make them specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound so you can easily determine your progress toward achievement. Once your goals are set, lay out processes and activities that help you to accomplish them.

It's important that the employees are also involved in the goals that you have for your business. Employees should know what you're doing and understand how they fit into that plan, so everyone is moving to the same beat. Leaders have to direct heir employees into the culture of the business every day. A shop must be transformed into a place that embraces change and moves forward with new processes to help the business grow.

To better help employees, to help you, have an open-door policy. This policy tells employees that they can feel comfortable asking questions and challenge ideas. The employees will take ownership when they feel their voice is heard. Hold regular meetings so employees can give there feedback, recommendations and ideas for improvement. This is your chance to sit back and take notes on what is said. Also, during the meetings let employees know of any new changes to the shop and make sure they have a good understanding.

Effective leadership is impossible without trust. Be open, honest and approachable and follow through with everything you say you're going to do. This is where taking notes is handing, to be able to refresh yourself on the goals and tasks mentioned. Leaders need to understand that everybody communicates differently. There are four main styles, behavior, driving, expressive amiable and analytical-capture how people communicate, and understanding your employees' style will help you build a bridge of open communication.

To wrap it all up, remember there are so many possible improvements, it's sometimes tough to know where to start. Identify three things that would have the most positive impact on your business if they are achieved. those are the things that are most important to achieve first and will have the highest impact on you business.

Baja 1K story from 301

Here is a fantastic story from my brother-in-law who raced in the Baja 1,000. I have added a link to the YouTube site and a few pictures of there vehicle.

Our race began at 12:44, we were first off the line in class 3.

By the end of the concrete the 300 had caught us and passed us before we turned off into the dirt. I had planned to take it easy as I did not want to end up on someones YouTube footage for screwing up in the first few miles after the start.

At around rm 50 near El Alamo we caught and passed the 300 and were about to put a few minutes on them until we had a flat near rm 85 were they passed us back before we could get the tire changed.

We made good time through the dry lake where we put our Dougan's horsepower to use we were about to pass 5 or 6 cars. We again caught and passed the 300 in the rough south of San Felipe. At the BFG pit at rm 242 we discovered that we had broken the end off our sway bar, we took a few minutes to secure the arm that remained up and of the way and the 300 was able to come in, fuel and leave before we were squared away to go.

The next section was really frustrating; despite SCORE posting on the website that no chase teams were to use the race course to cross from Gonzaga over HWY 1 there were dozens of them. It was infuriating to charge through the dust only to find a loaded chase truck be the source of the dust.

We made it to Coco's and into the creek. We were really glad to have 4x4 at this point. When we arrived at the bad spot it looked like the river scene from "Apocalypse Now" with the people shouting and lights shining everywhere. My co-dog pointed to a bank on the right and we blasted up it and through the willows and we drove around the whole mess.

At about rm 330 just before El Crucero we heard a clunking in the front end, we saw some lights up ahead and pulled over at a camp i what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. We lucked out that the camp was occupied by a group of mechanic from Guerrero Negro. The problem turned out to be the axle shaft that comes out of the third member had broken. We took the drive flanges off tied the long axle out of the way and limped it to rm 335 where our chase team met us at the Baja pits. At the pit, we removed the long axle and slip joint and prepared to continue on with 2 wheel drive only.

We made it to our driver change where I got out of the car on the Bay of LA hwy near rm 360. My brother Dan and his co-dog Jeff Saunders took over. Somewhere in that section Dan got by the 300 and arrived at Vizcaino with about a 20 minute lead. The 300 reeled us in and passed Dan on the fast section near San Jaunico and had a 10 minute lead by the time they came out onto the hwy north of Loreto.

The next section was really rough with very steep hill climbs and lots of rocks. On one of these climbs we rolled a rock up under the car and high centered on the drive shaft. At the river change at rm 781 we replaced the drive shaft and the air filter and sent the car on its way driven by "Old School 8" Mike Doherty and my godson Jameson Hall.

While on our way to Insurgentes we learned that the car was stopped with what was reported to be a broken spindle at rm 830. We stopped at an auto parts store and junk yard in Insurgentes, bought some bearings and a few parts off a junker F150 and sent the prerunner Bronco out to the race car. We cobbled it together enough to limp it to the BFG pit where we loaded the prerunner Bronco onto the trailer and robbed the spindle and related parts to put on the race car.

We got out of the there little after 10pm with around 230 miles to go. The fog was horrible and made chasing a challenge. As we headed south we lost radio contact with the race car and for what seemed like an eternity then from our post at rm 950 we heard the car was running and they came by a few minutes later.

After the final BFG pit we got stuck in the silt like nearly everyone else, fortunately an enterprising local was close at hand with a 4x4 pick up and offered to give us a tow for 20 bucks.

I was excited that we were going to finish and decided to take the whole group into town so we could caravan with the racecar to the finish. This turned out to be a big mistake and a case of counting the chickens before they hatch. As while waiting we got a call from my wife at home saying the race car was stopped at rm 1040, damn!

We turned around and blasted back up the road a second bearing on the spindle with the axle removed had failed and we lost a wheel at speed and crashed into a 4 foot deep rain rut. After getting two chase trucks into the car and hooking them up in tandem we were able to pull the car out of the ditch so we could survey the damage. The damage was not too bad and we had another set of bearings with us so we repaired the car a quickly as possible and when we were ready to go we hit the starter and it went "clunk" the angle was so severe that the gas from the fuel bowls drained into the cylinders causing a hydro lock. We removed the spark plugs cranked her over, pushed out the gas, replaced the plugs and it fired right up.

During the stop the 303 came by us in a hurry to get to the finish as they were very close on time, by now we knew that we were not going to make it on time but we were going to drive it in anyway. On the way we passed the 303 sitting dead with lots of oil in the trail. We sent our chase truck back for them and headed to the finish.

So in summary, we made it to the finish 45 minutes late to get an official finish. We should have done more to seal the inner portion of the spindle to protect the bearings from the silt. I am proud of everyone on the team for pushing hard all the way to the end. We learned a lot and proved that we could run well, we will be hard to beat at the 500.

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVX99Cw13aA&feature=player_embedded