Surfing craigslist and came across this unique concept for the diy grease monkey,you rent their lift and tools for $15 per hr and you will get an hr for free if you rent out the whole day.Great idea if it was closer to me ,around the downtown Houston area .Do-It-Yourself Auto Garage

IIRC the car talk guys talked about running one of these. Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute also has one of these, that I had the good fortune to find.

I expect knowing a good lawyer is important to running one of these too. Brake, steering or suspension repairs that go south can be stories with a bad ending.

__________________
CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

That would be great. It was tried around here way back in the late 1980s as a co-operative (membership) concept with a retired service advisor and mechanic working the desk and available to give advice (but they were not able to touch the car, as it was not a licensed repair facility).

Unfortunately, even with no claims, the insurance went so high after a year or two it had to close.

Insurance on anything like that in this part of Canada would be insane. Even when I was part of a car club, we had an awful time getting coverage even for fun Sunday shows at a local recreation ground.

__________________


Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

They have them here in Holland.

I haven't really looked into it though. I imagine I'd fall foul of the long term parking fees after I had managed to break something on their lift. Cars chez Stretch tend to end up in bits for a long long time!

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

There used to be one in New Rochelle, NY. They'd rent the bays by the hour. They'd supplement profits with an in-shop parts store and by selling training. Have to be a little nuts to take on this sort of liability in the NYC area, they were gone in two years.

Most larger military bases have them, only way to keep the Car Junkies from littering the parking lots with puddles of unknown goo.

A fella in Midwest City, a suburb of OKC ok had one once upon a time and did okay. I've thought about it myself, but the legalities do seem daunting.

yeah i remember going to them with my father on the air force base when i was a kid... the auto hobby shop. they didn't have lifts, they had pits you drove the car over... wish there was something like that i could get access to now

__________________
1981 NA 300D 310k miles

I noticed a guy that runs one of these in Washington state...he's on a VistaPrint commercial.

I've discussed with friends about what it would take to open one of these in the Houston area, but mostly it seems to take $$s and lawyers.

__________________
Mike Frederick
1986 300SDL, 240K+ miles
1985 300D KaliKar, 270K+ miles

Here is the most professional version I've seen.

DIY Auto Repair Shops : Fully Equipped Self-Service Auto Repair

You can do it entirely yourself for $30/hr, have a technician help you do it for $50/hr, or pay them do do everything for you for $90/hr.

They also do classes.

I like the idea a lot. Haven't found anything like it local to me.

__________________
1979 300D 040 Black on Black - 1985 300D Maaco job (sadly sprayed over 199 Black Pearl Metallic) on Palamino

http://i.imgur.com/LslW733.jpg

The Baja Arizona Oil Burners Send a message if you'd like to join the fun
Left to Right - UberWasser, Iridium, Stuttgart-->Seattle,, mannys9130

Visit the W123 page on iFixit for over 70 helpful DIY guides!

I think it's a great idea. I might do it if I was in Colorado, if only to find a warm spot to work in the winter.

It's kind of like a hackerspace for cars. This is a hackerspace in Riverside I am planning to join. VOCADEMY I'll have to enquire about how they deal with insurance.

I wonder how they deal with the fundamental issue of working on a 30 year old German car where you inevitably end up breaking something auxiliary in order to replace a primary part and then have to hunt down parts in order to finish the job.

Dkr.

Ha! Unfortunately my transcript reflects how much time I spent at the RSCA shop.

This shop - Pit Row - The Do-It-Yourself Auto Shop, DIY with Assistance, Full Service Auto Repair, Lift Tool Rental Garage, Bay Area, Santa Clara, San Jose, California, CA - is convenient to me but they don't have tire mounting and balancing machines like RPI had.

Forum rates... hmm...

Sixto
MB-less

Stretch out them damn projects do ya

I sort of do that - only I built the shop and insist on being the only customer.

Ann Arbor, MI (my home town) had a couple that came and went in the Hippie-Dippy days but no more. It was also possible to rent a spray booth on weekends from a couple of body shops once they knew you well enough to know that you weren't going to mess up their facility. I don't remember the rates but so far I can't find anything similar here in Wilmington.

And yes, liability has to be prohibitive.

Dan

The 30-pack rental system is the most reliable. Make friends with somebody who has a shop, and bring by a 30rack every day you're over there. Doesn't hurt to restock their PB blaster/rags/brakleen stash when you leave

__________________
$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

Ha. The smart ones do that in my garage. The dumb ones leave their old motor oil

__________________
What Would Rudolph Do?
1975 300D, 1975 240D, 1985 300SD, 1997 300D, 2005 E320 , 2006 Toyota Prius