Posted by the author on November 30th, 2010
As a professional auto mechanic for over 25 years, I have repaired an array of different vehicles. I’ve worked on foreign and domestic cars, vans and even buses. I still do this for a living, but my favorite part of having this skill was being able to work on my 1969 Camaro in my spare time. For me, being a mechanic is work as well as play.
My 1969 Camaro SS 396 4 Speed is in perfect condition. I bought it several years ago as nothing but a frame, and brought it to the superb condition that it is in today, piece by piece, part by part. All parts are OEM. The only thing I wasn’t able to do myself was the paint job. I had this done professionally at a local body shop. I know the owner, so I was able to get a nice discount. I decided to paint it a nice metallic blue.
Now that I have finished restoring the car to its original condition, I’m not sure if I want to sell it or keep it. If I do sell it, it will be down the road. Auto insurance is pretty cheap for collector cars, so it really doesn’t cost anything to hang on to it for a while. I have joined a club and will probably take it to shows and see what happens.
Now that the Camaro is fully restored, my spare time is once again somewhat free. I will probably decide on restoring another one, maybe another Camaro, if I can find the frame at a decent price.
As for my professional job, I have my own repair shop. I employ two other mechanics. One is highly skilled and the other is just starting out and has been with me for about 6 months now. He has great potential, but right now he is a little green. I can fully trust him to do oil and filter changes, tire work, and stuff like that. In the future, we should have three first-class auto mechanics in our shop.
As I am from a small Midwestern town, most of our customers have come to us for years for all types of auto repairs and service. The competition at one point was nil. However, over the last few years a couple of other repair shops have surfaced nearby us, but we still get a very large percentage of the work.
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