Tech days Starting up... how about a lift...

H2o · 02-17-09, 10:47 AM

I was invited by the BMW club of DC and Convenience Car Care to see how they conduct their DIY/Tech days.

Convenience Car Care Welcome to Convenience Car Care in Manassas is a full service garage that works on all makes and models, modified and unmodified. The owner and the mechanics are incredibly knowledgeable and have been wanting to host a tech/DIY day for CLCC. They really have an incredible facility. Tim the owner is a great guy and very open to anything we might want to propose.

The BMW club do these events 5-6 times a year at Convenience and they seem to have a great time doing it. They are a great group of people (similar to CLCC). Everyone seems low key and friendly. There were even kids (4 and 6) running around and people brought their significant others who also participated.

There were both experienced and very novice members. They did some bushing replacements (fairly complicated), fluid changes, fixing leaks, belts, etc... Anyone working on their own cars was expected to have done the research and have a good understanding of the procedures involved, as well as having the parts and tools for the job.

People get there around 7:30 where they have coffee and donuts for everyone. The safety meeting is at 8am where they sign people in (Liability waivers for club and garage). Then, they start bringing cars in. The club had one person in charge of assigning lifts to members and making sure they would be in and out to allow for the next in line to get the lift. (small jobs like oil changes would mean one lift in the course of the day could be used by 6-8 cars.) Convenience has 8-15 lifts. At least 8 are typically made available. Unfortunately, the club only had access to 6 that day.

2-4Mechanics run around giving help, pointers, loaning tools if needed. There is a staffed parts department where you can get parts of all sorts. Members are expected to call ahead to make sure they have the parts available before the day of the event.

A lunch (provided i believe by the club but cooked by Convenience) was served around noon. The event was due to end at 3pm (due to Valentines' day). Typically, events end at 5pm.

It is recommended that members purchase fluids, parts, etc... from Convenience since they are not charging for garage or Mechanic's time.

We set Saturday April 18th as a tentative date (this is the weekend after Easter). We will most likely get started at 8:00 AM so you might plan on getting there early if you need time to get started.

As a first event (and since many of you have been asking for this), I thought we would start out with a tune up day.

- Overview of vehicle (tires, tire rods, brakes, steering components, checking fluids, belts, etc..)
- Valve adjustments, timing, carb adjustments

I will put together a more detailed write up when I get a moment, as well as a calendar of other tech days that we could put together. I will also need some volunteers to help organize the tech days. If you are interested, please email/pm me.

Give me your thoughts on any other ideas/criticism you might have. There is still a good deal to plan out before we can pull this off.

Thanks.

S.

fjman · 02-17-09, 11:12 AM

Seb,
Let me know how I can help. Thanks for following up on this and checking it out. Thanks to Jon as well for getting us in there.

greytandy · 02-18-09, 04:55 AM

Wow, doing maintenance in a real garage! Good job Sebastien. I like the idea. Manassas is a trek for me, but I've driven further. Will they really have parts for a 1970 FJ40? (this is rhetorical - I know the answer).

- Dave

H2o · 02-18-09, 08:07 AM

We hope that members will purchase parts and fluids from there (i believe they give a discount anyway). But they understand if you have specialty parts and hard to get that you bring in on your own.

Jon is really to thank since he set it up. i just followed up.

greytandy · 02-18-09, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H2o

Jon is really to thank since he set it up. i just followed up.

Jon? Last name?

Cruiser804 · 02-18-09, 08:44 PM

I can help on the tie rod and steering discussion since I just replaced all the ends on the 80 and rebuilt the steering column, removed the pitman arm and rebuilt the steering arm while converting the 40 to power steering.

Thornton · 02-19-09, 05:49 PM

This sounds like a great idea. My son worked for Convenience when he was in high school and again after he worked at Koons GMC Honda. Timmy Tyrrell the owner of Convenience is a real good person. He's got a nice setup in his new shop and is always willing to help and give advice.

I went by and talked to Timmy and found out that he can get Toyota parts. He believes that he can get them for just as good a price as Josh can get them from Miller Toyota. The main thing is that as the time gets closer to do this everyone may want to get a parts list together and get it to him so he can make sure he has everything on hand.

He mentioned that he's looking forward to this and also to a swap meet.

H2o · 02-20-09, 09:25 AM

Yes, they want to do a multi club swap meet, which i think is a cool idea. We can get some larger turnout and who know, maybe get some new members!!

Cruiser804 · 02-26-09, 08:14 PM

I haven't talk to Timmy about the swap meet since we were in touch with the BMW club and they were not so keen on the idea. Apparently they have a fairly large club even that includes a swap meet.

John Smith · 02-27-09, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cruiser804

I haven't talk to Timmy about the swap meet since we were in touch with the BMW club and they were not so keen on the idea. Apparently they have a fairly large club even that includes a swap meet.

When I was at Fall Crawl last November with the Bay to Blue Rigde guys they told me they really would like to do another swap meet with us. I guess I neglected to tell the powers that be.

H2o · 02-27-09, 08:51 AM

When i was there with the BMW club, Timmy brought it up and said he was up for it. But lets see how the tech day goes first.

smtyblt · 03-01-09, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Smith

When I was at Fall Crawl last November with the Bay to Blue Rigde guys they told me they really would like to do another swap meet with us. I guess I neglected to tell the powers that be.

If you guys are interested in doing another swap meet. We at IPOR would be more than willing to do a tech day and a swap meet at our shop. Just give us alittle notice and we would be more than willing.

I thought we had a great time at the last one. Jim C put on a good carb tune up demonstration.

Let us know. Come see how the shop has grown. We always have a good time.

And we can also provide small parts, oil, filters, etc. for small projects or maintenance.

Cam

H2o · 03-03-09, 11:56 AM

Thanks Cam. PM me with your contact info and maybe we can do some events at IPOR. I have not been there in a while so I should probably make a trip out there one these days to visit.

H2o · 03-03-09, 01:40 PM

Thanks Cam. PM me with your contact info and maybe we can do some events at IPOR. I have not been there in a while so I should probably make a trip out there one these days to visit.

smtyblt · 03-03-09, 01:44 PM

Pm sent