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.
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.
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