Inexpensive repairs

OCMike

OCMike

New member
So I was googling inexpensive repair options last night and came across a few sites where people said they would contact their local Community College or Auto Tech school and have them perform repairs on their vehicles. They would only pay for parts since the students can't charge labor. I was thinking this may be a good way to go for paint and repairs that I can't handle. Has anyone here done that? What are the pros & cons? Also, would I just call up the instructor to see if they need a vehicle to work on?
 
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ocmike said:
so i was googling inexpensive repair options last night and came across a few sites where people said they would contact their local community college or auto tech school and have them perform repairs on their vehicles. They would only pay for parts since the students can't charge labor. I was thinking this may be a good way to go for paint and repairs that i can't handle. Has anyone here done that? What are the pros & cons? Also, would i just call up the instructor to see if they need a vehicle to work on?
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As a recent graduate, I have some experience with this.

Students cannot do it for pay...only for the experience. As such, there's no warranty on the work done. The instructor does check your work, and they give it to the students that actually want to learn. (Yes, even in college some people don't want to be there!)

You're gonna have to wait til the next semester... likely not until August. I don't know of any summer auto classes. The way it works is the instructor accepts a few projects based on the subject they're currently teaching. (EX: steering and suspension, or brakes...etc) Sometimes they may accept other jobs though.

I've done quite a few for people this way. The only difference is at school I'm a student, and when I'm not in school I'm a professional... Not everyone is like this, but the point is that the students aren't all idiots out of high school.
 
mikebontoft said:
As a recent graduate, I have some experience with this.

Students cannot do it for pay...only for the experience. As such, there's no warranty on the work done. The instructor does check your work, and they give it to the students that actually want to learn. (Yes, even in college some people don't want to be there!)

You're gonna have to wait til the next semester... likely not until August. I don't know of any summer auto classes. The way it works is the instructor accepts a few projects based on the subject they're currently teaching. (EX: steering and suspension, or brakes...etc) Sometimes they may accept other jobs though.

I've done quite a few for people this way. The only difference is at school I'm a student, and when I'm not in school I'm a professional... Not everyone is like this, but the point is that the students aren't all idiots out of high school.
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Same here. My son just went through this same thing.
 
It all depends on what you want done. I remember back in the day, my high school auto shop used to take in cars for simple repairs so that we could learn to do them (brakes, shocks, oil changes, coolant flushes, tires, etc). So long as it is a simple job, I don't see an issue. You help a kid learn, only have to pa for the parts, and for the most part, a lot of the stuff is pretty foolproof.
 
I'd be worried about high school kids... Last time I saw them work on someone's car this way, the school ended up having to buy a new hub because they didn't disconnect a harness and decided it was easier to just rip it out.

Also, [MENTION=91230]iBison[/MENTION] let me say congratulations :)
 
It's nice being a tech, until you start getting family members coming out of the woodwork asking for you to fix their car (for free, but they don't want to say that part...) and the same with neighbors. lol. Within reason it's fine, of course... but right now my aunt keeps calling me, asking to fix her granddaughter's car with a blown engine.
 
I'll bet there are schools with students that do better work than some of the stuff "professionals" have done to my car. I started doing as many repairs as I could on my own.

I would assume the quality of work done at the school would be just as reliable (or unreliable for that matter) as work done at a shop.
 
Try not to think worst case

Have a good friend that used the local college to handle some collision repair. He could not be happier. Fit and finish is fantastic and the repairs have stood the test of time.

If you think most 18-20 year olds are incompetent then you would probably will never use this service. I think most in these programs try to do good work and most instructors will try to assure that.

Not sure I would ask for any "custom" work, i.e. lift or solid axle swap, but out with the bad parts in with the good like ball joints, bearings, fluids, etc. I'd give the kids a shot.
 
Yeah I wouldn't suggest the custom work as you mentioned.... we all had our own stuff we wanted to do :P

I don't have much longer to have my fun with this.....so I will. If you think I'm incompetent because of my age as mentioned above, then why don't we see who does a better job. :D
 
I was thinking about using them to fix my trail damage, and strip and repaint. I could go without my Runner for a month I think. I've been reading that the instructor wouldn't let it be released if it wasn't perfect also. I might just give a call to one of the local colleges to see what they offer.
 
OCMike said:
I was thinking about using them to fix my trail damage, and strip and repaint. I could go without my Runner for a month I think. I've been reading that the instructor wouldn't let it be released if it wasn't perfect also. I might just give a call to one of the local colleges to see what they offer.
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<< Your avatar << hard way of getting the spare out eh.
 
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