I have an 89 Honda Civic with sentimental value only. I live in Reno NV and the only great prospect from the list “Honda’s Etc.” is no longer in business and the guys are nowhere to be found. How do I go about finding someone who is great at Hondas, cheap, and might do it as a side job, and how do you approach someone in a shop about side jobs?
Ask friends, neighbors, family, and coworkers who they use and who they suggest you avoid.
and how do you approach someone in a shop about side jobs?
Unbelievable! You ask how you can walk into someone’s business and have the gall to try and hire out from under them. Being cheap is one thing, this lacks moral fiber.
One thing you do not do is approach a shop and ask a mechanic to do something on the side. Even if the tech says no to you, he may be under a cloud of suspicion from management.
The tech can also get it from both sides. If the customer winds up irate about something this tech did on the side, legitimate gripe or not, the customer may very well go storming into the shop cursing the shop for hiring an incompetent.
Tech gets fired anyway.
What you do and what a tech does if you approach them off premises is strictly up to you and them.
There was a time I would turn to “driveway mechanics” to do certain repair jobs when I hadn’t the time to do them myself. I found them in various ways.
My local newspaper (not the nearby big-city rag) had a classified section for local low-level goods and services. Some mechanics would run a cheap ad.
Local supermarkets, laundromats, churches, etc., have bulletin boards on which folk can post their own notices for child care, yard sales, and so on. Check these to see if anyone does driveway auto repair.
Agreed. Also, check Car Talk’s Mechanix files.