Exotic Car Mechanic

i love this eric

i am sure he knows where everything is
(they always do!)
does your hippy van have safari ( tilt in ) windows ( windshield ) ?

john

Looks almost like my darkroom....!

Very cool.

I'll bet he knows where everything is. This pic set me reminiscing. In late 1949/ early 1950 my dad used to cycle up to just such a small garage in the evening with me on a saddle placed on the crossbar and chew the fat with the owner about car matters. Dad was a mechanic whereas the owner's real expertise lay in bicycles which he also serviced and repaired. He had learned about cars largely by "practice" and there were much simpler then. Dad was able to help at times with diagnosis. Nobody needed their car back even before it went in as nowadays.

Anyway to keep me amused the owner used to give me an old bicycle wheel spoke and ask me to retrieve ball bearings from between the wooden floorboards which had dropped as he was servicing bikes. I could also turn the vice handles and try different spanners on different nuts and bolts. No Health and Safety meddling. Just two adults keeping a benign watch but letting me "experiment"

Time flew by. The small bag of retrieved ball bearings got me a "wage" to buy an ice cream.

What happened to such people, businesses and way of life? They could all be described in one word "gentle or maybe "folksy" is better.

Now its all "Wallstreet", greed and cut and thrust for which we pay too high a price and bequeath an even higher price to the young.

Thanks for bringing back some memories

pentaxuser

I snapped off probably a half dozen shots while I was there. When you take your vehicle into this place don't expect it to come out the other end anytime soon. Weeks are the general stretch.

My VW van is a Combi van. It has the pop up top and is camperized. Some people call them Westies. It's what I am taking down to Utah and AZ in May. It may not be fast but heck the getting there is fun.

Wonderful chaos!

- Bert

Great shot. A friend of mine in Victoria uses a similar shop and the mechanic is equally slow; his car has been there for 5 years!

nice shot. i try to capture such places also. you did an excellent job!

i work in an auto body repair shop....our shop is similarly arranged.

eddie

Very disappointed -- From the title I was hoping to see a pair of shapely legs with fishnet stockings and high heels sticking out from under a car.

Oh, well -- great shot anyway...

Vaughn