Need a hoist, tools, or a garage to wrench in?
 

My brother and I are starting up a "do it yourself" garage in Nanaimo if we get enough interest. Kind of like a gym... pay monthly, have access to the shop and hoist when you need it :)

http://www.u-mech.com/

I just quickly put up that site yesterday and we've already got almost half the members we need to start up, so if you like the idea, join up :)

PS. I have 95 del sol si vtec for sale with 240,000 km's on it... it's the one in my avatar. PM me if you're interested.

Good idea man i dont need a hoist but nevertheless a great idea for a business!

Great idea until someone knocks their car off the jackstands, it crushes their legs, and they sue you into bankruptcy.

sign waivers?

^ yep .

Waivers are almost worthless. I was looking into doing something like this a couple years ago so I could afford a shop for myself, talked to a lawyer and their advice was 'Don't do it'.

wow, there is something we actually agree with.


Yup as steve put it, as soon as there is a major accident, ur fucked. What sort of insurance are you planning on having?

Are you planning on having a ticketed mechanic on hand to overlook the individuals that are working on your hoists?

sounds like a accident waiting to happen.

good luck nonetheless.

This is a awesome idea but cover your ass like the others have stated

Also like gyms, you have to ensure that the people are
using the tools properly..

also, i checked your site, it says you only have one lift?

Is there a precedent for this anywhere? I know there's a motorcycle co-op in Victoria, but bikes are a little different. For that matter, so are bike owners.

As mentioned, this could be an insurance nightmare. The other big worry would be car thieves. Are you screening your members? For $50 a month, that's like an all you can steal buffet for a would be car thief, with access to exactly what's under the hood of modified cars in the area, as well as better access to where these cars can be found.

I really hope all the best, because in a perfect world, it would be such an awesome business. But in reality, I am not even sure if any insurance company would take that "risk".

Haha, I hope you have lots of parking for everyone that can't put their car back together.

Hey everyone, thanks for the good advice.

These kinds of shops run in Calgary and Toronto and are quite successful. All the guys with similar businesses I talked to all said the same things: a) it's hard to pay the bills with just do-it-yourselfers, b) the insurance is expensive but not unreasonable, and c) make sure you have a solid waiver.

I'll make sure to have all my bases covered when we open the doors.

@blacksc2: Hey, good advice, maybe I'll get all the members to have criminal record checks.

Too bad you're up in nanaimo, sounds it's a great idea.

GL on it

I'd be down but it would depend greatly on how long I'd have to sign up for. If I could, say, do a 3 month steint then that'd be fantastic, but a year at a time would be out of my budget.

ive always thought this was a good idea, if properly setup. My cousin had this idea about 10 years ago, and wanted to go partners in it, however I thought it may have had to much liability.

http://www.soleredemption.com/pics/2...ee_logobl1.jpg

I will support this type of business as much as I can

Yea, I'm hoping we can make it work. So far I need about 20 more members to make it fly... so my brother and I are keeping our fingers crossed.

@97Scort: We actually were thinking about a 3 month minimum membership. Also, we'll likely have drop in rates for people who don't want to be members.

the only bad thing i can see happen is tools be lost if you provide and stuff liek that

and cock fuck burns the place down cause he does not have freaking clue

or the dude that screwed his car and is stuck on the hoist and otehr peoepl gettign mad about it cause they book time ect

There was a place in Surrey that offered this type of place, hoists, power tools, several bays for people to work in. It seemed like a cool idea, I think the cost was 20 bucks per hour for a bay with air tools or 35 for a bay with a hoist and air tools.

I never really looked into it, as I have a garage with air tools, and very seldom do I need a hoist. I think they called it U-Fix-It or something like that. This was probably 3 or 4 years ago. So I don't know if it ever lasted or not.

I was thinking this owuld be sweet to do at the old sears shop at hillside mall.

Too bad they are tearing it down soon and turning that sweet big parking lot into more store space :(

That would be awsome, except I would never turn the general pulic loose with my tools and hoist because everything would be damaged and stolen in like 10 mins, and if someone kills themselves or drops the car off the hoist, I'm bankrupt. I know you might be able to get insurance, but it would be so expensive you'd never make any money. You'd also probably end up owning a lot of shit boxes where guys bring the thing in, screw up the repair the car still doesn't run and the $20 an hour keeps ticking until soon the facility bill is greater than the value of the crap car.

You'd also end up with the sketchiest clients for the most part. who buys a car to mod when they don't even have a work space? Morons. You'd get morons, maybe some recently divorced guys that got stuck with the shit box vehicle in the divorce, young guys who are still poor and live in apartments or hillbillies with strict trailer to vehicle ratios on the trailer park lots.

nice idea man.. haha.. xD