Performance shops backed up with work

[MIKZ28]

I would just like to say that I went shopping for a performance shop to have some work done yesterday. I live in the midwest (northern IL). I must say I was disappointed. All the shops I went to are so backed up with work none of them could help me. I used to do all the work on my cars myself but now that I am almost 63 and retiring and have a great 401 K I wanted someone else to do the work for a change. Well that is not going to happen. All the shops I talked to had the same complaint. No skilled workers available. All the shops said they are looking for at least 2 skilled workers. Trouble is nobody is applying for the jobs or they are non skilled. Face it it take a lot of skill and knowledge to install an LS crate motor into a car that never had a computer. Or to install an air bag system that so many people want these days. You can't just hire somebody off the street to do this work. No shops have the time for on the job training either. So if any of you are looking for a job here is your chance to do something you love doing. Take a trip to your local performance shop and tell them what you can do. Chances are they will hire you on the spot if you have any skills working on cars. NicKey performance here in my area told me they have a 1 year lead time to do anything! They are looking for 2-3 skilled workers. I guess it's back to doing my own work.......Slowly that is as I don't have a 30 year old body anymore. Everything take 3 times as long to get anything done these days. Crawling under my car is not as much fun as it used to be.

[redcoats1976]

yep.im also 63 and recently retired.it doesnt help that the newer cars are more computer than car either.

[Silver14]

Originally Posted by MIKZ28

NicKey performance here in my area told me they have a 1 year lead time to do anything! They are looking for 2-3 skilled workers.

What are they paying?
Performance shops in my area are either booked into next year or are busy enough where they don't respond to new inquiries.

[MIKZ28]

Originally Posted by Silver14

What are they paying?
Performance shops in my area are either booked into next year or are busy enough where they don't respond to new inquiries.

Not sure what the pay is but if you know what you are doing I bet you can write your own ticket. These shops are desperate. I would inquire to those shops you are talking about and offer your services. It couldn't hurt to ask!

[xstuntman]

Well MIK, your on a damn good forum and you have all the tech support you could need without having to call India. At a scarred up 57 i don't wanna do the work either but at least if i do it its done to my satisfaction, albeit slowly.

Gotta admit i am using gloves a lot more nowadays since i have grown tired of hashed up hands that take longer to heal.

[RupertPupkin]

How far are you willing to drive? There’s a ton of good shops around, maybe not as close to Roscoe though.

[BatmaroBeauty]

The shop that’s been slowly working on my build for the past 19 months called me today basically pulling the plug saying that they’re under. Same complaint, can’t afford staying open due to not enough skilled workers to keep afloat and ceasing operations in order to restructure. I was praying this day wouldn’t come..

[Modernmusclecar]

My shop has a very good reputation. They are very busy and don't take your car in until it's the project they are going to next. Planned ahead 3 months. They called me the week before and said the car had to be there Mon morning. Dropped it off...picked it up Thurs morn all done. No way in hell I'm leaving my car at a shop.waiting.

[fz4k98]

I am seeing this trend in every area of commerce. Restaurants only open certain days or hours, home maintenance companies (landscaping, concrete work etc.) booked into next year and on and on.

Numerous conributing factors to this, but as a 64 year old guy it is teaching me how to handle patience and poor customer support. I used to go over the top thanking my healthcare persons when they assisted me. Now I go over the top thanking the clerk at the gas station/convenience store.

[sscamaro]

I'm 86 years old now. When I was 76, me and my buddy installed my S/C.

[gunchamp]

Welcome to modern day America guys. Its not a good thing. The younger generation does not want to do manual labor. They want to come into the work force and make more than guys that have been at it for 30 years. Too many feel they are entitled and shouldnt have to work their way up the ladder. I run a large RV service center and we pay well. I have had 1 resume come across my desk in literally over a year. Gov is paying people to stay home and the "good" employees are all employed and paid well for the most part. We are busier than ever, but are forced to turn away work daily due to lack of help. I'm talking 20-30 good paying jobs daily. We are scheduled out until winter as it is, so we are losing customers over that as well. Sucks where we are at currently in this country

[Bigdumogre]

Also parts are hard to get - try finding arp head bolts and so on….. I’ve been waiting almost 7 months for my appointment and it’s do to parts taking longer to come back in stock and more people wanting their cars worked on. I’ve done everything myself up to this point and I rather have a pro do it.

[pyroguy]

Performance shops are unfortunately suffering the same fate of most companies right now, the lack of desire to work by able bodied people. There are enough opportunities for people to not work and still make a living that people who could work are taking those opportunities and choosing to not work. This trickles down from part manufacturers, to part suppliers, to transportation companies transporting the parts, and to the shops themselves looking for skilled labor to be able to install the parts and tune the vehicles. Cut off the opportunities to not work and succeed and the people will go back to work allowing the bottleneck of lack of employees to open back up. It’s truly sad when employers are begging people to come work, incentivizing far beyond what they have previously done, and then they still cannot fill the open roles.

[1JEWLDSSRS]

Yea it's pretty busy out there for sure! For everything. And as gunchamp says, young people want top dollar to start and the other folks are being "paid" to stay home and they don't want to go to work!! All my shops down south are booked out pretty far, and I have some work I want to do, bore out my intake snout to 103mm, install my NW 103MM TB, but my tuner here is booked out 6 months!! And he travels around the country tuning cars for race teams as well, so he is gone a lot as well... At 64, I have learned a LOT of patience.. lol