Hiya, folks. 😊
Happy Saturunday! Today has been the opposite of the yesterday slowdown. We did 12 cars today.
12!!! 🤪
The phone rang literally about 40 times today (making it exceedingly difficult to get any actual cars fixed [at least on my end]).
It was insane.
David did 8 cars today, and I did 4 (and spent about a billion hours on the phone). I don’t know what our record is for most cars in a day, but I think we at least matched it?
…
Yep… I just skimmed through the recent history of car repair on my business Google Sheet, and 10 was the most we’d done in a day.
We just did 12. 😶
It’s amazing. We shattered our monthly record last month, having done 133 cars in May. Right now, and I just did the math, we’re on track to do nearly 180 cars this month!!!!
Did I mention things are insane?
It used to be that a normal month was 70-something cars, and I thought that was good. We just about doubled it last month, and we’re on pace to not quite triple the norm this month (2 1/2 times).
Wow.
I’m ready for my Sunday. 😴
It was another rather challenging day for my most recent addition to my challenge list. My first job of the day was a simple two-bolt starter (we seem to be having a bit of a pattern here with simple two-bolt starters 🙃). So what was it that made this one a challenge? Well… the customer had tried to do the job themselves and had rounded off the bolt so badly that it took me probably an hour and a half or two hours to get the bolt off. 🤪
I started off with the basic attempts. I used my specialty sockets that are designed for just such occasions. But no dice. The bolt was too damaged. I tried [PHONE CALL!!!] PB Blaster, a hot [PHONE CALL!!!] torch, a [PHONE CALL!!!] [PHONE CALL!!!] hammer and chisel [PHONE CALL!!!]. More torch. More hammer [ring ring ring!!!] and chisel. More [PHONE CALL!!!] PB Blaster [PHONE CALL!!!]. More hammer and chisel [PHONE CALL!!!], and finally, when I thought I was on my last gasp of hope before having to remove tranny lines and cut the [PHONE CALL!!!] darn starter off with a grinder, it finally gave way with hammer and chisel.
[PHONE CALL!!!]
(Were the constant phone calls a little distracting to you, too?)
I was rather frustrated and flabbergasted. When the bolt finally came out, it was caked in rust, and it was bent!!!
Bent?!?!?!?!? How the…?
But… it was out. Holy. Cow. What an ordeal! I hunted around my bolt pile and found one that was the right size. So glad I keep a bolt pile around. Anyway, that starter took forever, partly because it had the mangled bolt and partially because of all the phone calls.
So… My language was tested a bit there, but I passed.
After that, I did an oil pressure sensor that went pretty darn well until the end, when I thought I was all done, only to realize that the electical connector that had been a bit of a pain to put on was missing some pieces to it because it had separated from itself. After thinking I was done, it took another hour to get the connector properly back together (the connector is in an awful place to try to mess with, and the engine was hot, leaving me with burns on my wrist and coming the closest I’d come since starting the language challenge to breaking the challenge. So frustrating having to go back in and take it back apart to get the connector put together properly. 😤
I eventually got it done, but they have major problems with their hybrid system that’ll probably end up costing them thousands. ☹️
After that, it was a blend door actuator that was both a pain in the butt and also easier than it could have been. I had to channel my inner granddad again, this time remanufacturing a trim screw to the correct size. I found one that was nearly identical, but it was too long. Fortunately, I recently bought some bolt cutters to carry with me, and between those and my metal file, I was able to make a screw to put the blend door stuff back together as it was supposed to be, actually, better than it was, I think.
The calls had calmed down by that point, so I could actually work a bit, but there were still plenty to deal with.
Good problems to have.🙃
The last one was just a simple diagnostic on a 2011 Kia Sorento that was dying while driving (bad battery). Battery was bad, alternator is iffy, and the throttle body was dirty, so I cleaned that, in the hopes that doing so would get rid of the MAP sensor code. I won’t know until tomorrow or Monday when I follow up with them.
Anyway, that was the night! I’m so grateful to be done with the week. Got home about 10 ish. It’s been one crazy week!
#1. I’m grateful that my Bentonville AutoZone commercial guy appears to have been able to get me those calipers we damaged for about half the price I’d thought before. Cross your fingers they’re the right ones 😊. Would be fantastic.
#2. I’m grateful that we have the extra bonus of breaking a record on this very busy day. Fun fun. Good times when the records are broken 😊.
#3. I’m grateful for multiple devices. My computer is going bonkers right now, so my cell phone is my device of choice right at the moment for writing in my journal) blog tonight.
#4. I’m grateful to have been able to get that bolt. Right when it looked like a massively blown day, it finally broke free.
#5. I’m grateful to be about to fall asleep. 😁
Good night, wonderful peeps. Time for sleepies.
Lift the World.
~ stephen
Lift the World 
Hang in there!