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    Automotive

    Grease The Wheels Podcast

    A Master Technician, a microphone, 30 years of experience in the Automotive Industry: buckle up! Come along as we take a look at the current state of the automotive industry from the point of view of the guys and gals turning the wrenches. So no matter what you fix, how you fix it, or how many tools you have to fix it with: welcome to the Grease the Wheels Nation. Also once in a while we take a look at the makes and models of cars we work on through the lenses of history, economics, politics, our own personal experiences and the experiences of our listeners. Special thanks to The Wrenching Network, Curien, Surfwrench, and Murray the dog.

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    Episode 53: Millennials Jul 31, 2019
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    On this week's episode of GTW, we are talking about one of the internet's favorite punching bags: The Millennials. Now the first question that always comes up when it comes to Millennials and our industry is, “how come there aren't many millennial mechanics?” Well turns out, that's on us. When they ask what it's like to be a mechanic, we tell them about it warts and all and that sent them running for the hills. However, there are still some millennials that have gone into the automotive field, and these people are going to end up making bank as the supply of mechanics eventually dwindles to near nothing. So, in a roundabout way, we are saying that they are a fairly intelligent group of people, unfortunately for them, you still can't buy experience. When you're the only Millennial in town who can fix people’s cars, you get to charge whatever you want. Also, was the “Class of 1980: Dumbest Ever?” and Uncle Jimmy almost makes it through an entire episode about generations without referencing The WhoThis episode of Grease the Wheels is sponsored by toolheadzcrate.com. Toolheadzcrate.com is a monthly subscription box filled with all sorts of discount codes, coupons, tee shirts, and things that give you a little taste of some of your favorite tool companies. They ship out the 15th of every month, and at 35.99 plus exact shipping, it’s a lot less than what you owe your tool guy. Plus one lucky winner every month gets their golden wrench box with well over $100 worth of stuff in it. Cheap Box, better stuff- Toolheadz Crate: the only crate made for the listeners of GTW!
    Episode 52: Techs, Management, and the Open Market Jul 24, 2019
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    On this week's episode of GTW, we are talking about the tech shortage. We know that we’ve talked about this in previous episodes, but this time we’re bringing some cold hard numbers into the argument. First off, everything we read about the shortage of technicians comes from fixed ops people. Now here comes the real dilemma: either they know how to fix the problem with staffing mechanics in their dealerships and they aren’t saying anything, or they don’t know how to fix the problem. Both of these options are equally terrifying when you're at the mercy of these people, as we often are. Everyone's idea of being well paid is different, especially when it comes between mechanics and the office folk. Management wants to give them the minimum amount of money to get them to keep showing up. When we start quitting and start leaving them short, if they continue to believe that you can keep paying mechanics poorly is where the problem starts. No technician we’ve ever met walked into a shop and took the wheels off of their toolboxes. Also, Uncle Jimmy talks about how he isn't good at reading.This episode of Grease the Wheels is sponsored by toolheadzcrate.com. Toolheadzcrate.com is a monthly subscription box filled with all sorts of discount codes, coupons, tee shirts, and things that give you a little taste of some of your favorite tool companies. They ship out the 15th of every month, and at 35.99 plus exact shipping, it’s a lot less than what you owe your tool guy. Plus one lucky winner every month gets their golden wrench box with well over $100 worth of stuff in it. Cheap Box, better stuff- Toolheadz Crate: the only crate made for the listeners of GTW!
    Episode 51: The DIY-Professional Divide Jul 17, 2019
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    On this week’s GTW we are talking about some of the major differences between professionals and DIY’ers, because sometimes we make our job look so easy that other people think they can do it. First off, a lot of non technicians listen to this podcast, which is perfectly ok because this is America goddamnit. Here’s the tale of the tape though: professionals often times have significantly more tools to do the jobs that they need to do. For example if you’re in the rust belt and working on any car, you going to need things like torches, easy-outs, tap and die sets, extractors and a myriad of other things just to get the old parts off in a lot of cases. Secondly there is the knowledge involved with doing jobs the easy way, or in some cases, not doing it the wrong way. Let’s say this one more time for the people in the back: “VACUUM TUBING DOESN'T GO ON BRAKE LINES!” Also, when it comes to diagnosis, a professional’s aim with the old parts cannon is usually quite a bit better due to seeing problems multiple times, and this can end up costing DIY’ers a lot of money, especially when problems are intermittent. At the end of the day when DIY’ers screw up fixing their car, a lot of the time we end up having to pick up the pieces, but that’s ok because we’re getting paid for it. Also Uncle Jimmy talks about his family’s affinity for Russian YouTube DIY repair videos, and how he is always on standby when they attempt them in an often vain attempt to prevent catastrophe.
    Episode 50: “I Wasn’t Home Yet” Syndrome Jul 10, 2019
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    On this week’s GTW, we are going back down the rabbit hole of stupid things that customers do. We all hate it when customers bring you a car with no gasoline in it because there is really no good reason to do that. When customers take their car to one shop for diagnosis and take it to another one to get fixed there is a good chance that mistakes are going to be made and things are going to get missed. We all have stories about Quick lube places not using the right oil filters and needing a breaker bar to get the drain plugs off so please stop taking your cars to these places. But the real meat and potatoes of this episode is when people’s cars start messing up and you drive it home anyways. Their logic is as long as the engine is running who gives a shit if the car it’s overheating. Unfortunately for them, most newer engines are made out of aluminum which has similar thermodynamic properties to a microwaved Peep’s. Finally, customers will mess their cars up and look you in the eye and wonder if it's covered by the warranty: newsflash the people who built the cars did not bend the wheels. Also, Uncle Jimmy gets absolutely medieval on the producer for launching the fan blades through the hood of his car, the radiator hose, the ac lines, and the fender, all because he wasn’t home yet.
    Episode 49: Talking Jul 03, 2019
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    On this week’s GTW, we are talking about talking. Yea, little bit meta for a holiday consisting of day-drinking and explosives, but hear us out. We know that a lot of information gets transferred through this most convenient form of communication, but a lot of times at work it can be counterproductive. We talk about talking to superiors, customers, and fellow technicians as well as the differences between what we want to hear and what we need to hear. Gossip and bullshitting can seriously affect the amount of work that goes out of the door, and that ends up costing you money. However, it is pretty hard to avoid a lot of the time, and we get that- especially considering we run a podcast!Uncle Jimmy compares “The Love Boat” numbers to the rate at which his old parts store co-workers got married and the possibility of being more rude if it means hearing less gossip.
    Episode 48: Chaos Jun 26, 2019
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    On this week’s episode of GTW, we are talking that lovely universal force that binds us all together: chaos. No matter where you sit in the automotive world, you are guaranteed some measurable amount of chaos. Often times it is driven by people who don’t know any better. Sometimes it comes down to the unknable roll of the dice that comes with not knowing what is going to roll or get flat bedded into your shop that day. Sometimes it comes in the form of a vague or cryptic repair order. Either way, this knowing that there is the unknown factors in to making our jobs some of the most chaotic on earth. Additionally, we see that competent help and having a staff of people that solve problems instead of making them are some of the easiest ways to lower the amount of chaos in our day to day lives. Also, Uncle Jimmy Pipe dreams about everyone in your building doing their job exactly how they are supposed to and gives a cliffs-notes review of Hogan’s Heroes.
    Episode 47: The Tech Scale Jun 19, 2019
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    On this week’s GTW we talk about how to solve the shortage of technicians. The causes of the tech shortage are pretty obvious- it doesn’t pay, but we talk about making a system where it can be extremely lucrative. The first place to look to ending the tech shortage is promoting and training from within. If you think that you are going to get techs from the outside you are thinking in the old way, because no one puts in anything about money or advancement in their job descriptions. The second, and possibly the most important part is putting together a scale for how these people are going to advance. Expertise and training that make the individual techs more valuable, both as individuals and assets to the companies they work for. Also, Uncle Jimmy talks about how mind-blowing it is having people listen to him all over the world, considering his parents never listened to him.
    Episode 46: Uniforms Jun 12, 2019
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    On this week's episode of GTW we are talking about work uniforms, but mostly we’re ranting about the uniform shirts that have collars. Some modern technician uniforms don’t make a lot of sense in this regard, because we can't think of a single instance where wearing a tie in a shop would end in anything other than decapitation. One often cited cause for this is that when there are changes in management, they want new uniforms to reflect his regime change- you know, instead of fixing the actual problems that the shop might have. Also we talk about the simple beauty of having uniform shirts that have little pockets on the breast and how handy that is. Realistically, technician’s productivity can be tied directly to how comfortable they are on the job, which is why it is great when indy shops supply tee shirts to their techs because there is less to think about and get in our way. Also Uncle Jimmy talks about why he washes his own work trousers, and naming stars after his favorite thing to say to impatient customers.
    Episode 45: Corporate Jun 05, 2019
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    On today’s episode of Grease The Wheels, we are talking about working for the man and all that it entails. There are many corporate entities in the automotive industry such as auto groups, corporate repair shops, tire shops, etc. These are companies with a LOT of employees, and oftentimes a big number of them have nothing to do with the end products. Corporate owned dealerships have multiple levels of management that run these places, meaning that there are a lot of people in these companies that dont fix the cars. There are some major fundamental differences between the office folk and the car fixing folk that extends far beyond what they actually do for a living. Because of this there are rules being made by people who have no idea what the culture is like for the people that those rules are being applied to. At the end of the day being an auto mechanic is being in a brotherhood, and this is something that they really can’t understand. This leads to one of the major advantages that indy shops have over their corporate competition, and might just be enough to make you want to work for the indy instead of the man. Let’s be clear, there are a lot of excellent things about working for a corporation, but there are a lot of tradeoffs with things like personal liberties and the amount of times that you can say “fuck” without getting fired.Also, Uncle Jimmy talks white collar v. blue collar responses to the zombie apocalypse, the “offended culture” and how it doesn’t play well with this listenership, and details his candidate for “The Worst Car Ever Made!”
    Episode 44: Tool Guys May 29, 2019
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    Good Tool guys are hard to find and much like us technicians, they all have different personalities and levels of commitment to their job. First off, it is hard work and no one is getting rich selling tools off of a tool truck. Then you get to add the tremendous cost of doing business and constantly having issues with their trucks (insert joke about fixing it for $50/week for 20 years) As a technicians we should support the good ones and help them out a bit. Also we get into an interesting theory about brand loyalty- that it shouldn’t be an umbrella loyalty to all things (your tool brand here) but rather to the actual tools that do the job every single time. We also recount some of the awkward times when the stuff that comes off the tool truck is better than the tools the manufacturer gives you to do the job. Uncle Jimmy talks about what tool guys and techs have in common: dogs, guns, and beer and gives a lesson in metallurgy when it comes to cheap brake line benders.
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