Had an older customer hang around my bay for 20 minutes the other day

I was doing a bumper repair on a 2018 Civic at my shop in Austin. This guy in his 70s just watched me work and finally asked if he could watch me mix the paint. Turns out he used to do body work back in the 70s before he retired and he wanted to see how modern primers and paint systems work now. He said 'you kids have it so easy with these waterborne paints compared to the lacquer we had to deal with.' It was cool talking shop with someone from a different era. Made me wonder how many old timers are out there that would love to just hang out and chat if we had the time.

2 comments

2 Comments

brooke716d ago

Man I hear you, I used to be the guy who got annoyed when someone hung around while I was working. But a few months back an old timer came by my shop and asked about my impact drivers compared to the air tools he used. He ended up showing me a trick for getting stripped bolts out that saved me hours on a job. Now I kinda look forward to those visits. It's humbling to realize these guys have forgotten more than I'll ever know about the basics.

alices166d ago

Man that's exactly it! I think a lot of us brush off older folks because we assume they don't get the new stuff, but they've got decades of trial and error under their belts. The stripped bolt trick is a perfect example - it's not in any manual but it's the kind of thing that saves your whole day. Those guys might not know the latest battery tech but they've got a sixth sense for how metal and tools actually behave. It's like having a cheat code for real world problems that online tutorials just don't cover.