Work!

[Synical DSM]

i dont see u making $15/hr

I was making 16/hr at Acura.

[GTS4-R]

FYI ase's are want independant shops want and you'll get paid more for having them..... i have ford credentials up the wahzoo and never bothered to get ase's because ford didnt give a hoot about them..... now that im working on all types of cars they wanna see ase's..... And im getting paid more for having them.... i have a1, a5, a6 and t6 and i just tested for a4, a7, a8 a couple weeks ago.... believe me when my results come back.... ill be making more money.....

if we were both applying for a job and im an ase master tech with a1-a8 and l1 and you dont have a single ase.... who are they gonna hire?

UTI was overrated huh? i think so

[Synical DSM]

UTI was overrated huh? i think so

Of course.

[Ballistic Motorsports]

Of course.

Who knows you might be one of the lucky ones that actually learned something at UTI . I commend you for it

My Experience has been bad with UTI graduates . I built two 400whp civics for UTI Grads in the past year . One I built a bottom end for and he decided he was going to install it till he could not get it running . Things I found wrong .... No keyways in the cam gears :O so cam timing was way off ...fuel reg still had the plastic plug in the fuel supply hole , so the car was getting no fuel .....

The other just had me build the whole longblock . He put his in his car with a oil filter relocation kit and hook the lines up backwards :O we can just say he had no oil pressure .. luckily I fill the crank and such with enough prelube that the engine still runs to this day laying down over 400whp ..

Good luck in your search . You have two types of Speed shops . You have your bolt-on shops and fix it by replacing it type ( This is like dealer work )
Prostreet
Wildcards
ex drivingstyle
A-Z

then you have shops more like mine that can design and fabricate solutions to make things work . Speed shops dont use scan tools like the dealer or Alldata .

Ballistic Motorsports
DSG
Synaptic3
Trick Eng.

Shops like my take more than mechanical skills . I went to school to be a machinist /fabricator then started in mechanics later . I got in the biz working for free to learn . I started in 12vt and then found a shop that did both 12vt and performance . I manage that shop for 10 years and then decided to split 3 years ago the start Ballistic . Needless to say the old shop I work for has now since gone out of business.

Other things you need to be aware of is shops like mine , is you pay for your own mistakes . If you brake or blow something up and it is found to be the your fault . It comes out of your pay check and more than likely you are out of a job . So you have to ask yourself are you confident enough that you can be sure you do not make a $20K mistake ? This is why I am hesitant to hire . I cant call corporate and fudge a warranty claim for a mistake and have them cover it unknowingly ( I wish I could though )

Also how big is your tool collection ? Tools are sacred and are not to be shared . Most shops require you to have all your own tools .

I wish you the best in your quest . Just a few things to think about . You will make more money working for dealers than a independent . Only perks working for a independent is getting goodies for yourself at cost and bragging rights of what you accomplished ( Media and Press )

You are welcome to stop buy sometime and check it out .

[MaxTitration]

+897145 with what scotty said. i am also a UTI grad, but i wish id gone a different route. i wish id started as an apprentice at a shop and got paid (very little, but still paid) to learn everything. instead, i went to school, learned some basics, racked up a huge student loan debt, and started as an apprentice anyway. it took me two years to prove myself, and i was never able to afford all the tools i needed (although, my $630 car payment may have deterred that).

moral of the story is, i learned more apprenticing at a subaru dealership, and doing a little to help scotty a few times than i did at school. honestly, i think sitting back and cleaning his shop for free, i would have learned more from scotty.

[d3ad1ysp0rk]

Hell I learned that I suck at figuring out what kind of metal something is in only a few minutes of being at Scotty's shop!

I've always wanted to start my own speed shop for bikes and cars, but there's a lot of competition and I'm obviously not confident in my own abilities enough yet.

[GTS4-R]

I graduated from uti in pheonix in 05... It was overpriced IMO... But still a good school and yes most of the students are just yuppies... Most I went with had a free ride from mommy and daddy free school free rent and bills no job etc those are the ones that didnt give a #!#!#!#! and fall into scouts uti grad category... I personally worked full time to pay my rent while attending uti 35hrs a week with a 99.8% attendance rate (I left early to watch the red sox win the world series ) and I left with a 4.0gpa and national honor society.... Honestly ive learned more actually turning wrenches since than I did at school... School was more theory vs hands on.... But I myself would much rather work IN a real speed shop and would be willing to make less money just to have a bettyer overall satisfaction with my job.
I actually studied manchinjng technology and almost pursued it but I prefer hand machining over Cnc and thats the world of machining today... I'm really good with a mill and lathe and I love doing it very much I would love to mix that kind of work with mechanical which is what speed shops are

[JJ The Butcha]

I graduated from uti in pheonix in 05... It was overpriced IMO... But still a good school and yes most of the students are just yuppies... Most I went with had a free ride from mommy and daddy free school free rent and bills no job etc those are the ones that didnt give a #!#!#!#! and fall into scouts uti grad category... I personally worked full time to pay my rent while attending uti 35hrs a week with a 99.8% attendance rate (I left early to watch the red sox win the world series ) and I left with a 4.0gpa and national honor society.... Honestly ive learned more actually turning wrenches since than I did at school... School was more theory vs hands on.... But I myself would much rather work IN a real speed shop and would be willing to make less money just to have a bettyer overall satisfaction with my job.
I actually studied manchinjng technology and almost pursued it but I prefer hand machining over Cnc and thats the world of machining today... I'm really good with a mill and lathe and I love doing it very much I would love to mix that kind of work with mechanical which is what speed shops are

so in all honesty uti wasnt worth it? im going to be going to college in a couple of years and i was thinking about UTI

[GTS4-R]

u can get the same education at a local tech school for 1/2 the price.... just minus "hot rod U"

[Synical DSM]

DO NOT GO TO UTI!!!


Bottom line. You can learn a lot. There are about 5-6 people in a group, 4 F-off 2 actually work, I was one of the workers. You can learn a lot if you actually try, but the review right before the test gives away most of the answers, some people learned this quick.

I agree with everything SIL-EIGHTY said. I also worked open - 12 at Saturn of Nashua, driving the hour+ to school, then driving home to get home around 10P.M. Then working a part time job on sunday and after I got out of Saturn on Saturday. Then had a baby in October, trying to take care of him in my "free" time to give his mom a break and worrying about bills, and the condition of my car driving, what is it? 75 miles a day. The #!#!#!#! was tough and the kids that got a free ride the whole really piss me off, becuase they make us that worked hard look bad. I heard it over and over and over "I have had nothing but bad luck with UTI students." Makes me embarrased to tell people I paid $34,000 for what? a bad rep?

[AmmoCan]

if you like to fix stuff, learn to work on airplanes. they're usually cleaner, the pay isn't much better in most cases but you work hourly. never flat rate. there's a school at Hanscom Airport in Bedford and the NH Tech. in Nashua has a really good program.

[Synical DSM]

I am too much in debt to think about school again for a while.

[GTS4-R]

holy #!#!#!#! u paid 34k??!! lol.... my core was 19,500 and i paid abother 5ish for Ford FACT.... just a shade under 25k.... funny thing is back in like 97 it cost like 10k there

[MaxTitration]

DONT go to UTI. if i could go back, i would have gone in the military then. i paid about 20k as well.

i also worked my way through school. id be up at 6am every morning, at school at7ish, stay til i think it was 12:30, then go home and eat, and be at work from 2-10. i worked 6 days per week, had a 98% attendance rating, finished with a 3.6 GPA, and i was also one of the people in the group who would actually try to learn something. i had fun at school, learned how to diag really really well, but i wish id never gone. it really wasnt worth it at all. but, when i go to the air force, i had an associates and start at a higher pay grade. haha thats the only positive it has for me any more.