1) Look at your thumbs, is there perma grease? 2) Wash your hands and take a 20 minute shower. Is that grease still there? 3) Take a soap stone and rub 5 layers off skin off your thumb, did you notice increased feeling in your thumb that was not there before?
If you answered yes to all of these questions and feel naked without your glove of dead skin to protect you, you might be a mechanic.
If not, you must be a salesman.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
"Back in the day".... yep, another "one of them" tales...
Back in the day, we didn't have latex gloves... (even though you missed the mark a tad... today you would be looking for nitrile - common mistake since they are similar - latex is naturally occuring and nitrile rubber is man-made). But, the fact remains that way back when we were trying to decide what colour to make dirt, we had gloves... gloves to keep you hands warm... gloves to protect your hands from hot stuff.... and gloves to protect you hands from sharp stuff...
Back in the day... getting your hands dirty was a given... (getting cuts, burns and callousses were also de riguer). We didn't think twice about it... 40 years later, I have tried rubber gloves... not my cup of tes... but them I don't brag or moan about my hands... I'm happy that they are still attached.. But it doesn't go much past that.
Now... if having dirty, calloussed hands is the only prerequisite for the title "mechanic" (in some ways, I prefer that term rather than 'technician'), then the world is full of mechanics.
However, we see and hear, on a daily basis, that this isn't the case... There are ever so many "mechanics" out there that have ditry, calloussed hands yet they couldn't fix a sandwich if their lives depended on it...
Diagnostic processes that are improperly applied or perfromed... failure to identify the root cause of the concern, taking far too long to arrive at a repair strategy and/or spending far too much customer money needlessly in pursuit of an ill consid3ered repair...
Latex (nitirile) gloves - I see youngsters wearing them... you can tell that their hands are sweaty and uncomfortable just looking at them... Even more interesting is watching one of them eat his lunch... wearing the same gloves he has been wearing to protect his hands from dirt and chemicals...
There are many ways to tell if you are a 'mechanic'.... having dirty hands comes with the territory... owning a saw doesn't make you a carpenter and owning a crash helmet doesn't make you a racer... having dirty hands means it is time to wash up.... nothing more.
Let us get one thing straight, ONLY A MECHANIC has the perma grease! Sure you see a lot of hard working people with dry calloussed hands, but only the Mechanic will have the perma grease kicking.
I cant even imagine why the hell Stoma has decided to open his trap about mechanic hands, he wears them plastic disposable gloves every day working at Burger King! The grease I speak of is much diffrent that the stuff you drop fries in on a daily bassis Stoma.
Latex and even nitrile gloves all tear. Usually at the thumb first. Often times when a glove breaks I will finish what I am doing prior to changing it. Rubber gloves are good for packing wheel bearings and other jobs that are very dirty.
Dirty hands dont make a mechanic, just like a big fancy tool box full of Snap-On tools does not make a mechanic, however it is usually a sign that someone is at least trying.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
Let us get one thing straight, ONLY A MECHANIC has the perma grease! Sure you see a lot of hard working people with dry calloussed hands, but only the Mechanic will have the perma grease kicking.
I cant even imagine why the hell Stoma has decided to open his trap about mechanic hands, he wears them plastic disposable gloves every day working at Burger King! The grease I speak of is much diffrent that the stuff you drop fries in on a daily bassis Stoma.
Latex and even nitrile gloves all tear. Usually at the thumb first. Often times when a glove breaks I will finish what I am doing prior to changing it. Rubber gloves are good for packing wheel bearings and other jobs that are very dirty.
Dirty hands dont make a mechanic, just like a big fancy tool box full of Snap-On tools does not make a mechanic, however it is usually a sign that someone is at least trying.
Trying??? Interesting... that's all a steer can do.
No... I'm not a service writer... I was self employed for a long time (remember?) and that was one of the things I swore off from. I still deal with customers... but it is from a different angle than service writers...
Service writers are like the receptionist at the doctors office. They have a rough idea of things, but it is the doctor that you are really there to see. He is the guy with the knowledge and the experience.
Y'see... a lot of the stuff I work on is stuff that has been back a couple of times... couldn't recreate the concern... the concern is difficult to diagnose.... that kind of thing. As a result, I work a little more closely with customers as we choose our diagnostic strategy.
If a customer is seeking technical advice, it is usually me that is called to the task. If a customer has an intermittent concern and drops by while it is happening, it is usually me that gets called for the "driveway diagnosis". I
I'm the "everything" guy... or as close to the everything guy as I can be. One day I might do grunt work on a 550 - the next I might be diagnosing an automatic trans, working on a diesel fuel or emissions system or working on a complex electronic problem.
I already know what you do - I did it for many years. But it interfered with what it is that I wanted to do - and that is fix cars.
To be blunt... I really don't give a rat's ass as to what you consider my job to be... But if you feel I am a service writer, you will have to tell me how many service writers you know that spend their day fixing cars?
PogoPossum wrote: To be blunt... I really don't give a rat's ass as to what you consider my job to be... But if you feel I am a service writer, you will have to tell me how many service writers you know that spend their day fixing cars?
Pogo.... Buddy.... When are you going to learn?
I just love to pull your chain!
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
A long time ago there was this guy Pogo who was amazed that internal combustion engines worked like..... Well..... Internal combustion engines.
I think it's quite clear you are hanging onto what was a prime example of why no one should waste time on a vertical scope forum.
Not long ago we seen how ignorant advertisement forums (PowerStroke.org and Company) like to project an image of knowledge. In reality many of the idiots whom inhibit these forums are the people that have no business offering up advice. You for example like to cut and paste information from various web forums whenever presented a question. Leaving out the answer by rephrasing the question. Typical of a mechanic who goes thru life faking it.
Meanwhile you profess to be somewhere between a service writer and a mechanic. My guess is that you are the companies head bullshitter. When a customer comes in questioning a repair or cost, you blow just enough sun-shine up their ass to convence them giving your dealer more money is a wise choice. In reality you could give a flying #### about the customer, at the end of the day you walk out of that dealership and could give a rats ass about them. You are not putting YOUR NAME on each job that leaves the dealer, your a hired thug seeking compensation.
Yeah... Yeah... It's rough out there right? Spare us the BS and show us something, otherwise sit down and shut up old man.
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What is to give light must endure burning -- Viktor Frankl
Pogo is a working shop Foreman. He is the guy the tech's go to for help, and he is also the guy who deals with customers when they need someone to go on a road test to verify elusive problems ect. When he's not holding other people's hands, he's fixing vehicles just like the rest of us.
