DRIVE Facebook Live - Michelle Buck of Acclaim Car and Truck Repair

well good afternoon and welcome to this week's edition of Drive Facebook live I'm Bob Spitz your host with Tony Whistler my partner and our very special guest for this first episode or what we call the Post Expo episode is Michelle Buck from uh Acclaim auto and truck in Phoenix Arizona hello Michelle it's good to see you good to see you guys thanks for having me oh you're very welcome Michelle you know for everybody who's listening in and why don't you tell them all where I said Phoenix but let them know where you are the kind of shop you guys have you know you got a little bit of a unique situation with a bunch of owners and you so why don't you just uh introduce yourself well I'm Michelle we're here in Scottdale Arizona um we are a claim car and truck repair we are a classic antique vintage um car General Repair um with emphasis on transmission rebuilds and repairs um these guys have been at it for a long time um my little bit about how I got in here um my husband happens to be one of the owners and I was kind of pre right after covid before it kind of started dying down a bit um I needed a job I came in and was helping clean the office and straighten up and whatnot just is something to do and one of the owners said do you computer you computer he literally said do you computer it wasn't can you help me on the computer it was do you computer and I said yeah I I do um he sat me down tell told me what he was trying to do it took me all of two minutes he said don't move um and I haven't been allowed to move since so this this has been my spot there you go well you you've gone from that humble beginning to uh Michelle just earned a very special uh award she's uh one of our newest effective shop managers she received that at the Expo uh a couple of weeks ago congratulations thank you a fun project to get a a goal to get to yeah absolutely speaking of Expo how did you like it oh I had a blast um the biggest thing for me is um I talk to you guys on Zoom all the time um I my coach Roxy I've been talking to her for a year I actually got to to hug these people and thank them face face and say thank you for you know being my team my support and you know pushing me and pushing us to be better so I got to actually hug these people and say thank you and it was just wonderful to actually see and shake hands and hug people and and meet them face to face yeah oh that that is one of the absolute benefits of the Expo is finally getting to see your clients and your clients seeing you and and making that connection because uh it's very special now one of the things you know I I admire you walking into a a very established business with two owners plus your husband is one of the owners and trying to introduce uh change of procedures in that environment that that can be a little daunting uh scary is scary scary is the word um change does not come easily to um a man of their 70s or even 60s um they're setting their ways it works I'm not going to change it because it's not broken um and that that additive goes to cars very well but not necessarily business there's a lot of things that have changed over the years that they haven't necessarily wanted to try or known that they could try um and my my background is in education um I was a teacher for a little while and adult education and so I am always wanting to grow learn and be better um and when I was introduced to drive I was like this this is going to teach me this is going to teach me how to grow this business um I'm going to take this baby in and really nurture it and really grow it and it's going to be mine someday so I need to know it from the bottom up and that's and they they were hesitant to say the least but um they are also very understanding that they are not going to be here forever and right and we need to grow the business into something more than what it is not that it's a failure it's never been a failure I mean these guys have been through obessions depressions God knows what else um pandemics and have survived um but I'm not looking to just survive that's right yeah that's right a quick question as we say cockroaches survive that's right so I was gonna ask because you have that education background and you feel that like myself as well and a lot of us we're all Ed all of us here in this meeting our Educators so um you have that love for knowledge and learning um what's your take on the workshops and how they've gone for you and and how just a just a quick I love the the action workshops are um if I want some quick results and some quick changes to be in place the action workshops are amazing um it gives me that quick bit of knowledge to get me my foot in the door and then I can just roll with it um the master workshops are a little bit more time consuming they require the time and the research and the understanding to really dive deep into the business um so those are they're both individually wonderful one um quick and you know get some things done and some changes implemented quickly the other is going to take time to implement and to see the change right very good they're both great right the master workshops are really designed to give you those aha moments yes where the action workshops are okay here's the idea here's the principle go do it go do exactly yeah now your shop has got uh your fellows have a very good reputation you and I were speaking about that one day where uh you've had cars come in from Barett Jackson we have um we have Ken years ago in his in his Trail on into this career um actually worked for Mr Barrett um at one point doing a lot of his vehicles and his Transmissions um he did the story is amazing and I couldn't do it justice by trying to repeat it um but he used to he used to work with them uh and do his personal collection so we have a lot of um Connections in the car world so our name has been out there they used to do a tent at Barrett Jackson years ago for marketing and whatnot um and that just got a little bit out of control so they they h owned it and they kept their connections and people from Barrett Jackson who get these classic cars and you know they they think they're getting a gem you know because they're beautiful they're absolutely gorgeous they go to turn the key and they're not they're not quite where they want them so there's not a lot of um shops around that will work on an original vehicle so we get a lot of calls of for you know we just bought this at Barrett Jackson yeah it's not working right can we can we just have it tow to you absolutely bring it in we'll take a look we'll take a look see and see what we got absolutely yeah they're not that they're not intimidated by a two-speed power glide no absolutely not Ken eat those for breakfast nice he uh he got weaned on all of these old Transmissions um from the the 60s and 70s he knows how to he knows how to work them just right and he can tell you even if it's not the transmission that's the problem we're not going to fix your trans ition if it's not broken um sometimes it's you know in the in the carburetor the carburetor is not working right you know compression it's not it's not always the transmission and we're not going to work on it if it's not the problem right yeah but you know that's all ancient technology now carburetors Distributors you know standard ignition holy cow so it's fabulous that you guys are able to do that and your husband uh obviously did did not grow up with that kind of Technology but he's he's learning it or he learned it he grew up with it in a sense that he's been in the shop since his um since high school he's been in and out of the shop since high school so he up with it um wrenching on him learning how to to work on him taking instructions take the four bolts off get the carburetor off there's four you know there's four okay on every carburetor there's four bolts you take the carburetor off that way and then there you go okay well how does the carburetor work and so he grew up learning all of this technology all of this old technology and how to work on it so he grew up with it in that sense now was it the car that he drove all the time no no well you know th those are the case beauty is Skin Deep on some of those older cars exactly yes yes um they have many colorful phrases around the shop about what they call them um I call them a 20 foot car and 20 feet they look beautiful you getting closer and um you're getting pretty scared oh I know people get duped with uh with Classics and collectibles especially a car that's been sitting for 20 years yes holy cow you go and try to drive that around yes spring leaks all over the place oh yeah there's always a process to Reviving a car the car has been sitting for a while don't even try to turn it over don't do it no be doing more damage than anything and uh we try and make that as abundantly clear to people as we can who call and say I've Got This Old Car my dad left in the back 40 over here and I really want to get it running don't start it right nothing put it on a trailer and get it here bring it over here that's the biggest advice I can give people they got a classic sitting in the back that Grandpa left and you really want to get it running don't try and start it yourself yeah so do you have a lot of Resto shops that you do the mechanical work for or do you do it mainly individuals um no we we don't have any um Leets that we work on or anything like that um we haven't done that the guys haven't done that in years they they used to work with like I said Barett Jackson and a couple places that they would do their transmission work um but that's kind of gone to the Wayside um of a little bit so all of these are are personal owners who have collections or enthusiasts um or even now the younger people um I have a lot of younger people who are snatching up these Classics and going well I wanted to run like my 2024 Mazda good luck yeah well we'll Jack the car up and put a Mazda underneath it and lower it again there you go that's about as close as you're gonna get did did did you get the airbags in yet no yeah that's exactly it um but and then on the other side of it we have the the younger people who um who really can't appreciate a classic um they were gifted the car or inherited the car and they want to learn about it they want to understand it so we've done some some cars for some younger kids and we've done an educational moment where the um where Ken or or Dave will get out there with them and go okay this is where the oil goes um this is how you check the Lo this is what you call dipstick that's all very valuable yeah so we've got with a couple of them and you know how how to drive a classic car is it's so important throttle response is completely different completely different you got all that linkage and a carburetor and it's completely different understanding and even stopping power is different than oh my gosh yeah yeah so understand what what's stopping power well if the brakes are done right it should stop I don't know 66 Dodges single circuit drum brakes get that car over 80 miles an hour you better bring an anchor with you absolutely absolutely throw it out the window plenty of stopping room because you need at least three miles yeah there it is you know Michelle we were talking because you are in hot climate uh you and I were joking about the necessity of putting salt licks up in the shop for the technicians you know they're so dehydrated on a regular bases they got to keep their electrolytes up so we just put some salt licks on the wall and say have at it have at it but you you do have uh one of the ways is you uh changed your uh operating hours in the summer isn't that right so the guys because we're in Arizona um for as long as I've been here they have been 6:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m. because of the Arizona heat um you got to get out of the shop after two H it's just it gets hotter and hotter as the sun comes up and it's scorching um I've even told the guys no more working in the parking lot after the sun comes up you're in a bay if it has to be done outside it can wait till the next morning it's just too dang hot dehydr just I don't need these guys falling out on me I don't want no you don't need people with heat stroke and sending them to the hospital and no absolutely our best I keep we keep water in the fridge I make sure that they've got water bottles and I'm always um hounding Ken have you drank enough water today um I mean he's 70 some years old skin and bone so I got to make sure he stays hydrated I need him around a bit longer yeah absolutely well now that you've achieved effective shop manager what's your next goal you always got to have another goal I'm I'm so excited that was the first car so I had my my first after Expo meeting with my coach uh yesterday morning and the first thing out of my mouth was I need the list she goes okay which one I said well what's the next award I can get she goes professional I said then I need that list I wanted you can do a shout out to your consultant if you want let everybody know who that is hey Roxy there it is my my biggest champion she's always on me and making sure that we're staying on task thank you so much for everything that you do for me on a personal too she listens to me cry on a on a regular basis yep on a regular basis it's been a rough one Roxy I don't know what to do I might kill somebody okay breathe well Roxy is watching she is on yes she's on awesome she is absolutely amazing I love you Roxy thank you for everything that you do for me there now with your your niche in the market Marketplace what are you doing marketing wise so that's what's your strategy that's where you lovely people come into to play um I have uh you guys took over my website um you guys have designed me a beautiful website um and I've get tons of compliments on it on a regular basis from my established customers um when we first changed it over they were like oh my gosh it's about time this is amazing you guys have so much to offer so much information now it's wonderful um and then we started a Facebook um and you guys do our Facebook as well and then I threw in a few months ago doing Instagram um and doing because pictures speak a thousand words people want to know what we're working on what we're doing what we what we see um so we started doing Instagram um and then I got a wild hair and went I want to do YouTube I've got good for you good I've got these brains of these brilliant brilliant men um who've been doing this for 50 years um that I need to get this information out there um so we started doing some YouTube videos um not very many right now but I have tons of um film that just needs to be edited and put together and then put up so what's the name of your channel a claim car and truck okay that's great have to check it out yeah and it's great for what you guys do because there's an aesthetic like there that people want to see like it isn't like you're I mean I think a um a YouTube channel is great for any shop so don't get me wrong that's but for a place when you're doing like things that people actually are attracted to like I'm not really attracted to my you know my Ford Taurus you know like I'm not gonna oh let me go look at the YouTube channel you know but for you guys you have an added element there that makes it very valuable and I've consulted other like the Resto shops not just the mechanic side but the guys who were doing the bodyw work too and stuff and they really lean hard in on that YouTube stuff so absolutely very very good stuff yeah so we're we're trying um trying our hand at it it's hard to get these guys in front of the camera without them sounding like me most times um I don't know what I'm talking about yes you do you do it all the time put put words to it just put words to it just just walk me around that 67 Firebird and point out yes what this is all about so i' watch that I would that's what I said nobody cares what you look like or how you really sound they just they want to see the car they want to see the car exactly right yeah they just what the heck is that thing sitting on top of the engine exactly just point and go that's a carburetor okay what kind of carburetor it's a four barrel oh awesome what does it do people just want to know because it's so foreign um and like you said there's an attraction to it you don't know about something you know people want to know why is that car so beautiful why was it so popular and then maintenance tips for people with classic cars absolutely absolutely that's one of our goals is to have a maintenance tip blog um our website that has all of these really cool little you know tips that these guys have learned over the years um on how to check transmission fluid you know what levels should they be at for each transmission you know that are you know made in the 60s made in the 50s you know all of the that's right all the and and if you've got if you've got a a a C4 Mustang transmission do not put GM fluid in it no oh my gosh that is the biggest thing that uh we see there's two two types of fluid that we see people using incorrectly often um these old cars need to have a zinc in a straight 40 foil they need to they don't make them like they used to they need the zinc in the to to keep the cam shaft working right keep everything lubricated and cooled correctly and then transmission fluid it's got it's got to be the right transmission fluid for the vehicle and if it's some Sometimes some of these old Transmissions it's not even transmission fluid it's 90 we it's a 90 now you're getting really old yeah so so where do you find that those consumables for cars that are that old um we actually O'Reilly carries everything that we require for these cars um they carry a zinc additive or a zinc oil that we use um and the transmission fluid we actually get specialty from our transmission distributor um they send us a cases of transmission fluid all the time but um and then 90 weight you can get at O'Reilly that's we use O'Reilly for a lot of our stock very good yeah no I go I have an old motorcycle and same thing I I get my Valene racing VR1 because it's heavy zinc content yep that's it so that uh I don't uh burn out the bearings in my engine oh by the way uh our marketing department has posted your links to your social medias in the chat nice for anybody who'd like to take a look go take a look see yeah go take a look see absolutely yeah that's you know it's fascinating because you're talking about the vehicles that I grew up with and I I worked on and you know and another one of course was learning that Chryslers had left-handed [Laughter] threads hard way that's right I can't get this wheel off yeah why does it seem to be just getting Tighter and Tighter yeah the other direction yeah I know so yeah all kind of fun little nuances for each individual car that we work on and that's why and that's why you have that CH all Chon guides behind you yeah so we um we like to especially if it's an ncrs car that needs to be original even these original Motors they need to be um to spec um you've got to tighten certain bolts at a certain certain a certain torque has got to be on these things so these old books are amazing for find quick reference because if we tried to write down everything uh on a list and post it on a wall we'd have the entire shop covered in paper um so these old books come in handy and anytime I see them I try and pick them up but they've got um you can't even see all of them there there's three bookshelves back here full of um old Mitchell manuals Chilton manuals um auto manuals just everything that you can think of um that starts starts in the 30s and goes up to probably the mid 80s that we reference yeah well we'll hold on to them because you know that's all very valuable uh valuable information by the way Dan Vasquez who's one of our new master Elites and an instructor says hello Michelle he's watching hi Dan I think I shook your hand um watch you receive your award congratulations to yourself thanks Dan yeah yeah and speaking of awards Tony I think it's time for uh one of our station breaks well we're gonna take a little station break so we're going to talk about the awards that happened um I'm trying to find it here that happened at the Expo I'm going to share screen real quick so you see this nice little um look at all those red shirts look at those red shirts man that's a workshop that we delivered at tomman I think that was a Friday morning workshop that um I was doing all these guys had their red shirts on they were all from the drive Expo letting the people at the tow show like know how much Support Drive has for the tow show and all of our clients being there so so that's a great shot I just wanted to let everyone see that and um so let's talk a little bit about the prizes there's a passport completion prize that was given away uh what they win is they win two free nights at the hotel for the next Expo so for you guys who are coming to the Expo you gotta you gotta get a hotel for the however long you're gon to be there two of those nights if you're going to stay more two of them will be for free um and the person who won was Shan gowe of B Auto Body he won it up in new yep congratulations to him now there was also there was also a little contest that we did called the red shirt the red t-shirt contest which meant if you wore your red t-shirt to the e to the toan show uh then we'd put your name in a hopper and we'd pull your names and a few people won a gift card and I'm going to list off some of their names and I apologize if I get your name like if I butcher your pronunciation but I'm going to try to go for it here Amber Stout a first Automotive one Brian not and Sarah Rogers of Allen's Automotive one emry Henley of Auto Service of Pleasant View one Steve Mosley of Mile High mobile truck repair one uh Ryan bethl of RDI power one uh this one's the hard one rul sonoo I guess um sorry about that from RS Motorsports one Fernando Medina of uh quicklane mo mobile also won and Uriel uh from Buddy service center W and just I want before I get to the last one I just want to say if you're watching you Uriel your service adviser just called me and I'm assuming that my car is done because my car is in his shop right now and I'm getting it fixed today because he lives real close to me here in Georgia he's in uh so he runs buddies uh over in Jonesboro and yesterday he had my car up on a rack so anyway moving on Armondo Perez of axk collision one and Mar Marlin Reyes what was that good for Armondo yeah good for him and Marlin Reyes of Manny Euro Auto Service also won a gift card so that's congratulations to all of you one other announce ment uh because uh the 4th of July is next week we will not have a Facebook live next Friday so take advantage of that of that 30 minutes that you usually spend with us and go get a get get yourself a cocktail or whatever you want to do yeah so that's that's the plan you Michelle a cold dog that's right that's right okay back to the show yeah so do you all have any kind of plans for the Fourth of July Michelle uh the shop will be closed Thursday and Friday um as far as plans I am a Hermit when it comes to this heat um I do my best to stay where there is air conditioning the best AC is in my house there you go there you go unless your pool is refrigerated correct correct got a refrigerated pool I'll take an invite um otherwise I will probably just uh avoid the heat there you go well that sounds like a smart move air air is always better when it's well conditioned when it's in a good when it's in a good condition so it's in a good condition absolutely absolutely yes that is key yeah alrighty now we have a couple minutes left before we're gonna call it a day so I thought I'd ask you one other question off the top of your head based on everything you've studied so far you're just at the beginning of this journey you have the first a certification got a couple more to go you know but I would say uh what is the best Workshop that you did that had the biggest change for your shop for the people who are listening so they can think with what you thought was the workshop that did the best for your shop um it was the bookkeeping workshops um I'm the money person here and understanding the finances that are here have allowed me to cut where we are just bleeding money um which has increased our profit so that was probably the best workshop for me and there's there's a whole series of workshops when it comes to the bookkeeping that I um I am registered for and I will be taking in the coming months um but just the the initial um bookkeeping area Workshop was phenomenal and that was Chris props was your instructor chis Chris absolutely wonderful yeah Chris is one of the greats yeah she is absolutely wonderful she's definitely my goals when it comes to bookkeeping she is a Wiz with those numbers she run biggest one she runs a great stage 4 shop and Colorado Denver Colorado and she also has an accounting background and so I snatched her up as fast as I could to get her instructing our financial workshops and she has done a phenomenally good job yeah you'll have to you'll have to take a road trip sometime Michelle go up there and see her I actually that's not a a far cry I have family in Gunnison Colorado so it wouldn't be a hard a hard elbow Bend for me to go do oh okay good well we're we're hard up against the top of the hour here Michelle I want to thank you so much for joining us and once again congratulations on achieving Prof uh achieving effective shop uh manager and we look forward to seeing you on the stage for professional and master of shop management absolutely I'm I'm not gonna just stop there I'm going to go for elite sustain absolutely is then become one of our instructors yep come help me out you got it you got it very nice yep all right thank you for all of us at Drive Facebook live thank you so much and have a great weekend so long everybody