Lesson 1 Reflection

1. Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Lesson 1 Presentation and why?
 
      Probably my prop, which was a spare tire, because it helped me elaborate more on the presentation.
 
2. Questions to Consider
      
      a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 1 Presentation (self-assessment)?
               P

      b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 1 component contract.
                  
               I believe that I deserve the P because I hit all of my points and I believe I met all the requirements and communicated well with my audience.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 1?
            
            I think that speaking out from my own knowledge worked well because it allowed me to flow better and not run off some sort of script. I present better when I don't plan too much.
 
4.  (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 1?

            I think that I would have been a bit more organized with my presentation because although it was filled with information, it could have been re organized in a better order to flow better.
           

Gettin' Busy

Hello everyone! This past month has been very busy for me but I was able to make a few more visits to Bavarian before the end of this month. Just a few weekends ago was my last visit which was very busy and hands on. I showed up early in the morning and was put to work right away, washing cars with two of the mechanics named Miguel and Jojo. We must have washed over ten cars in around 6 or 7 hours! I was also Nick the mechanic's wheel dolly, lifting tires up to their hubs all day long, giving me a great shoulder work out! We did the normal oil changes and brake changes all day long. I also learned how to stop the squeak of the brakes on one of the many BMW's. We took the brake pads out and he showed me how to "champer" the brakes which is basically shaving all the corners off the pad which worked miraculously, stopping the annoying brake squeal. Lastly and my favorite part out of this entire visit was when I was allowed to drive the 2013 BMW M3 which happened to be super charged with an awesome exhaust system. I was very excited to have the rare opportunity to drive such a beautiful piece of German machinery. I loved the look of that car since the first day I saw it and I was offered to drive it and was ecstatic! Even just starting up the car gave me tingles on my back, it was absolutely gorgeous and very fast! I drove it into the garage from the parking lot and gunned it a little when I had the chance and felt the power of the beast pull me into my seat! It was awesome to feel that amount of power right underneath my foot! Anyways I will stop now because I could talk about this all day. I really enjoyed that weekend’s visit and look forward to the next one! Have a Happy Halloween everyone!     



Blog 8: Research and Working EQ

1. What are the most important factors in keeping a BMW or any Automobile maintained? 

2.   Possible answers

• Visit your regular mechanic maintenance shop every month for checkups.

•  Use fuel additives to keep your car running clean and efficiently.

3. The most important source that I have used to come up with these answers is the website "howitworks.com".

4. My mentor is Pedro Miranda, the owner of the Bavarian garage in Covina. What I am doing for my mentorship relates directly with automotive repair because I'm literally being hands on, repairing and doing preventative maintenance on BMW's. 

Blog 7: Independent Component 1 Approval

1.For my 30 hours I plan on going in to the Bavarian Garage, a BMW repair and maintenance shop in Glendora Ca. I plan on doing the basic maintenance done on every BMW that enters the shop, for example, I will be doing oil changes and assisting in brake jobs. The basics of any car's maintenance starts with oil changes and simple fixes like switching out light bulbs in the headlights or brake lights. I will be getting hands on and getting my hands nice and dirty and performing the simple but most important preventative jobs, which also includes brake flushes, another preventative measure that we must do to almost every car that comes in the shop.

2. I plan on taking pictures of all the oil changes and brake jobs done while I am there to show the 30 hours of work.

3.Doing this project will help me learn the basics of auto repair and give me lots of experience, which is a necessity when it comes to automotive repair because you must get your hands dirty in order to learn, like Nick a mechanic at the garage said, " You gotta git your hands, dirty ya know?". That is the best way to learn about cars, by just "getting in there" and take things apart and put them back together and learn from it.

Clean Is Better

So I went last weekend to do some more hours at the Bavarian Garage and we got busy! We had a car waiting for us right when we walked in. I worked with Nick, one of the mechanics and we did work on few different cars. We first changed the "halo ring" part of the headlights on a early 2000's BMW, which required us to take the entire bumper off, which was ridiculous but had to be done. We also did an oil change and a brake flush on that same car. Then we moved on the to the next car and replaced the radiator, water pump, and thermostat which took us around an hour. The I worked with Jojo, the "Big Dog" around the shop who has had over thirty years experience working on BMW's at the dealership. He showed me how to change the brakes and rotors on the last car and he did in amazingly fast, he did the rear wheels in about 15 minutes. What I learned that day from Nick the mechanic was that the main goal of the shop is to keep everything clean, he says "clean is better!". The main goal for the shop is to keep there customers cars running cleanly and effectively, to do all of the work for the owners. It was a great experience meeting and working with Jojo and I'm looking forward to my next visit.

Blog 6: Second Interview Preparation

1. My mentor is Pedro Miranda and he is the owner of the Bavarian Garage. A BMW maintenance and repair shop.

2. My five questions I will ask:

      1. What made you want to work on BMW's and open up your own shop?
      2. Where did you start your journey to becoming a BMW specialist?
      3. What was the most challenging part of getting where you are now?
      4. How did you open up your own shop?
      5. What was the biggest factor that helped you to succeed in opening your own shop? 

Blog 5 - Mentorship Reflection

1. My experience getting a mentor was not very difficult for me. One reason is that contributed to an easy search for me was the seemingly never ending supply of mechanics shops to ask around my house and at one point I even considered making my own grandpa my mentor since he has had plenty of experience and know-how to teach me lots about auto repair. I have always loved cars and motorcycles, it's in the blood of my whole family, which also made it easier because many of my uncles and cousins are mechanics themselves, and know plenty of other mechanics for me to try and ask. But before I made my final decision to make my grandpa my mentor, I had came up on a great opportunity. My step dad is a barber and cuts peoples hair from all over the place, he happened to be cutting our friend Nick the mechanic's hair and told him about it and he told me to speak to PJ or Pedro, the owner of the BMW shop he worked at and to ask him about it. So I asked him and he was willing to let me come in a and learn, and things went on since then and he has been great so far. 

2. I would say that the most important article I have read so far has been, "What That Car Really Costs To Own" because it answered a lot of the questions I had about BMW's and there cost to own. It gave good statistics on many different cars which gave good insight on how much it would be. For example, they gave a table that showed the ratio of an assortment of cars' costs in the time of five years, the ratio was comparing operating costs with carrying costs, carrying costs consisting of depreciation, interest, and tax while operating costs consists of fuel, insurance, maintenance and repair costs. This gave a great look on how each cars expenses change over time, and really showed me how much a really nice car costs to own over a good amount of time.