Hey all, I really would like to start my own business as an auto tuner, mainly for Hummers and other 4x4s. I really love automobiles. I am intending to become a professional automotive technician for starters, then modify my own vehicle, then get a Hummer and modify it, etc....you know, to prove I can do good work, then start the business, but I am wondering, is that a method to do it?

I was reading in a magazine and it said that the owner of Predator Motorsports, the leading Hummer parts company, started it as a crazy idea for a business school project. What I am wondering is, would he have had to somehow have had automotive/mechanical knowledge already when doing this, even though he was a business school person, or would he have handled the business side but hired people who had mechanical knowledge?

I keep looking around on Google for information on becoming a professional tuner, but I can't seem to find any. I really have dreams of becoming a high-calibre tuner, attending SEMA and so forth some day, I am just wondering if I am going down the right path, or if there is a specific path for something like this? I don't want it to be Joe Schmoe's local tuning shop forever, I want to evolve it into a full company that I can work in, but can also retire from with it being a full company that can continue to bring in money.

Any advice is appreciated, thanks. Just wondering if tarting as an auto technician is a proper start. I figure I need to know how to mess with the autos though if I ever want to work as a tuner on them.

 

Do you own a H3 and are you familiar with them.

 

Not right now, no. One of the reasons I am going to become an automotive technician is so that I can learn how to mess with all the parts of the vehicle. The technician programs are 2-3 years and they have various programs, like ones where you work at a GM Dealership (which I would probably do as I like GMC vehicles like the pickups, Hummers, Cadillacs (Escalade and the cars), etc...), a Toyota/Lexus dealership, Chrysler, etc...I have a 1998 GMC Jimmy right now, which I plan to customize as my first show vehicle for showing good work, then go from there.

 

What school are you planning to attend?

 

how old are you, and how much experience do you have working on vehicles...not counting anything like interior trim or AV items.

 

Gentlemen...You are being duped by HG123

 

I was just going to say.....

Dennis; you're alive! I hope!

 

I knew that.
Why do you think I was asking those questions.

 

Why can't you use your other login? Does your work block it or something?

 

If you guys are talking to me, thinking I am somone else, I am not. The school I was planning to attend is my local community college.