FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
We like straight shooters. đ¤ A flat Bay is $35 an hour, our motorcycle/ATV lift bay is $40 an hour and a vehicle lift bay is $50 an hour - all tools and equipment are included in the bay fee except for our AC Service machine. There's also a one-time $10 shop fee which covers PB Blaster, WD-40, Brakleen, shop towels and rags, gloves - stuff like that. (We offer a 10% discount to active or retired military as well as First Responders, just remind us and show us your ID card at checkout. đ)
Time is prorated to the minute so if you're in for two hours and seventeen minutes - we charge you for two hours and seventeen minutes, we don't round it up to the next hour. In essence it comes down to the length of time it takes you to complete your project, hence the difficulty in any sort of quote, but at least you'll be able to have some idea of what you may be looking at cost and time-wise.
When you're ready, fill out a Bay Reservation Request form and let's get your project rolling! đ
Time is prorated to the minute so if you're in for two hours and seventeen minutes - we charge you for two hours and seventeen minutes, we don't round it up to the next hour. In essence it comes down to the length of time it takes you to complete your project, hence the difficulty in any sort of quote, but at least you'll be able to have some idea of what you may be looking at cost and time-wise.
When you're ready, fill out a Bay Reservation Request form and let's get your project rolling! đ
A: To rent a bay in our garage you need to be at least 18 years of age, have a valid driverâs license and read and sign our waiver. Persons under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult and that adult must fill out and sign the waiver for the child. No young children (12 or younger) are allowed on the shop floor without special permission. Closed toed shoes should be worn at all times and itâs encouraged that long hair be tied back, loose clothing tightened up or rolled up and eye protection be worn at all times.
It seems a lot more complicated than it is: You simply come in, tell us what type of bay you need and what youâll be doing. Fill out a waiver if you havenât done so, we enter you into our system and walk you out to the bay while one of our staff pulls your vehicle into the shop. Depending on which type of bay youâre using, weâll pull into either a flat bay or into a lift bay where weâll get it up on the lift for you. Weâll point out the locations of the bathrooms, the water fountains, fire extinguishers, tool crib and kill switches. Then weâll go through the tool chest with you to show you that all of the tools are there and ready to go. Then weâll turn you loose! It is a DIY garage after all! đŹ
You have the bay for as long as you need it. We also charge per minute so if you only use two hours and seventeen minutes of your three hour guesstimate, we charge you for two hours and seventeen minutes. We donât round up and we donât charge you an additional fee if you go over your best guess of how long you think youâre going to take.
Happens all the time and we have a few options for that instance. If you're just wanting to come back the next day and want to leave everything as-is and pick right back up where you left off, we'll clean up the tools, make sure they're all there and clean up the bay as best we can around your project. There's a $25 overnight fee with the caveat that your time starts when we open the next day - so it'd behoove you to be there when we open, lol. If you want to clean up all your parts and park it outside overnight, there's no charge for that and we don't start your time when we open the next day - so you don't HAVE to be back the next day when we open, it can be later or the following day or whatever. We allow for vehicles to be outside for up to ten business days before we start charging a storage fee. Usually not a problem for most. If your vehicle is not driveable but IS rollable we'll help you roll it out to a parking spot and then roll it back in later when you're able to get back to it. đ
We are. Seriously. Excepting for the occasional holiday of course. (Be sure to follow us on Facebook and sign up for our occasional email to keep you up on stuff like that)
No, unfortunately we canât â it is a do it yourself garage after all. While our managers and techs are trained and encouraged to help with basic knowledge, due to liability reasons we canât wrench on your vehicle for you. "Help you"? Yes, we're there to lend a hand muscling something, pointing out better ways to do something or if you run into problems. We absolutely will do our best to prevent you from injuring yourself with unsafe practices however. đ
Negative! Weâre here for the pro and the novice alike. Now, that being said, being a self-serve garage means we definitely encourage having some knowledge in what youâre attempting and doing some research before attempting it, or things could get pricey in a hurry. While at our place you have access to a few industry leading subscriptions which provides full OEM repair, maintenance and real-world, experience-based information in an easy-to-use format that our staff can help you use. We have two ruggedized laptops for use at your workbench; along with our wi-fi that means you can also find nearly anything you need on online forums and YouTube.
Itâs an alpaca. Alpacaâs rock.
That⌠that pretty much covers it.

That⌠that pretty much covers it.
Indeed it is, both on the shop floor and in the retail shop and bathrooms, etc.

We donât, no. Sadly, in todayâs society itâs too much of a liability concern above and beyond what weâre already into. With wheels being as expensive as they are, and tires going lower and lower profile we just donât see a way to offer that to DIYâers without it being a horror show. And the end result of this particular horror show is us being liable for way too much. Regardless of what actually happened, itâs going to be âADIYGâs faultâ if anything happens. Itâll either be our fault for not showing someone how to use it properly or itâll be our fault for âfaulty equipment.â We wanted to. We considered it. We asked around at various shops what they thought. To a shop, they hated it and absolutely didnât recommend it for those reasons mentioned above: they spent more time fighting customers over imaginary or pre-existing scratches that a lot of them wonât do anything outside of factory sized wheels and tires any more. Iâve seen posts on various forums where guys PLAN on it, they PLAN on going to a shop JUST to complain and try to get new rims out of them. We just canât fathom that. A balancer might be handy, but again, weâre talking about a spinning hunk of metal and rubber that could seriously injure someone if theyâre not paying attention to detail. So, no, we wonât have a tire machine or balancer for a while, if ever. Weâre hoping our neighbor Chandler gets them next door for them to mount and balance while our customers are doing something else in one of our bays though.
We do not. We couldnât see the point of spending $40k on a rack that requires a large area in our shop and some pretty intensive training to learn how to use and get proper results â and then turn that over to DIYâers. Instead weâve partnered up with Racewerks of Virginia Beach just a few yards down the street when our customers do things that require an alignment. These guys have been doing it a long time and for lots of regular Joes as well as racing Joes â theyâll take care of you and make sure everything is good to go. And your name doesnât have to be Joe.
We surely do! As a matter of fact, we have a couple of methods of getting motorcycles up off the ground
One way is the "floor jack" style of lifting that is used in a regular, flat bay at $25 an hour. This is a jack that cradles the center section of a motorcycle and allows for the lifting off the ground of the wheels:
The other type of motorcycle lift we have is an actual hydraulic lift that can lift up to 1500 pounds and has side skirts that can be added if an ATV is to be driven on it. This lift is in its own bay, runs $30/hr and, like all bays, includes all tools and equipment in the joint except for our AC Service machine đ:
One way is the "floor jack" style of lifting that is used in a regular, flat bay at $25 an hour. This is a jack that cradles the center section of a motorcycle and allows for the lifting off the ground of the wheels:

The other type of motorcycle lift we have is an actual hydraulic lift that can lift up to 1500 pounds and has side skirts that can be added if an ATV is to be driven on it. This lift is in its own bay, runs $30/hr and, like all bays, includes all tools and equipment in the joint except for our AC Service machine đ:

Even though itâs a self-serve garage we do supply shop rags and paper towels at each bay, as well as hand cleanser at locations around the shop. Weâve got WD-40, PB Blaster and Brakleen for your use but other supplies are pretty much on you to bring if desired. We may or may not have other greases/fluids/other items (sometimes our customers leave leftovers that might come in handy for future customers), but if you think youâre going to need it, you might want to bring it. Supplies can be ordered and delivered from our parts stores partners â but depending on how busy they are and where they have to go to pick stuff up, you may be in for anywhere from a twenty minute to two hour wait in extreme cases.
We keep a small stock of general parts on-hand: zip ties, hose clamps, fuses, vacuum line and plugs, bulbs, etc. We can order parts through our system for you through our partners Advance Auto, Autozone, NAPA, Pep Boys or OâReilly Auto Parts and have them delivered to the shop. If parts are in stock we can usually have them in hand within thirty minutes. If not we can either have them delivered to you or if prior arrangements have been made, we can have them delivered to us where weâll hold them for you until youâre able to come in and pick them up. It's always best to plan ahead and get your parts or materials before coming in just in case we can't find your part on the shelf or the store doesn't have a driver that particular day. đ
Negative. Weâre still considering how best to go about this but until we have a way to ensure the skill level of the person wanting to weld, we donât. Weâre also concerned with liability in the case of welding being conducted on our premises not being done properly and failing, ending in injury or death. If you have your own welding gear and want to bring it along to use in our shop, bring all related safety equipment and weâll have a go at it. Weâve got curtains for use around the welding site at no additional charge.
You can do some body work as long as it doesnât create a lot of dust or fumes (no heavy Bondo or fiberglass work; small stuff is okay â please ask before starting) but we canât do any painting (outside of rattle can or brush on stuff) due to EPA regulations. DIY garage vs DIY body shop and all that. Please see the staff before starting any painting, Bondo or fiberglass work.
Have your license plate number handy and see our staff to read and sign the waiver (and itâs a doozy*, Iâll tell ya â thank your government for that) and theyâll check you in to a bay!
*Auto shops and working on vehicles can be inherently dangerous places and past times. While we will do our very best to ensure our customers are acting in a safe manner, thereâs always a chance that youâll find a way to hurt yourself or your vehicle. Weâre all adults and responsible for our own actions and the chance IS there to get hurt, so do your best to pay attention to detail, watch whatâs going on around you, and stay focused and aware. If you see someone acting in an unsafe manner, bring it to their attention and to the staffâs attention. If you get hurt or see someone else get hurt, make SURE you call attention to it/them and seek help from the staff as quickly as possible. Weâre a family here and we donât want family hurt.
*Auto shops and working on vehicles can be inherently dangerous places and past times. While we will do our very best to ensure our customers are acting in a safe manner, thereâs always a chance that youâll find a way to hurt yourself or your vehicle. Weâre all adults and responsible for our own actions and the chance IS there to get hurt, so do your best to pay attention to detail, watch whatâs going on around you, and stay focused and aware. If you see someone acting in an unsafe manner, bring it to their attention and to the staffâs attention. If you get hurt or see someone else get hurt, make SURE you call attention to it/them and seek help from the staff as quickly as possible. Weâre a family here and we donât want family hurt.
Honestly, weâd prefer it simply because weâd have better control of the fluids that go into our tanks. The recycling types get serious heartache when two chemically disparate types of fluids are mixed (in this case any type of engine oil/transmission fluid/rear gear oil mixed with any type of antifreeze) because it destroys any chance of recycling either type. However we wonât turn anyone away as long as the fluids are in a clear bottle so itâs fairly clear at a glance if itâs oil or if itâs antifreeze. If itâs a mix then weâll have to refer you to the Virginia Beach Recycling Center.
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