10/17/2024
I’ve got news to share. Read all about it if you want to.
It was February of 2020.
I’d never experienced crippling anxiety and stress like I was going through. I was having panic attacks weekly if not almost daily. I was 6 months into a Service Manager position at a local car dealership. My boss (the owner) was absolutely god awful to work for. He demanded things be done in unrealistic time frames, was inconsistent with how he would treat employees & was downright rude to customers before they’d be sent to me to be the magic “fix”. I was giving it my all, and it was never enough. He wanted a Master Tech at L**e Tech wages. I was somewhere in the middle of the knowledge range and on the lower end of the pay scale. I got more disrespectful messages and 1 ignored phone call.
I took my keys off my belt loop and opened the office door. “So this is you quitting?” I took a quick breath before answering. “You and I have 2 different ideas of how to treat people and how to run a shop. I’m not going to be a part of it anymore.” Before the door closed, the last thing I heard was, “If you think you can run a better shop, do it.”
My toolbox went into the back of my 1975 Chevy K20 and I made a phone call to my (then) girlfriend (now my wife). “I quit my job today.” The response was less than enthused about the timing, but supportive of the decision. I called the bank and they told me I had enough money to survive until March. I spent the rest of the day driving around town knocking on doors and making phone calls to see if I could rent a stall to make some quick cash. Thankfully, Haraldson had half a shop space he wasn’t using. The same shop I had spent days after school as a 17 year old, bugging the ever living s**t out of Otten while he was wrenching on anything with wheels. I worked out a deal to rent half the building and none of the parking lot that same day.
March 30th 2020 was officially the day I opened Torque Alley Garage. It was in the middle of Covid shutdown. The timing couldn’t have been worse. I was offering full interior details with exterior wash for $40. I wasn’t making enough to pay the light bill let alone pay myself. I stared at an empty calendar every morning and prayed to God my phone would ring. Every now and then somebody would schedule something. Every now and then they’d show up.
I made it the first year working on anything with wheels. The same way I’d seen Otten do before. I learned on my own the wrong way to do just about everything imaginable. Winter came, I didn’t have heat. I couldn’t afford it. I wore duck hunting boots with 2 pairs of socks, 3 layers of clothes under insulated bibs.
Spring of 2021 came and I was driving across the creek bridge and something caught my eye. An open door on a building I’d forgotten was even there. I got a phone number of an old boy and asked if there was any chance the building was for sale. “Actually, yes it is!” We met, he knew my dad (of course…) and we found a number I couldn’t afford but had to pay anyway. He left the old shop toolbox inside for me to keep. That sealed the deal.
I moved my tools and what little energy I had into my own building. Bought a hoist (which later got wrecked by a s**t bag, but that’s another story). Got a dealer license. Detailed cars, worked on trucks, rebuilt carbs, ate brake dust sandwiches. I eventually made a big enough splash that another small dealership GM called me to tell me I was “undercutting local business” with a Facebook post and he would get lawyers involved. After a few choice sentences he threw out, “Well if I need to, I’ll have the service manager let customers know that we can beat any quote you give!” And I probably uttered my favorite line of my entire life. “I’ll eat dirt sandwiches the rest of my fu***ng life before I lose a quote to you.” I had finally made it if I was pi***ng off somebody else.
Years rolled by, I quit selling cars because everybody wants new cars at used car prices. I got picky with what I worked on because I could choose the jobs with a large enough customer base. I spent 90 hour weeks grinding. It was working. But life wasn’t fun anymore. I aged like milk in the sun. I lost friends. I’d go to work in the morning, work until I could barely stand, come home too late at night and shower, eat what was already put away in the fridge and crawl to bed. Most mornings when I’d lace my steel toes back on, my boots were still warm. I wanted MORE to my life than just spinning wrenches. I missed my hobby. Classic cars. Reviving dead steel.
So I made the transition to working on classic cars & trucks. I found my passion again. It led me to throw my hat into the ring for a budget build off. I met awesome people, felt confident again, and started enjoying the little things in life like I used to. Somewhere along the way, I started to understand that Torque Alley Garage wasn’t a building. It was an idea that came to life. It was a kid that bet on himself, rolled the dice and won more than he lost.
I learned more in the last year than I ever thought possible. I accomplished more (with some help) than my wildest dreams could have prepared me for. I got married, built a car, got in better shape. I proved to myself that I was worthy of my own happiness and satisfaction. I quit trying for perfect and just did what needed doing.
That’s what made this decision easy.
Today I sold my shop. I’ll still be in it for awhile. But it doesn’t need me anymore. And I don’t need it. I’m moving on to a new chapter in life. Torque Alley Garage will still be my brand, the page will remain, still focused on rusty classics and the lifestyle of a hot rodder, maybe even with YouTube again.
So that’s all for now. There’s some other big news coming soon. But that’s another chapter in another book, for another night.
Keep your knuckles busted. I’ll see you when I’m sitting on the side of the road working on my rat rod 😉
-Charlie Daniels of the Torque Wrench
