A bit about David

I qualified with a Level 3, Diploma in Vehicle Maintenance and Repair (Light Vehicle) qualification.

I worked for the Vauxhall Gold Certificate, (Vauxhall technician - gold level) additional qualification.

I worked for a local dealership and gained experience in the full range of service work, from PDIs for new cars, through regular servicing and diagnosis and repair of breakdowns. I was trained in, and used the full range of diagnostic equipment that you would expect to see in a main dealer network garage.

Time for a change! I went to work for Hands at Work Africa. They are a Christian non-profit organisation working in vulnerable communities across sub-Saharan Africa where HIV/AIDS, poverty and numbers of orphans are highest and support structures are very low. They help the local church in those communities to care effectively for the orphaned and vulnerable. See their web site at http://www.handsatwork.org/who-what-where-how/. I was based at the headquarters in White River, South Africa, but travelled to other projects in Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Zambia, often in vehicles that I maintained.
It was my job to maintain their vehicle fleet, plus the cars of the other volunteers. Many of the vehicles are old, and it is not uncommon for them to have registered 300,000k on the clock. I initially went for one year, which became 3 and a half

This has greatly added to my experience of maintenance of vehicles out in the field.

Diagnosis. Vehicles in Africa have a hard life, and I had to diagnose what problems vehicles have when they return to base, to decide what can be fixed by me, and what has to be referred on for specialist rebuild.
Risk assessment. There is no MOT in Africa, and the standard of driving is relatively poor, as are the roads, so it was my job to decide what was safe and what was not. Particular attention had to be paid to suspension and brake components. When out on the roads, I also had to decide what could be repaired sufficiently to get the vehicle home, and when a tow was necessary.
On site work. When I first went out, I had no workshop and worked on the ground. Later I had a covered workshop with a concrete floor, power and a fair range of tools.
I also have extensive experience of diagnosing and fixing cars on the roadside without the benefit of a full range of workshop tools and equipment. If I can fix broken CV joints on a minibus on a mountain road in Swaziland in the dark, I can be pretty adaptable and creative

Back in England and started my own business. DBautorepairs. Get in touch and book me now!