One of the perks of life on the West Side Yo.

Bad valve stem? $5 and 15 minutes on my way to work, mounted back on the car. Sorta like Fast and Furious. Se Habla Espanol.

Two thumbs up. I tipped the guy another $5 😎

Classic boomer mindset, thanks for reiterating.

A friend his Dad and Brother used to hunt pigs down by the border every year. One time on the ranch they got a flat on their pickup. Guide said he knows the perfect tire shop. Takes them to town to a rickety shack of a tire store. Staffed by 3 old mexican dudes. They drop the tire and tell them they are gonna have lunch and come back. Buddy said they go and eat start walking back. One of the mexicans spots them coming down the street and friend said all 3 Mexican dudes jump up from sitting down and start working on the tire at the same time haha. He said it was funny watching 3 dudes try to look like they are all helping dismount a tire. $5 and 20 minutes later tire was fixed.

Where else is a convicted felon gonna find work?

OTOH they never get robbed.

They’re a Bandido family, the sign says to support our local crew.

Plus they know I’ve been a teacher at the local school practically forever, so I get preferential treatment, strange but true.

One time my ex daughter in law rear-ended someone in my Corolla. Radiator pushed back, hood with right-angle crease across the middle. A genius with a hammer at the local body shop hammered it back to usable the same day I brung it for $160. Teacher privilege. That was 10 years back, still drive it today.

I had a shop like that in Utah pretty much destroy the rims on my Impala SS. Had an alignment issue in the rear end eat off some tires, bought some used ones to get me home.

Picked up my car and thought why is there so much grease around the edges of my rims. I washed them and found out. The edges of the aluminum were best to hell all the way around and about 1/2" into the face of the rims. Good old Victor's tires denied it all and said I couldn't prove it.

Bb

Back in the '60s street rod days it was a big deal to have custom 'tuck and roll' Naugahyde interiors stitched and installed at little out-of-the-way shops by Mexicans down around the border. They did some pretty classy work, too.

I'd rather go to the local Mexican shop than the local tweaker central.....

Don't worry, if you paid them cash I have no doubt they will claim it on their taxes to make sure they are giving back to the country. But hey, at least you saved a few bucks.

We have bunches of Meskins tire shops here.

Who doesn’t take credit/ATM cards anymore?

I hardly ever carry cash, ‘cept to the range where they don’t take plastic, but they have an ATM machine which is about the same thing.

Anyhow, would you experience immensely righteous fulfillment if I conceded to your condescending suspicions?

I read that somewhere

Not for Me. I know what the technical requirements of tire repair are. It is very difficult to find any facility that is doing the job 100% correct. I drive a FWD pickup with OEM 20's and if one tire repair fails I could be in for replacing a $1500.00 set of tires. Finding a used tire to match a worn set would be next to impossible. These HD trucks scrub around corners and will pick up any debris in the road. I've had three nail strikes so far.
The only facility I would trust is a company authorized tire dealer. My last tire repair I requested to see the nail puncture and went over the required steps of the tire repair. The shop did ok until I got to the post patch sealing step. I asked to see the product they were used to coat the patch/plug area after it had been installed. They showed me a can of adhesive that they don't use anymore. They said that it didn't work on the patch/plugs. They were applying the post sealer to the primary patch. I told them how to use the products in the process and they were happy. Tire repair products all have a shelf life. They are expensive consumables that need to be cared for.

My Ex brother in law cued me onto a friggin’ ace mechanic who has a transmission shop deep inside the West Side. Place looks like a dump but it’s always packed. The guy is an Evangelical believing Christian, honest to a fault. Does great work, also great at diagnosing a problem free of charge just by listening.

Motorcycle mechanics at the dealerships, IME seems it’s hard for them to find a good mechanic who will work for what they pay.

Boy, somebody is awfully touchy about their 'Meskin tire shops.

Interesting thing is, I've been here more'n thirty years and they were already an old business when I got here. Same thing with the body shop.

The tire shop is open 7 days a week, always busy.

Didn't use them for years, always went to the big chain tire stores, then one day I needed a flat fixed quick. Been buying all our tires there for about 20 years.

If we took away the incentive for them to be here we'd save $$$ billions by not having to build a wall and patrol the border. Just saying. I don't understand encouraging them to come for cheap labor then build a wall to keep 'em out.

Yep - and a bunch of 'em were literally RIGHT across the Tia Juana border... That was big business back then when I was in the area mid-'60s...

"if one tire repair fails I could be in for replacing a $1500.00 set of tires."

Why? A good tire shop can shave your new tire down to the same diameter as your old tires if necessary.

I gotta really do some thinking about whether my next vehicle is gonna be AWD or not. I just put two new Firestones on the front of my other Corolla for $150.

I may have been too quick to judge. I have no problem admitting if I'm wrong. I assumed they were like all of the 'Meskin tire shops around here that only accept cash. They'll operate for a few years, close shop, then reopen in the same location with a new name.

Ain’t gonna try and defend it. I will say that around here who is a Mexican Mexican and who is an Mexican American can be hard to tell. It’s like 80% Hispanic here.. Pretty sure an American kid changed that valve this morning.

As manual labor goes it doesn’t seem to be a bad job. The labor sits in the shade and waits for business, I’m pretty sure they are paid on a per-task basis. Seems like if one guy is tired he sits back and let his buddy take the job.

No biggie, this is the only Meskin tire shop I’ve been to, other than maybe nine months back I had a tire come apart near Corpus and bought a $30 used tire to get home. That one was run by a heavily-tattooed Mexican kid scrambling to make a living in a small town, pretty sure he was American.

Some of those Mexican families in San Antonio’s west side may have come over recently but a lot of them have been here for 100+ years. My in laws both grew up inthe west side and they’re families have been in the us since before 1900

Ya, I've been pointing that out on occasion to folks here who seem to assume one Hispanic is necessarily the same as another.

Come to think about it, on the deep West Side there's a bunch of really old-looking automotive-related small businesses.