WORKING -- BOB JOHNSON

-- Story by Young Chang

HE IS

Under the hood

INSTANT GRATIFICATION

Johnson was dining at a steak restaurant for his 20th wedding

anniversary one recent year when his beeper went off. It was a customer:

She was stuck on the San Diego Freeway with a flat tire and needed his

help. He went.

It is with that kind of dedication that Johnson, a Huntington Beach

auto service technician, does his job.

He knows the undersides of cars -- all the valves, wires, caps and

everything else. He is perfectly at ease lying beneath a car.

Johnson loves what he does and said he would never do anything else.

“I like the challenge,” he said, “being able to see what you

accomplished. A car comes in in a tow truck, a few hours later, you see

it roll out of there.”

BUMPER TO BUMPER

Johnson, who works at Pacific Service in Costa Mesa, has been in the

car repair business for 38 years. He has been at Pacific Service for six

months and was self-employed before then.

His favorite type of car to work on is the Volvo. He especially enjoys

working on turbocharged parts, which can be found in Volvos, Saabs,

Mercedes, Ferraris and some BMWs.

“But I’ve been trained bumper to bumper,” Johnson said.

GREASE

His tools include regular sockets, pliers and air tools just to name a

few. The usual jobs -- oil changes, tuneups and other preventive

maintenance services -- are easy for him. But he can take apart an engine

down to its valves and pistons and then put it back together again.

Johnson gets dirty doing these jobs. Smudges of grease appear on his

clothes and skin. It doesn’t bother him though.

“I feel more comfortable that way,” Johnson said.

However, he and the other technicians change clothes, sometimes

several times a day, when they get in and out of expensive cars.

Johnson said he cares about the cars he works on. For ones that are

brought in regularly, he feels even more affection.

“It’s very important to me,” he said.