By Alison McFerrin

The Selma Times-Journal

From bumper to bumper, inside and out — that’s the work that drives Frank Crowe.

“People need transport; people need to get around,” said Crowe, an auto mechanic at Selma Auto Repair. “A lot of people don’t realize how much they need us.”

Crowe has been an auto mechanic for about 20 years, a job he found more profitable than his initial endeavor.

“I love motorcycles,” Crowe said. He went to school at Motorcycle Mechanics Institute. “There isn’t a whole lot of motorcycle business, so I had to start working on cars.”

But working on cars helps to satisfy one of Crowe’s interests.

“I love fixing things,” he said. “It’s always been that way with me. I see something broken, and I want to fix it.”

Fixing things is always needed at an auto repair shop, and Crowe said he fixes about three cars per day at his job from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Although Crowe enjoys ‘fixing’ everything from tires to fuel pumps to transmissions, he said his real passion is in total restoration.

“I’d rather restore than just make repairs,” Crowe said. “For me, there’s nothing better than taking something apart all the way to the ground and making it like new.”

When he worked at Hudson’s Small Engines in Valley Grande, he was able to put this passion to the test.

“When I first started there, there was a small Honda sitting in the corner of the building,” Crowe said. He asked about the car and was told it needed restoring. “It was in pretty bad shape. I got through with it — took me about a week or two — called him and said ‘Your car’s ready.’” After testing out Crowe’s work, the customer came back with two more cars and a boat.

And auto repair is a one-on-one job — one mechanic, one car.

“We try to keep it that way, because if you’ve got more than one person working one car, they might not be working together,” Crowe said. “It’s best to have a mechanic start a project and finish a project.”