I'm an "apprentice technician" and becuase i have previous experience doing maintenance work and light repair at Firestone (for 1.5 years) i got hired on at $10.00. I'm in a 2 year co-operative program and at the end i should be making about $15 an hour flat rate when i start in the shop. Most guys who don't go to school make about $30,000-$40,000 full time. And ones with experience make $40,000-$100,000+. There's 3 guys in my shop that make over $100,000 a year and the average is about $60,000 for full time techs. This is, however, in a fairly well off area that it's easy to upsell work and there's also alot of warranty work as well that doesn't pay as well, but pays enough. Good luck on your career change. If you started at the bottom you'd probably make around $9 or $9.50.
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Mustang Parts Specialties ripped me off, it could happen to you as well.
'84 Mustang 5.0 LX
my LX
'89 Mustang GT
my GT