BURBANK MECHANIC HANGING UP HIS TOOL KIT.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY

There was a time when Art Law could lift the hood of a car, listen to the motor idle for a few seconds and tell you -- within a few dollars -- how much it would cost to fix the problem.

"Today, with all the new technology, it takes longer to find the problem than to fix it," the 73-year-old car mechanic said Thursday, opening Art's Auto Shop on Victory Boulevard in Burbank for another day of business. "And I don't see where all this new technology is making cars better. No, sir. I think it's making them worse. With all those little gadgets and things, it's just making them more expensive for people to get fixed."

That's Art Law. Ask him an honest question, you get an honest answer. Along with a 100percent guarantee on any work he does.

Which is why longtime customers such as Dana Bleitz are driving around today with crossed fingers and long faces after getting the bad news.

After nearly 50 years fixing cars in Burbank, Art's hanging up his mechanic's tools. He sold the business and is retiring at month's end.

"I'm so bummed. I feel like I just lost a family friend," said Bleitz, who has been taking her 1968 and 1979 International Harvester Scouts to Art for 20 years.

"I got a tip on him from some other mechanics," she said. "I figured if other mechanics were gushing over the guy, he must be good. And he is. Very good. If doctors could diagnose patients like Art diagnoses cars, we'd have a lot healthier people."

Art said he's proud of being one of the only African-American car mechanics in Burbank, and one of the first African-American business owners in the city.

And it wouldn't have happened if Floyd Jolley, a former mayor of Burbank who owned Jolley's Used Car lot across the street, didn't give him a chance more than four decades ago. "I had just moved my family from Alabama and was washing dishes at a restaurant in Encino trying to make ends meet," Law said.

"I'd been fixin' cars since I was a boy, so I walked onto Mr. Jolley's car lot one day looking for a job. No one else would give me a chance, but he did. He hired me as a mechanic's helper.

"Jolley didn't see a black man standing there. He saw a young man with skills as a mechanic."

Law became Jolley's main mechanic and stayed with him until Jolley died in the early '70s. Then Law moved across the street on Victory Boulevard to open his own auto shop for the next 37 years.

"It hurts to leave, but you can't stay forever," he said Thursday, working on one of Bleitz's Scouts. "You just have to stop sometimes. And my body's telling me it's time to stop."

The only advice he will pass on to the new owner is pretty straightforward and simple, he said.

A heck of a lot simpler than all that new technology that makes it tougher today trying to find the problem on a new car than to fix it.

"Be honest with people, and do the work properly," Law said. "Don't cheat 'em."

Do that, and you've got customers who will miss you when you retire.

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

After almost 50 years on the same street corner, Art Law, owner of Art's Auto Shop in Burbank, is looking forward to "a lot of fishing" after retiring.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer