Carisa Lee

Three years ago when me­chan­ic Paul Ay­ers opened his garage in San Fer­nan­do, his goal was to use his craft to make a pos­i­tive im­pact.

He start­ed by nam­ing his garage (Horse­shoe Au­to­mo­tive) af­ter where he grew up—known as the “De Horse­shoe” in Pleas­antville—with hopes of chang­ing the stig­ma at­tached to that com­mu­ni­ty.

“I want­ed the street to be known for not just on­ly the neg­a­tive, I want­ed peo­ple to see some­thing pos­i­tive could come out of, you know, places that not nec­es­sar­i­ly looked up to,” he said.

One of his me­chan­ics is al­so from the area.

“He has al­ways been an in­tel­li­gent young man,” Ay­ers said.

He al­so hopes to bring the com­mu­ni­ty back to­geth­er through events post-pan­dem­ic.

But the im­pact of COVID-19 has not stopped Ay­ers from us­ing his craft to make his mark.

Known as Tri­ni Me­chan­ic on Tik­Tok, he cre­ates and shares videos with ve­hi­cle tips and hacks for his close to 15,000 fol­low­ers.

Paul Ayers, an Automative Technician also known as Trini Mechanic on TikTok as he films a video of car tips for his followers.

MICHAEL RAMSINGH

“I knew that I want­ed to do Tik­Tok be­cause of the way the app is struc­tured. The app it­self pro­motes di­a­logue be­tween peo­ple but it was al­so a good av­enue for me to put my voice out there. I re­alised that there was so much mis­con­cep­tion when it comes to ve­hi­cles and how they work,” he ex­plained.

Ay­ers joined the app in May and has made videos with tips on how to main­tain hy­brid ve­hi­cles, how to prop­er­ly wash or save an en­gine and even what to look for when buy­ing a used car.

“One thing that some­body who sell­ing a used car will tell you is that the car was nev­er in an ac­ci­dent and that is not al­ways true, so get a pen­cil, you’re us­ing the ta­pered edge of the pen­cil to mea­sure the seams of the ve­hi­cle, it sup­posed to be equal through­out…that is for mi­nor dam­age,” he elab­o­rat­ed.

He al­so goes live and an­swers any ques­tion car own­ers may have about their ve­hi­cle but the con­ver­sa­tions led to much more than that.

“A 16-year-old young man said that I was his in­spi­ra­tion and that was worth every video all of the time put in­to it,” he said.

His oth­er fol­low­ers are just thank­ful for his con­tent.

“I have learnt so much from your videos, thank you,” Sayuri said. and An­oth­er per­son added, “Yeah I re­al not in­to cars and I re­al watch­ing all these videos.”

Al­though the goal was to help peo­ple, the Tri­ni Me­chan­ic’s videos on Tik­Tok has led to an in­crease in in­come. He said he has got­ten much more clients since he start­ed post­ing.

Apart from re­duc­ing the stig­ma at­tached to his com­mu­ni­ty through the work done in his garage and his videos, there is an­oth­er taboo top­ic he wants to tack­le, men­tal ill­ness.

“I think that peo­ple un­der­es­ti­mate the pow­er of tak­ing care of your men­tal health…it’s im­por­tant for me to do that video be­cause it’s part of who I am, I still do ther­a­py up to this day,” he said.

Paul Ayers, an Automative Technician working on an engine at his garage in Pleasantville, San Fernando.

MICHAEL RAMSINGH