Used to live down the road from Chadwell Heath.
Dont worry about the car scene, there is a ford meet of some description every weekend!
Passionford meet in southend 1st wednesday of the week.
Halfway house RSOC meet.
I could go on. And its easy to make friends at them.
But watch the drifting round the roundabouts, more CCTV and speed cameras round that area than you can shake a stick at and the cops are wankers with the car lot as they have so many tossers showing off in their saxos
As for work, if your a skilled mechanic you wont be out of work for long, plenty of garages about.
Plus with Romford lot and lots of bars and clubs, and your only an hour away from central london too which has even more!