The good thing in your case is that there are a lot of racing oriented businesses in that area that you could check into. You know how it works in that field though, you have to do some door knocking.
There are some good tankless options with gas. The good ones are 2-3 times the cost of a tank plus installation and the ROI is not that great. They're great though if you have several teenagers.
Sorry to hear about that brother...not sure if they're hiring but you can google Action Metal out of Conyers or RF Knox out of Smyrna. We use both of these for fab work and they always seem to be real busy.