Restorer32

We always ask a potential customer "What do you think a full restoration of your car might cost?" Recently went to look at a 30's 4 door sedan, about the cheapest sedan you could buy in 1938 but the owner was very sentimental about the car. It had belonged to relatives who bought it new. Unfortunately it spent many decades stored in a chicken coop and needed everything, rusty, engine seized etc. His answer? "I assume it will cost in excess of 100K?" A knowledgeable client is a joy to work for. Regarding earlier topics. We do not charge to travel and look at potential projects. When the resto is completed we encourage the client to show the vehicle at least once. We do not charge to show cars we restore, figuring showing benefits us as much if not more than the owner. Best advertising there is. Now if the show is some distance from our shop we might charge for fuel and overnight stays but we don't charge for any time we spend on the show field. Bottom line, treat folks fairly and don't be greedy and you will do ok.

About 1/3 of the projects we get come from other shops or circumstances where they were disassembled and some work done but for whatever reason work ground to a stop. It's easy to take a car apart. Putting it back together is the hard part. We have been trying for 2 years to retrieve all the parts for a '58 Cadillac that came from another shop. They took a big deposit, took the car apart, subbed out the interior, chrome etc then gave up. They did not have the $ to retrieve the parts they had farmed out. Our client had to pay twice to retrieve some of the new interior. Needless to say lawyers are now involved.

Never underestimate the value of sentiment. Many if not most of the restorations we do are for folks who have a sentimental attachment to their vehicle. We recently did a total ground up resto of a Model A Fordor and are currently doing a Model T that was first restored in the 1950's by the owner's Father. We will soon be starting on a car that was the cheapest model sold in the US the year it was new. The car is in atrocious shape but the client wants it so we will do it. Not everyone values objects just for their monetary value. As I've written before "Beware the Phillistine who knows the Price of everything but the Value of nothing'.

A very wise and successful friend once told me "There are no bad employees, just bad managers".

I think such a scheme would drive away many long time vendors.

I can only relate what has worked for us over the last 44 years of restoring professionally. For the first 10 or so years we concentrated on proving we could actually restore cars to the level clients wanted. For 10 years I worked a 40 hr/wk job and worked another 40 hrs/wk restoring cars. First car we did was a Model A followed by a '31 Chev and various other cars. Slowly we built a reputation for good work at a fair price and better work came in. Now we do only "show quality" restorations. There is a great demand for "driver quality" work but that is not what we do. When anyone approaches us about a project we (it is now my Son's business) have a conversation with the potential client and point out that in the vast majority of cases they can buy the best restored example of the car they wish to restore for less, often far less, than they can have us restore their car. We then tell them how we work. We do not give estimates. We work strictly time and materials. We sell whatever experience and expertise we have gained over the years by the hour. Our clients are free to buy as many hours as they wish. Hopefully they buy enough hours to finish the restoration. We take no deposit up front. We keep our hourly rate as low as we can. We bill monthly and expect to be paid monthly. Anything we purchase for a client's car is marked up 20% from our cost, which is often still less than what it would cost them to buy the parts or materials themselves given the discounts we often get. We now have an 8400 sq ft shop and have employed 6-7 workers since the 1990's and have plenty of work. Professional restoration is now and always has been a painfully expensive endeavor. We always qualify our clients before we work for them. Easy to do in the Internet age. In a few minutes we can get a picture of their house and learn what they paid for it. We want to see evidence that the potential client can afford to get involved in a full professional frame up restoration to show standards. Prove you can do the job and treat folks fairly and you will develop a following. We have done 5 complete restos for one fellow, all of which have won AACA Senior Awards etc. and are now doing 3 restos for another fellow, all 1950's Cadillacs and all at the same time. You sound like a great employee. Where are you located? We are always looking for talented and experienced help.

We call that color "Turkey tu*d tan".

Those luggage rack bumpers were reproduced and were available until a few years ago.

12" to 18" tall and roughly T shaped. Sort of like an amoeba.

I have often wondered the same. When did "yellow cad" come into use? I have seen 1930's cars with yellow cad plated engine parts, especially carbs, and it does not look correct to me.

I see at least one truck and one trailer parked behind your goods for sale. Suppose you used two of your ten spaces to park your truck and trailer and rearranged your stuff for sale so it would fit on 8 spaces. Should you then be denied spaces because you had two spaces that you were used just for parking? Walking past two spaces used for parking and eight spaces used for vending is the same walking distance as ten spaces with stuff for sale spread out over ten spaces. Not trying to start an argument. I just don't think requiring every space to hold items for sale is the solution.

So your entire 10 spaces are full of items to sell? Must be a heck of an operation. We vend as well. This year will be our 55th year at Hershey.

Bear in mind that many of the spots being used for parking are used by BUYERS. I don't care about the "non vending spots". What I will care about is folks not buying spaces and not attending Hershey because of too many rules and restrictions. Personally we reserve a space or 2 every year so we can invite new customers to experience "Hershey". They likely wouldn't come if they had to park in the public parking and try to find our spots. AACA has gained several good members thru our efforts. Why mess with a good thing? Hershy is just like a family reunion. Some folks bring a covered dish and some don't but all are welcome.

Friend, now gone, lived in Sarasota and was finishing a 1932 Packard for a show in Rome, GA. Night before the show and still had many hours of work to do, mounting headlights, taillights, fender lights, front and rear bumpers. etc. What to do? Simple. Leave for the show late at night with just enough time to make it onto the field. Have wife drive the truck and trailer while you and a buddy finish the car in the trailer which luckily had good lighting. Made it in time to drive onto the field and take home a Junior 1st. 1932 Packard 900 Conv Coupe.

Very well done indeed!

Over the years I have learned that you can find any part for any car ever built if you have enough time and enough money.

I think everyone who worked at Harrah's, including the guy who swept the floors, opened restoration shops of their own.

Saw Bill Harrah one time, at Hershey. He was driving an early and BIG Mercedes thru the flea market. Early 1970's I think.

Friend of mine was working in a small shop. He was laying over the engine of a '65 T bird working on a mechanical fault of some kind. He had unhooked the neutral safety switch. He started the engine from his position laying across the engine and yes you guessed it. The car was in gear. He rode the Bird thru a fiberglas garage door and across the parking lot into the rear corner of the boss's roll back, badly breaking his hip.

I'll start. Broke my right arm in 1990 crank starting a 1928 Autocar and yes I know how to crank a motor safely.

Sometimes you are better off doing what you do best so you can afford to pay someone to do what they do best.

As I remember he had copies of original blueprints for the top. We fabricated the irons from polished stainless bar stock.

We have about a dozen "Motor Boys" books on our shelf here in the office.

I figured out that he is not even in our area. Likely foreign with a stolen pic of a large pile of firewood. He and the pic have disappeared.

At Hershey my Brother pointed out that "Hershey" is not woke. "Her She"? Shouldn't it be "TheyThem"?