How can I make money in the antique car business

[Guest imported_MrEarl]

If a person was looking at retiring early and wanted to supplement his penalized early retirement monthly check by performing a service for antique car owners, what would some of those services be.

Hopefully something with a low initial investment into equipment and supplies. (Say $10,000) Hopefully someting that would bring in an annual income of say $20,000 for approximatley 24 hours average a week.(The rest of the time would be spent of course "enjoying early retirement by working on ones own car(s)). Hopefully something that would not be too difficult to learn or stressful to perform. (Total car restoration is out)

Thoughts, ideas anyone?

[Curti]

Consider buffing and polishing and metal repair, ie. the work that is done prior to the plating process. Of course you have to have a good repore with a reliable plater in your area.

[joe_padavano]

It's easy to make a small fortune in the antique car business - just start with a big one... (BADDA BING!)

Seriously, I see the guys with the campers and big trailers that spend the winter scrounging sheetmetal in the southwest and then sell it at the eastern swap meets during the summer.

[Matt Harwood]

Plating/polishing is my suggestion, too. You can get into business relatively inexpensively and can become quite proficient with relatively little effort. Like Curt says, if you establish a relationship with a plater, you should be able to save people a lot of money by doing the prep work, say, between coats of copper, and just have the plater do the actual plating. The difference between the show-quality shops and the industrial shops is this prep process, which is merely time-consuming, not particularly difficult.

You might also look into reproducing cast plastic parts. Moldmaking isn't tough, so you could do just about anything from which you can make a pattern. I have a set of beautifully reproduced '41 parking light lenses that were made by some guy in his basement. Since they're much better plastic, I'll be using them on my restoration, not the NOS ones I also found.

I think with either/both of these you could easily meet your goals once you build a reputation. Advertise in the Bugle or even Hemmings and see what happens. A web site would also be a tremendous help--just by putting my web site in my signature, I get 50-80 hits a day. Not bad for a non-business site.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do! I could sure use a plater and a plastic guy for my restoration, and I'd be more than happy to send you the work.

[Guest windjamer]

Lamar my grandson works full time,5 days a week. On week ends he lines up cars to wash and wax. depending on the car and what the owner wants he earns $40.00--$1oo.oo per car. He will due 4--6 cars on a Sat. Not bad for a part time job. He has maby $40.00 in a polisher,not a buffer and a little soap and water. A can of wax is ten bucks and he gets at least 2 cars out of a can, some times 3. It helps that mom and dad own the 5 bay garage where he works and all the reg. customers are his costomers plus word of mouth.

[1937hd45]

Do you speak Spanish? If so buy a profesional grade lawnmower and a reliable pickup and have that guy do the work while you line up lawn care customers. A good accountant will allow you to write off the vintage vehicle you drive around looking for lawns.

[trimacar]

Detailing cars is probably the easiest to learn and there is a good market for it. With more effort, learn how to sew and upholster leather, and sew and install early open car tops. For $5000 or less you can set up a shop. That's what I plan to do when I retire, a couple of cars a year and you are set. I only work on leather interiors, and only on wood-bow early car tops. In fact, if I could just do tops I'd be happy! Good luck. David Coco Winchester VA.

[Steve_Mack_CT]

I think there are lots of opportunities for part time income by specializing in one item - speedometers, starters/generators/alternators, carbs, etc. - pick a popular marque (that interests you - after all, that is half of it, right?) and find a niche like that, and maybe look to sell to restoration shops or parts vendors for re-sale. I would only look at this as a part time deal for extra cash, but I have had the same thought as well. (right now my day job is a bit too time consuming so the cars are really a nice break.)

Another thought, find a shop that needs help. Many places LOVE part timers who can work less if there is less work, and don't need bennies. Any employer knows how hard good help is to find for just about any line of work, and there is no investment there.

[ex98thdrill]

If you have the capability and know how, I'd look at making wiring harnesses for cars. We're pretty well sold with Rhode Island Wire, but if you're good, you're not talking about a lot of money for materials, it isn't something that is heavy for you to lift, it won't take up a lot of space for you, but you are taking a lot of time putting the harnesses together.

Just think that if you wire something wrong and you burn someone's car up, it could cost you a lot of money if the car owner decides to go after you.

Good money, but possibly a lot of insurance required.

[Fred Zwicker]

Where will you get the schematics and diagrams? Without these you have nothing. The other guy's business always looks so easy until you get in a little deeper.

Fred

[ex98thdrill]

Rhode Island Wire doesn't have all the schematics and diagrams on everything either. What they do is if you have them build a wiring harness for your vehicle, and they don't have the schematics, you give them your old wiring harness, they use that as a pattern to make a new one for you, and they only charge you for materials only. Once that is done, they have the schematics for that particular vehicle and the next person who orders a wiring harness for that same wiring harness pays the full shot.

The original thread on this post was from a person who was looking at getting into a restoration service business on a part time basis. If he were getting into making wiring harnesses, he wouldn't have to buy a truck, a trailer, a warehouse, and could do something like this at little expense. Almost everything that he would ever need to get into the business would fit into the truck of his car.

If this person understands electrical systems, it could be a good business to get into.

[Bhigdog]

Guy down the road from me is a stay at home Dad. What he does at home is he makes wiring harnesses for Jeeps. That's all he makes and he makes them every day. Of course his wife also works........Bob

[Dandy Dave]

Cars??? Forget cars. Fix and service lawn mowers. Every Walmart, Home Depo, Lowe's, Tractor Supply, ect, sells them and none fix them. Parts are most often easy to get because most are not that old and almost everyone likes to have a mowed lawn. If you want to spend time on your own stuff, don't advertize to heavy. Dandy Dave!

[Guest Don_Birdsong]

Lamar,

I've been thinking about an antique car related business for retirement also although I've got about 6-7 years to think about it. I have a background in electronics so I've been thinking about antique car radio repair & restoration. I've been in radio long enough to have worked on tube type equipment.Don't know what the market would be like for that though. Whatever you decide good luck with it and keep us posted.

Don Birdsong

Mechanicsville,VA

[ex98thdrill]

There's a guy out of Florida who sets up at Hershey who does FM conversions out of the original radios. He does nice work.

Another option is to consider getting into the business doing woodgraining.

[alsancle]

Plastic Chroming. All the muscle cars - especially the mustangs - need this done for the interior. There is basically one big shop that does it, they are not exactly polite and you need to wait forever. Additionally, you may or may not get your original part back.