Restoring cars for a living

[Restorer32]

Wish you had given me that advice 37 years ago.

[mercer09]

you wouldnt have listened......................................

 

do any of us "listen"?

[Xander Wildeisen]

This topic "Restoring cars for a living" was submitted to be a possible topic to be talked about by a panel of experts at the fall meet. I hope it will be considered to be discussed, and a honest conversation can be had, about some of the challenges that small companies involved in building/restoring classic cars are faced with.

[Restorer32]

I can speak to that, having survived 37 years (so far) restoring professionally. The biggest challenge by far is finding competent help. Our schools no longer teach the necessary skills. Quite a bit of our equipment came out of schools that tore out their metal or wood shops to build computer labs. Sadly, many of our tech high schools have become holding tanks for kids who couldn't make it in regular high schools. Try finding a talented wood worker or metal man. Happily we now have the best crew we've ever had but I put it down to luck more than anything else.

[60FlatTop]

This topic is running for quite a while. I guess I can give the tips I gave my kids when they were ready to leave High School.

 

In selecting a business, career, or hiring out for a job understand motivations, just two; need and want.. I create a Cartesian graph with the X axis as want and the Y axis as need. You end up with four quadrants to generalize your position. Need and want, a stable course like a grocery store and a modest, predictable income. Don't need, don't want, just ignore it. Don't want, need, like my personal career in facilities management and power plants. Every nickel spent is an extraction. Then there is don't need, want on the lower right. That's the juicy one. Gifts are the classic example. People really want to buy a great gift and then they give it away. Most of the items I have sold on Ebay over the past 15+ years have been promoted as the best gift you can get for the old car aficionado. Gifts are the ultimate sale. The worst is selling a roof on a sunny day. As long as there was a bucket rainy days don't even motivate a sale.

 

So plotting your customer mindset is an important key. I wouldn't want a job selling Fords or Chevy's, one could actually NEED one of those. A Buick or a Cadillac, one one needs one. I'll sell those.

 

I can sell project cars all day long. Selling the details of restoration work is harder. Concepts are easier than details. I remember once when a concept of a '39 Cadillac DSM Model 75 left my driveway. No engine or front suspension, it hung off a truck trailer hitch. The fenders were in the rear seat and I didn't know the rear axle bearing had failed until the wheel bumped the rear fender (still attached). They drove slowly when they left. Give those boys some rose colored glasses.

 

Also in the don't really need but want is the "my own business". Having an 8 hour job is easy. But I sell parts books and catalogs promoting them as great knowledge to make money with. Selling things a person thinks they will make money with is one of the best things out there. I spend quite a bit of discretionary money on it and know a lot of guys whom do the same.

 

So draw up my little matrix and see where you stand. Put some pencil marks on there for car related stuff. But be careful. You might end up way down at the bottom right trying to figure out how to sell gifts to give to dead people. If you can it's better than restoration. And no customer complaints.

Bernie