1951 F1 Rebuild
#46
09-08-2015, 08:07 PM
Tuned
Easy to point out where you went astray... Try $7k in parts. $13k in paid labor and $4k in profit. Seems to work for me. Most shops I have ever worked for... if you want to work there you have your own tools...Also most owners of shops are willing to work for less than they pay their employees. On top of that, and probably the biggest part all of you are missing is that most shops do insurance work as their main money maker and most of these restoration projects they do for at or near cost on the side as free marketing and in between jobs if things are slow. And also because a lot of them genuinely like to work on cool stuff and get tired of fixing broken plastic bumper. It is basically filler revenue and they tend to grind through a few of them per year.
I can guarantee you shops around here will line up to do this kind of work for $24k. Probably even $20k. If you are out on the west or east coast... I can imagine things are different.
I can guarantee you shops around here will line up to do this kind of work for $24k. Probably even $20k. If you are out on the west or east coast... I can imagine things are different.
John
#47
09-08-2015, 10:50 PM
Ryan, you say I am negative, but if you read what I wrote carefully I never told the OP not to do it, just that I was very concerned and wanted to try to offer advice on what could go wrong and some ways to protect himself from those concerns, and to be very very careful.
The problem started when you posted a very positive encouragement. Unfortunately we as humans when torn between what we really want and what is the realistic consensus answer, we tend to strongly grasp at any advice that is what we want to hear even if the majority of responses are less encouraging, so at least in my case I felt the need to point out why I see flaws in your strong encouragement. Maybe it is different in the midwest, overhead much lower, cost of living much cheaper, wages much lower, employees willing to work as private contractors rather than employees without any benefits or costs to the employer (or dare I say it: "under the table"?) But the OP lives in southern CA one of the most expensive and heavily regulated business environment for body shops.
Trust me, if you were closer and I had 6K right now for bodywork and paint I'd be jumping at your offer, especially if it included BC/CC and buff out even tho I have the equipment, space, and know how to do it myself.
Last night on Rusted Development a returning show that follows a shop in S CA trying to reestablish a business that was forced to close. Their "hook" is that they find hoarders with a large collection of unrestored cars and offer to build the one car out of the collection the owner selects and the build cost and profit is from the build shop selling off a number of the hoarder's other vehicles with enough value for him. The hoarder gets a nice finished vehicle for zero out of pocket and gets rid of several vehicles that would probably just sit there and rust into the ground.
The build last night was a 36 Ford coupe. The hoarder provided a flathead core engine, but it was too far gone so they used a crate engine instead. The builders said their build cost of the car came to 85K! It was not an extensive or expensive build, mild top chop and two tone black and gold paint job. They sold the hoarders other cars for 92K making a total profit on the build of 7K for several weeks work. That's the reality of doing business there. Even if all possible corners were cut, and the build cost cut 50% it still would have been 42K!
The problem started when you posted a very positive encouragement. Unfortunately we as humans when torn between what we really want and what is the realistic consensus answer, we tend to strongly grasp at any advice that is what we want to hear even if the majority of responses are less encouraging, so at least in my case I felt the need to point out why I see flaws in your strong encouragement. Maybe it is different in the midwest, overhead much lower, cost of living much cheaper, wages much lower, employees willing to work as private contractors rather than employees without any benefits or costs to the employer (or dare I say it: "under the table"?) But the OP lives in southern CA one of the most expensive and heavily regulated business environment for body shops.
Trust me, if you were closer and I had 6K right now for bodywork and paint I'd be jumping at your offer, especially if it included BC/CC and buff out even tho I have the equipment, space, and know how to do it myself.
Last night on Rusted Development a returning show that follows a shop in S CA trying to reestablish a business that was forced to close. Their "hook" is that they find hoarders with a large collection of unrestored cars and offer to build the one car out of the collection the owner selects and the build cost and profit is from the build shop selling off a number of the hoarder's other vehicles with enough value for him. The hoarder gets a nice finished vehicle for zero out of pocket and gets rid of several vehicles that would probably just sit there and rust into the ground.
The build last night was a 36 Ford coupe. The hoarder provided a flathead core engine, but it was too far gone so they used a crate engine instead. The builders said their build cost of the car came to 85K! It was not an extensive or expensive build, mild top chop and two tone black and gold paint job. They sold the hoarders other cars for 92K making a total profit on the build of 7K for several weeks work. That's the reality of doing business there. Even if all possible corners were cut, and the build cost cut 50% it still would have been 42K!
#48
09-08-2015, 11:16 PM
Fleet Owner
#49
09-09-2015, 12:44 AM
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