This is mainly out of curiosity. As far as a business related to hot rod and customs, what aspect is the most financially successful or at least viable? Shops? New parts, vendors and suppliers? Used NOS or parts cars? Skilled Labor? Advertising? Insurance? Home Builders? Writers...press coverage? Flippers...Salesmen? Shippers and freight brokers? Accessories? No real money to be had?
There isn't as much money in it as most think. Do the math, When we go to a big show, Think NSRA regional event, There are maybe 4000 cars there. Now figure that this number is a fair amount of the running cars from that state and every state around it. Now double that figure for the rest of the running cars from those states, that gives you 8000, now double that for all the projects getting worked on, 16000. That number represents the total hot rod cars in like 5 states. Sounds like a lot? Well, there are over 4,000,000 people that live in the state of Alabama by itself. Car guys are really a small part of the population. You want to make money? Find something everybody needs and costs less than $5.00. That is where the money is.
If you wanted to make a living in the auto related field. I think Doing upholstery car interiors would be a viable option. its something one or two people could do. It wouldn't be as costly as a mechanic shop. it would be cleaner and you likely could make you own hours and name your price.
Old Wolf beat me to it. Get good at upholstery and you can do very well. My body shop friends are always amazed at what income is possible in a short time.
I did body work in a large shop by the hour as a young man 8 hrs a day and at my Dad's shop after hours and wkends til I got enough business to quit my day job. I did and we nearly starved to death. Now it seems like half of the body shops in our area make a living on deer collisions. Wasn't many deer in the 70s. It is an ever changing world. I learned another trade and swapped labor for interior work . Whatever you are good at, somebody can use your services. Barter if you can.
I farmed out very few things on my roadster project.. Mainly because I couldn't do them or I was not equipped to do them...one of the things was upholstery..and the most expensive one-item cost. If you think about it , the majority of rodders can build,weld ,fabricate,wire and paint... but a far lesser amount can do upholstery .. I'd bet , if you asked rodders as to what they farmed out on their projects , upholstery would be among the top ,if not the top item.. Now ,you would have to be a GOOD upholsterer..as much of the time ,thats the finishing touch . A lousy upholstery job can just kill an otherwise great car project... Just my $0.02.. Stan
I wouldn't ruin a good hobby by making it my means of income. If you can pick it up and drop it reluctantly you will enjoy returning to the task. If you can pick it up and have to persevere to completion because of a customers demands you will enjoy it less, if at all.
You want the largest customer pool possible. Regardless of the area you're working in, try to be as inclusive as possible. Upholstery is a great option because every vehicle on the road will eventually require attention. Now that people are keeping their vehicles longer, repairs, renovation, restoration or whatever you call it will provide more opportunities. Once the new car is out of warranty, people learn quickly about the sky high rates at the "Stealerships." If you want to be known as a custom car or hot rod shop, you might consider working on OT projects for picky customers who insist on high quality. In short, you want to be inclusive, not exclusive. When you get to the point where you have more work than you can do conveniently, then you can cherry pick the jobs you really want in the shop. Just saying.
If I was a young man looking to pick out a business car related, Upholstery would be my choice. They all seem to busy from my experience's and there are different levels of $$$ customers to match, cheap and quick to $$$ is no object. Would suggest working in the field to learn trade and see if you like it and have any talent for it and I guess that advice would apply to any field you choose. Somebody said " Find something you love and you'll never work a day in your life"
Agree 100%- Quick modifications to late model cars/trucks were absolutely essential to keeping $ coming in while we worked on a longer project or hit a show time in the year. I can't count how many sets of lowering springs we installed on new trucks or roll cages in fox body mustangs for local racers... pulled them into the bay right next to something old.
If you're willing to work as hard as you need to, and as smart as you need to, you can make a living at any of the above. I have a friend who makes a very good living selling old car parts on eBay. I have another friend who has a repair shop and people with old cars in northwest Arkansas take their cars to him. He always has some interesting cars in his shop. I have another friend who didn't like the upholstery job a shop did for him, so he taught himself how to do it, and now is doing some of the best work in the U.S. Pick something that interests you, do it on the side, and see how it goes.
The only guy I see looking like he's wealthy, in our little hot rod world out here, is the guy who runs the auto paint supply store.
I know several guys near my age who where in the auto salvage business for 4 or 5 decades and the left over unsold inventory when crushed out made them wealthy. many became millionaires. the guy that runs the only parts house that sells paint around here claims to be almost broke. he used to be a body man. then he went into the new parts business and the towns industry left .then a good 4 lane road was built to Jonesboro where sales taxes are much cheaper. And their is plenty of competition for sales of everything. and the town is dying. Yet I bet a good upholstery man could move into one of the many vacany buildings here and set up shop. And the customers would use that good road to drive from Jonesboro to do business with him.
The guys who own the local wrecking yard that does late model cars do pretty well, but the folks who inherited the "old" junkyards in town sure don't show any signs of having money. But that might be because they have unrealistic expectations of what their "gold" is really worth.
Interestingly enough, you left off the one job that makes it possible for us to trade this kind of info: hot rod internet guru/website owner. Talked to a friend at TEN yesterday and 50% of his magazine work is now posted on line and he contributes 100% to a new on line e-zine. One could make a very decent living in an ad agency specializing in the hot rod industry as well as being a prolific free lancer from the early sixties right up into the nineties. Not as much anymore. I would agree with the majority of posters here that being able to do interiors is probably the best way to turn a buck doing something that involves customs/hot rods.
Well my old man always made a good living doing engine work, but in the '70s he determined to not work on any worth less then 60K which put hi into the Maserati/Bentley market. His logic was that you could charge 7-14 bucks to change the oil in a Chebby or 200-300 to change the oil in a Maserati. He was living in an area where there was enough affluence to support his theory. He stopped owning his own shop and leased a stall from someone else and that helped. There are people who have become wealthy working on cars and that are currently becoming wealthy working on cars, they are few and far between, the rest of us just made wages. Someone mentioned upholstery, good choice of vocations, low overhead and you can do side jobs to keep your head above water. Things like office furniture, couches, motor cycle seats and etc.
All these guys commenting on being an upholsterer should hear it from the horses mouth. Stitchbitch is a free lance upholsterer who runs her business out of garage. She's not on here very often if at all, mainly because shes so busy!!. Quality of work is top notch and has been featured on a lot of HAMB vehicles and show winning rides. Wish she'd chime in here..
LOL I don't have to hear it from the horses mouth, I got 3K worth of upholstery in my basement. Just the seats. Any place I have ever lived an average stitcher could make a living and if you're any good you turn away work.
To the OP: Some very good thoughts on this subject, and I'll add my random thoughts, good or bad. Regardless of what occupation you are considering, what are your qualifications? For upholstery work, as many have mentioned, do you have such experience? and equipment needed? And, this is true of any automotive related job. Engine work? do you have a machine shop, or any shop? It costs a small fortune to outfit a shop these days and depending on your states regulations, the paper chase can be a challenge by itself. Who is the target customer? How do you connect to them? If you are not dealing with pool of big spenders/restorers then what happens to your income when money gets tight, like every December? Your list includes home construction and flipper/salesmen; I have family involved in these trades,****uming your flippers are housing, not automotive. Some states require license-insurance-bond for home builders, some others require nothing. Flipping housing stock can make big money if you are in larger city or have few competitors. Of course, you still have to know what you are doing as well as having some money to start. Ignore the infomercials claiming you can buy houses with no money, it just doesn't happen. A related business, if you are good at sales, is mortgage loan officer. They get paid a percentage of the loan value and the price of housing only goes up. Yes, a license is required in most states in addition to federal. I know several of these people and I know they can make six-figures quite easily. If I could go back 40+ years I'd skip the Engineering programme and get busy selling home loans. The basic theme is that you have to have some experience regardless of which direction you lean. Consider this: If, for example, you screw up an expensive custom paint/upholstery/engine/frame/general repair job, you will have the customer crawling up your****...if you are working on a house that you own and screw it up....... Bottom line is to have a job supplying what 99% of the folks need...what are your needs that you buy from someone else? .
I always thought that combining your Hobby with your income source(work) was a chance for disaster. I would be at work all day and couldn't wait to get home and go in the garage. My friends who were machinist and bodymen couldn't get enough enthusiasm after hours to work on their own stuff. I also believe the area that you live is very important. If people can't buy food and pay their utilities they aren't going to build or buy toys.
From the time I started building model cars when I was in the 6th grade until until I sent in the application for the 2015 Speedster Reunion last week, my hobby has been my job and my job has been my hobby. I got paid to go to events and I made money writing how to do it stuff on my own car. I have to take issue with 31dodger...getting paid to do things you like is great! Making money is not a sin!
I have no problem with my hobby making me money and happy. Same goes for anyone else. Maybe I should have said, "If you expect to make money at it, you are probably going about it the wrong way." It's a rare thing to do what you love AND make money at it.
One other "skill" that comes to mind as "profitable" is a Good Transmission Guy. I had a guy that worked at the factory****embling 4 speed transmissions. When the plant closed, he went into business rebuilding 4 speeds. He knew those cases inside and out. I had him do several 4 speeds with not one problem. Unfortunately, he passed on a couple of years ago. I know another guy that specializes in Automatic*******'s. He requires that you remove the A/T and bring it to his shop. He just about always has the job done in 1 to 3 days depending on hard parts or custom parts that are needed. The kits for 4 speeds and A/T's are not very expensive. Most of the job s labor. The Transmission Guys make in the $ 60.00 to $ 80.00 labor rate for their time. Not bad for working in their shops or Basements in comfortable conditions with a high margin job. VR&C.
For a couple of years I rebuilt auto transmissions for a living at my own shop. The customers wanted a low price with a better than new guarantee. and they would try & tear them up. I got to where the wife & I hated a automatic transmission. my wife stated that if I ever worked on another auto transmission for a customer she would divorce me. The best money I ever made that was relatively easy comfortable & kinda fun and repeteable was Driving semi truck. I once was a heavy hauler hauled the big over size & overweight loads. I have hauled loads that grossed ove 180,000 pounds. It was fun & exciting and paid really well. it took a lot of know how and steady nerve.
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