How to dominate the car building business (RANT)

I have very simple advice for anyone who wants to shoot right to the top of the car building industry:
1) Know what you are doing, and only hire others who know what they are doing.
DON'T hire someone because of his cool tattoos or because you went to Junior High together.

2) Don't bring in a customer's car until you are ready to actually work on it.

That's it. Everything else is just details.

Seriously, I am so sick of dealing with hacks and boneheads! I dropped my chopped car off for a headliner a MONTH ago. Guy said it would take a couple days. I drive by last week and my car is still sitting in the street in front of his shop untouched. He's working on two other cars that were not there when I dropped off my car. He explains that one of them was "ahead of me." Fine. I drive by again at the end of the week and there my car still sits and there is ANOTHER car in his shop. He's a nice guy, but he runs his business like it's a game of whack-a-mole.

There's a guy down the road from me that does fantastic paint and body work in his garage. Really show quality. Only problem is he routinely has someone's car for a YEAR OR TWO before he's done. Not because he spends thousands of hours working on them, but because they sit in his driveway for MONTHS before he pulls them into his shop, then for several more months before he starts working on them. And then he finishes them when the mood strikes.

When I was in high school a friend bought a Firebird convertible off of his uncle sight unseen. We go to pick up the car and it is a basket case. The dude then used us as unpaid labor to work on the car all that day getting it painted and assembled. His son (maybe 10 years old at the time) actually bragged that his dad would typically have a car for a few months until someone called to complain, and would then go out to the shop, paint the car in a couple hours, and call the customer to come get it that day.

Here's the deal: If you won't be ready to work on a car until April 15, DO NOT tell someone you'll need it in your shop by March 4. WAIT UNTIL APRIL 14!! If it's going to take three days to do a job, do it in three days. And if it's going to take two months until you can get to it, say "bring it in two months."

There is a car repair shop in town that gets cars in and out in one day. They are so busy they barely have room to walk in their own shop and you have to make an appointment a couple weeks ahead of time. But you know what? When you arrive on that day they pull you car right in and start working on it. By the end of the day it's done and ready to pick up.

 

I'm with ya friend. A lot of really talented guys think they should open a shop. being a talented guy doesn't make you a businessman, it just means that you are a talented guy.

 

Nice rant. I feel your pain,

 

Being a good craftsman and being a good businessman is two entirely different things.

 

Sounds like you need to go get your car and drop it off there.......................There is a car repair shop in town that gets cars in and out in one day. They are so busy they barely have room to walk in their own shop and you have to make an appointment a couple weeks ahead of time. But you know what? When you arrive on that day they pull you car right in and start working on it. By the end of the day it's done and ready to pick up. <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

I had a quote of 4 hours to fit a hood and add the hinging to a '65 Corvette. I get the call that they're ready for my car. I called weekly for pregress updates, finally after six weeks I had to get ugly to get them to do it. I don't like to operate that way but it was ridiculus. When I got my car back it hardly ran for being started every day, backed outside and shut off and then the same when it was parked at night. They did a lousy job of fitting the hood too, and this was at a shop that bragged they were Corvete specialsits.

 

This post should be required reading for every shop owner. 'Been waiting for nearly two months for the upholstery guy to finish my interior. Took it to him when he said he need it and it's been sitting in his shop since. Meanwhile, several cars that were supposedly behind me in line have been done. I think I'll take my time in paying him...see how he likes that. (If only that were possible)

 

I've had a guys car at my place since December. my hourly rate is 1/2 of anyone else. I have put at least 25% more hours in it than what I have billed. the day he complains about his costs adding up or I'm taking too long could very well be the same day he picks it up and brings it back home. If a person does not like the way I work, they can take it somewhere else and pay triple for the same work.

 

Professionalism is a dying attribute.

 

I'm not understanding why a shop owner would want a car at his shop for weeks or months if he doesn't have the time to work on it... Just for the sake of a) a car takes up room and b) the liability of keeping a car at the shop.

 

right!

As for: 1) Know what you are doing, and only hire others who know what they are doing.

If you have no car talents but what YOU are doing is good finances, budgeting and scheduling, you can hire those who are good at actually doing the car work.

That would make a good shop.

 

Well Im SLOW but Im Expensive!!!

 

Not just 'car builders' - for all the talk of the 'bad economy' etc. it's hard to get anybody to do ANYTHING.

Ordered replacement windows for the house, salesman told me 7-9 days from ordered to installed - took over 2 months. On subsequent calls he blamed his secretary, the warehouse, his secretary (again) the truck driver, and the install crew for the delay. Last time I spoke to him was last Tuesday - he told me the crew was at the warehouse waiting for them to unload the truck and that they were headed STRAIGHT to my house.
Three days later they finally showed up.

It also took me 6 weeks to get a concrete guy to even come out to give me an ESTIMATE. The guy came highly recommended by a trusted friend. I liked his price and asked him to go ahead and do it. He told me several weeks ago it would be a 'couple of weeks' - still waiting...

 

Good topic.....I think SOME people, NOT all, dont care. Some shops I know of take on all kinds of work when its just him and another guy. Work will sit for months, but rushes through to get smaller projects done, which in return ends up coming back because it looks like crap. He thinks he's making more money by taking all the work in, but reality is, he's screwing himself. I dont get it.

 

my coupe has been in a shop since last september. he is super busy but does what he can, im happy as long as its done right, no matter how long it takes.

 

Do what you say you are going to do, do it when you said you'd do it, and do it for the price you said you'd do it for. For 25 years I had as much work as I could do.

 

I only take cars at my shop when I can work on them. Yet, that still has it's problems. The guy waiting his turn will call and bug me every fucking day, taking me from the car I'm trying to finish that will allow me the room for his.

 

Not the same story but reminds me of the guys i brought my spray jobs to when i was a lot younger and living in Australia. These two guys were brothers and really fast workers, never distracted by anything at all. never, never, never,

They were both deaf and mute.

 

Had a painter take almost three years on a paint job. always said he was waiting on parts. finally I got ugly to him and he finished it up within the month. never again will I allow this to happen

 

It can all be very messy, some folks will state a timeline and they are lying as soon as they start talking... They are also lying to themselves. I had a not great experience when doing my car's glass, the communication was sporadic and not useful, the owner nitpicked my car on aspects that had nothing to do with the glass, and he custom modified a set of wing windows for me that I cannot use and that would cost a lot of money to redo... including mig welding stainless.

My list of places I'll use and recommend is very very small.

 

I don't want my crap sitting in front of someone's shop for months.....might hurt his business . Make it look like a salvage yard.
B.B.

 

When I worked for a certain "specialty salvage yard & engine shop" in the midwest, I actually used to get in trouble if the owner heard me telling someone the truth on the phone as they placed their order... "I have a LOT of orders to get pulled & packed & shipped before yours. The soonest I can get this thing out the door is two or three days from now. And it'll take UPS a few days to get it to you from then. Is that OK?" MOST of our customers would say "Sure! That's cool, thanks!"

The owner, on the other hand, would tell EVERYONE "Yeah, I'll get that pulled and in a box for you first thing after lunch and you should have it in a day or two." And then three days from then, he'd be getting tons of "where is it?" phone calls, irate customers asking for UPS tracking numbers (that didn't exist because the parts were still out on the parts cars or in the warehouse), and he'd tell him that "our shipping computer is down" (that also didn't exist because he didn't know or trust computers....), they'd ask for a refund... and it went on & on...

There were a few self-important jerks that thought that "just because" they owned a Hemi car or a Challenger convertible that they should automatically get to go to the front of the line, but I could usually put them in their proper place in line. If someone genuinely needed something because their car was in a shop getting worked on & the piece was necessary to get it out of someone else's shop, I'd usually try to help them out there too. If they were willing to pay for UPS 2nd day air, I knew that they were serious, and would always put them at the front of the line. (Usually I wouldn't even charge them the full fee for the 2nd day air anyway though! I figured that if they agreed to pay for it meant that they really were serious about needing the parts asap.)

99 times out of 100, being honest and straightforward with our customers made MY life tons easier, and the repeat customers made it even easier. They'd usually call me and no one else because I treated them fairly and honestly the FIRST time and EVERY time.

 

Sounds like when you're told "a couple of days" and its not ready then you should simply take it somewhere else that will do it instantly.

 

What you just described is what EVERYONE says after experiencing having work done by almost 98% of the car shops! Partner it is the norm and guess what they are charging $70 to $90 bucks and hour for the screwing, get used to it or do the work yourself. I've been waiting on getting a job done for over 2 years that will only take about 6 hrs but he just can not seen to find the time, oh did is say that I have already paid the B% &#@* D!! Thank the Lord he does not have my car.

 

Exactly. A few years back I got suckerd into a partnership with an old friend. Excellent painter, fun guy. Said the business had made 100K the year before. I trusted him. Turns out none of it was true. Customers made down payments or had already paid in full. All the money was spent by the time I showed up. It took me a 18 months to figure out what was really going on. He was cheating on his wife with MANY different girls, impregnated two more. He developed a nasty drug problem, then got a divorce, lost his kids. We ended up getting evicted and I was seriously in debt. Being a weak willed and tempted young man, I developed a drug habbit as well. Even though I was doing some nice quality metal work, I fell flat on my face. Lets just say, I didn't make too many friends that year. It has taken me nearly 5 years to recover from 18 months of mistakes. My advice to a prospective new business owner.

1. Come up with a SOLID, REALISTIC business plan.
2. Have plenty of $$$ in the bank to start off
3. Keep drugs and alcohol out of your shop! Keep the party at home!
4. Only take as many cars as you can handle! If your work is truly awesome, people will wait for you to have the time!
5. SIGN A CONTRACT
6. BUSINESS PLAN!!!!!!

 

Because it makes his shop look good having your custom sled out front advertising this guys business.

 

GOOD THREAD!.. Unless you are doing the work yourself, sometimes you gotta expect complications and unforeseen problems.. i've gone to places where a craigslist guy worked out of his home and that wound up taking a lot longer than a shop, and i knew he was taking other "easier" jobs and sticking them ahead of me, but i also wanted him to do a good job and the price was right, so i let him take his time to a point.. of course i did call him every couple of days so he'd know that i was concerned.. but we've all heard restoration shop horror stories..

 

If its a custom job, these things happen.
Most of these guys don't and can't charge for every minute spent in a project.
This is also a BIG reason for flat rate repairs, and most of the time your PITA custom project is competing for time with those paying the bills today project. If they charge 70-100 an hour and every hour spent is charged they still make more money if they do a 8 hr flat rate job in 5 or 6 right ?
Then maybe if he ain't to tired hell spend a few on your custom job. Or start on the next job paying nearly double.

 

It must be me but every car I have put into a body shop in the last 30 years has cost me double to get it out and as much as 10 times longer than what I was told. And then, in typical body shop fashion, they rushed the finishing and inevitably screwed up something.

My last body shop nightmare was with my 67 GTO. It took 18 months for what was scheduled for 6 weeks and it cost twice as much as quoted. No matter what I did, said, or paid for I could not motivate this shop to just get it done. There was always one excuse after another. To top it off, these guys asked me about doing more work for me or my friends. Yea sure.

My remedy .... I now do all of my own bodywork and painting.

Joe

 

Wow, I totally hear you ... even the prostitution business "sucks" nowadays.