Folks Of Interest How Many Hambers Work in the Trade

Just wondering how many of us work in the old cars, rods, customs, collector, antique car business. I work restoring, and maintaining cars for a private collection. What do you guys do and how many of you are out there on this board? Come on sign in!

 

Not a lot. You guys are too tired when you get home to build your own cars. Half kidding.

 

I'm a machinist for a performance based engine shop.

 

I work on hot rods, classic and muscle cars, some drag cars and lots of modern junk at a small automotive shop.

 

The last 15 years I worked was all old junk….lol

 

I have never worked in the automotive field...or worked much at anything at all...pretty much a slacker my whole life.

 

I retired from restoring cars 5 years ago. Work is still a four letter word.

 

Spend 40+ years writing for the car books plus running an ad agency and marketing company specializing in the automotive high performance equipment manufacturing aftermarket business. Retired some years ago.

 

I was a mechanic for about 1 1/2 years after I got out of trade school. I quickly realized there was a big difference in the enjoyment of working on my own car than it was to work on everyone else's cars.

Had a long run in the water treatment industry and then opened my own steel fabrication business when I was mid-40's.

Now, after retirement I still enjoy building, working on and tinkering with my own stuff. When I was a mechanic in my 20's, it ruined my love for cars for several years. I'm building a FED now and have a T Roadster and Model A Coupe running and driving and loving it!

Lynn

 

40 plus years straightening frames, custom frame and suspension fab work and alignments.

Everything from freightliners to 4 wheel side by side. Dirt track to quarter mile stuff and everything in-between.

Still working at it today..... just waiting on retirement in the meantime.

.

 

Having started out building my own cars in the late 50s an into the 60s. Then by mid 1960s with a house n wife and working as design engineer for MEAD Corp.for main income,had a nite after work shop, I ran for fun,for hotrods an racecars. In the early 70s,I had left MEAD,and opened my nite shop full time{Worked on mostly Racecars of all types,Designed,built ,crew Chiefed even drove{ over 200+ wins my self},full time for next 40 years"CompTech" .
Retired in 2001. Still play with hotrods,now n then help buddys out too. Trying to keep my old 60 to 62 highschoool 28A running. Be 80 this years,so I've slowed down a lot.
Happy hotroden.
Miami Sr High Homecoming pic

 

I've been in the metal trades for years; I don't work on cars for a living, but I do make a living overhauling submarines for the Navy.

 

Worked in the trade for several years and even owned a shop with a buddy of mine for a few years. Found out quick working on customers late model daily drivers was not as much fun as working on hot rods in the driveway with my friends. Got out of it many years ago and never looked back. I still drive at least one junk now, to keep my skills sharp. Lol

 

I've owned and run a one man hotrod/fab shop for the last 20 years. Before that was a journeyman body/fender tech. Been workin on cars all my life....

 

How about dabble in the trade?

 

Turned 18 in Basic. Spent 2 1/2 years fixing Uncle Sam's junk in Germany. Got out and wound up at a Chevy dealer, starting as the truck mechanic's helper. About the time I started making good money, I decided I really didn't want to spend the rest of my life fixing other peoples cars. Still hate fixing things. Love building/making things. Taught 27 years of HS auto shop with an occasional wood shop or photography. Finished up with Auto Tech at the CC, last 14 years full time.

 

I work in the transportation industry, just not on old cars or hot rods. I’m the former Lead Technician, now Service Manager for a large independent heavy duty truck repair shop in St. Louis, Missouri. I’ve been working on cars, trucks, Harleys, and farm equipment my entire life. I’m not the fabricator or painter that most of you guys are, but I try real hard!!

 

Been in the business going on 46 years. After Drag Racing, Dune Buggies, and Motorcycles, I sold my Altered Roadster and started building for others. Quit a good job to do this, but there have been many rewards, and satisfaction. Through the years, along with the hot rod work, I have been able to dabble in several forms of racing, Drags, Oval Track and Land Speed. The fun part has been the people I have worked for, and met along the way. I am winding down now, to finish my own projects, current and future.

 

60 years of fixing everything from tricycles to heavy earth moving equipment. Worked for myself, mostly. I have a love for pre-war cars, especially flathead Fords. I have 6 jalopies that do service in parades, daily driving and an occasional local car show. Working on these oldies is therapy for me. My newest car (PU) is 27 years old and I can't afford a newer one, nor do I want one. I enjoy sharing what I've learned and can remember with others, though I'm wrong sometimes. That happens when you're 78.

 

I have been painting cars since 1987. Went to school for autobaody, worked at various shops restoring porsches, and fixing ferraris In 1997 i opened a hotrod shop,had it for 13 years, closed up in 2010, and opened a collision based body shop. We still do higher end completes on occasion, but primarily just fixing newer cars for insurance companies.

 

I hit cars with hammers

 

I work on the newest, latest technology day in and day out. Smart phone connectivity issues, rattles, squeaks, leaks, all the crap. It's therapeutic to tinker with carbs, points, and drum brakes on the weekends.

Devin

 

I used to do the high end show car stuff.
I retired 18 months ago and don,t miss the bullshit.
Now I can build the stuff I like that actually gets driven

 

One of my dreams in early life was to have a hot rod and custom shop. But as so many of us Detroit area boys do, I ended up working on the new cars. My dad was a draftsman... a machine tool designer. So I ended up doing mostly that. And I did a couple years of production work.

 

One reason I drive beaters.
Love show cars, have the utmost respect for the skills, dedication and $$$$ it takes.
The get the same satisfaction from the high dollar stuff as I do dragging junk out of fields or yards and make em go and stop.

 

Been fixing new high end cars in collision shops for 10 years, building hot rods and customs for 6 then restoring cars with some hot rods and custom cars stuff sprinkled over for 11 years. Now I have my own shop restoring cars (mostly Jags and Porsches) for the last 6 month and am booked for at least 1 year : lifes good after 2 horrible years.

 

I started in auto repair while still in HS and did tune ups, carb rebuilds, suspension and brakes. The first 10 years out of HS was all about cars. Then I got into a factory and ended up in the maintenance department and quickly ended up in the heavy machine repair (read that as clutches, brakes, and crankshaft replacement on 100 ton forge presses). Then it was back to auto repair as a tech at a new car dealership until I ended up back in a factory in heavy machine repair (different machines). Besides the real jobs, I ran a side business of auto repair, I also built and ran (as a car owner) dirt track cars, a few hot high performance cars, and several hot rods.
After a health related carrier change, I did 2 years of cross country auto transport, then ended up opening my own welding shop, mostly dealing with rust repair of automotive floor & body, and frame and suspension mounting point rust repair. After 25 years of that I retired (2018) and have rebuilt parts of the body on my coupe, and I have built 2 hot rod trucks, one of which I sold.
These days I'm trying hard to pretend I'm retired. I'm getting better at this retirement thing... Gene

 

It took me a lot longer to figure that out. I was good at what I did which was mostly front end work but got tired of just fixing cars after a few years and would rather have been building cars. My other needed skills weren't up to snuff then though. I didn't become a very good welder until I worked in a Midas Muffler shop and as I never took any welding/fabricating classes in school that end of it wasn't the best then.
I enjoyed the hell out of teaching auto mechanics though.

 

I ran the front end of a shop for several years. That and my time in the Bicycle business bought this land and basically paid for this house/shop working for shit wages. I did it for the passion, and willingly, I learned a ton of what to do and what not to do. The house is like an ongoing hot rod project, remodels, additions etc. With our property values rising like a tsunami It is probably my best investment. It is now allowing me to start diving back into my cars. Oh yeah, scoring a job outside the industry has allowed me 12 staycations so far this year. When I was at the rod shop there were many regulars that kept telling me I was wasting my time working there for pennies and I should move on. They were right.

 

Since 2006 I have been traveling the country
telling stories from the road.

Doing vehicle transport pays the way.

Today I picked up a 1930 Model A
at Streetside Classics in Phoenix, AZ

@



Jim