Folks Of Interest Walden Speed Shop

After several attempts to contact Walden about some parts I talked to 2 different people who confirmed Bobby has closed his shop and taken a job with BMW. They also said he will still be doing work evenings and weekends. It may just take a little longer to get your parts.

 

I heard that last night too.

 

Wonder what will happen with the kinmont brake program. Thought they were a well established business. I give him credit for being able to go work for someone else at this stage of life after being his own boss for a long time. I've worked way too long for myself to go to work for someone else at this stage.

 

Hmm. That’s interesting. I’ve been self employed for many years, with a couple of “real” jobs scattered in there along the way. I can certainly understand why one would do that. He’s a good guy and I wish him the best of luck.

 

Was/is a first class shop, for sure!

 

That's a shock......

 

That's bad news. I wish Bobby all the best, but I hate to see the shop closed.

 

Nothing wrong with getting a good job, and having the weekends to do limited customer work. Just think about what cool car he can create for himself, and not have the pressure.

 

Im surprised the closing has took this long to be posted here ,I heard a few months ago when I was interested in one of their frames,

 

We stopped by his shop while at the GNRS in Feb and talked with him. It’s true that he is working for BMW, training techs I think. He gets a variety of BMW’S to use and has health care etc. his family. Good for him. It’s seems he finished every day around 2PM and goes over to his shop. There was one helper on hand. He was is the process of building a United Pacific 32 5 window. He had chopped the top and while there we helped lift the body onto the new frame. There was a brakes display and I think some inventory. There were several 32 roof inserts that appeared to be finished. Maybe not full time but not gone.

 

Not at all shocking.

If you have skills, you have a few choices:

You can bust your butt for years doing exhausting work, narrowly cover your overhead, maybe make a little profit, and have no benefits, unless you buy them on the open market (which can wipe out your profit).

-or-

You can go to work for a long established company, work normal hours, have a regular large paycheck, a nice benefits package, and work reasonable hours.

-or-

You can do both, with the "hobby" diminished in priority.

There are still far too many people yet to be disabused of the errant notion that doing this kind of work is a big moneymaker.

It ain't.

 

When I was working at the rod shop in the early 00s I had it made. Always around cool cars. Building my own stuff after hours. Around a lot of great customers. A couple of the regulars kept pushing me to move on, that I was way over qualified for what I was doing. Eventually I did. Now I sit here with that large paycheck, excellent schedule (3 day weekend every other), benefits and healthcare. Plus the icing on the cake, I usually have somewhere between 8 and 10+ weeks of vacation time in the bank. I wonder why I took so long!!!!

Happy for Bobby, it sounds like he found a good balance

 

It is all about balance. I am not sure that everyone gets that.

If the job that everyone else in the world thinks is so great, and a dream takes 100-hours out of every week, allows for no vacations, and has low net pay, and no benefits, it can be a nightmare for the person doing the job.

Everyone else might think that it is cool, and that they would love to have the job.

 

I just took a peek at the Walden website and I didn't see any mention of closing/limited hours etc.

Maybe I missed something ....

 

I've noticed the same thing on MotorTrend+ shows. Those guys by all accounts have a "dream job", but it takes them away from the important things. Several of them now have stepped back and changed their work life to accommodate more time at home.

I learned early in my career with a summer job as a student working 11 on 3 off away from home that I wanted a job where I was usually at home every night and off every weekend. That's my car and other life time.

 

I was just on his website the other day, and today. No mention. I really like the style of panhard bar he sells and would like to try to nab one.

 

Bobby just called me telling me he had my parts ready to ship. We talked for a while, he is enjoying his new job. He gets off mid afternoon and will continue to make his panels and is expanding the parts business. He is doing exactly what I said in my initial post. Also is going to get back to chassis building.

 

Sounds like being an owner operator trucker. Long hours, time away from home, low wages, no benefits, stress of keeping equipment going, etc. You gotta love it to keep doing it, the reason so many fail is they don’t, along with no money management skills. When I sold my last truck and retired, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I missed too much of my family’s lives while I was trying to make a living. It’s great to be the boss if you can enjoy life outside of the job at the same time. I made a good, but not great, living, money wise. I could have probably made more and had more at home time if I could have found something else to do, but there never was much to choose from around here.

 

I’m pretty sure you’d know. You have your own business, that I don’t think many realize the overhead on, as well as work for a big company.
Pretty impressive.

 

My dad drove for many different aggregate places, finally bought his dirt truck, got it right, then a clapped out set of bottom dumps. Over the years 30 or so, he upgraded added a transfer, rarely left the area. He did well, I wanted to follow in those footsteps, but soon learned I was just a “yard truck driver”, not a truck driver. And turning wrenches at a shop wasn’t why I wanted to do .

 

Spot on right there. ^^^

 

heard something similar recently. Another factor was the cost of rent where he was got out of hand. Building cars for a living gets pretty old. Making and selling a product seems to be where the good life exists, so power to him. Now where is our roof insert?! Haha.

 

Happy for Bobby, he's a great guy. I had a couple of hours of one on one tutorial with him and learned plenty.

I'm curious though as to how it can work out having a substantial shop with the attendant costs etc for it only to be utilised on a part time business and hobby basis. I suppose if the new job pays well enough though it could help support it.

Chris

 

I can full and well understand that. Most of his parts are nitch market parts and outside of the rood filler panels he may sell large numbers anyhow, Just a steady weekly flow of parts going out the door with many smaller pieces being made a batch at a time and set on the shelf ready to ship. The rest made to order when the order comes in.

 

Good for Bobby. Glad to hear he's keeping his shop open and himself in the mix as he's one of the true craftsmen in the game. He has a well outfitted shop and terrific product line.
Running a business in the greater LA area is not for the faint of heart.

There's some definite comfort in having your employer provide full benefits, 401k match and sometimes even a pension. Buying benefits on the open market is not cheap.

FWIW, most all the self employed guys I know that have their own shops or are construction tradesmen receive all their benefits via their wife's corporate or government employer so they just "go to work" and never have to sweat out that part of life.

 

Having a day job that pays for my family's medical/dental/vision insurance benefits covers half of my shop rent from not having to self-pay on the open market, and it pays a salary.

Edit: I just noticed that you are across the pont, in the land of monarchs.

As little as some might like the NHS, we have nothing whatsoever of the sort here in the states.

Medical/dental/vision insurance was tied to jobs during WWII when the US government disallowed employers from raising wages to poach workers during the war effort. Insurance was an alluring workaround, and it has been that way ever since.

If you don't work for a decent-sized employer, with a well-negotiated set of insurance policies, you will be paying a decent chunk of the whole policy price.

If you are self-employed, with a family, you could be paying $2,000/mo. for the mere privilege of making an appointment, while left paying a co-payment for the visit, and prescriptions, until your deductible is met.

Taking my family as an example, before the insurance fully kicks in, we'd have to pay $34,000 out-of-pocket, per calendar year.

With a day-job. $2,000 per calendar year.

Having a day-job not only pays a guaranteed 40-hours, it relieves the pressure of not having to come up with anywhere from $12,000 to $34,000 in healthcare dollars, per year (instead, $0-$2,000/year). That makes cumulative huge difference.

 

I heard that the way to make a small fortune in the hot rod/speed shop business ........... is to start with a large one.

 

This man speaks the truth.

 

I heard that in relation to racing.
The other saying is, "I know there is money in racing. I've put a enough of it there."