Let me start off by saying I have a lot of respect for y'all and am amazed at some of the stuff I see on here. The knowledge is incredible and I hope to soak up as much as I can. I am 28, a college graduate, and have decided to pursue customizing cars/motorcycles as a career. I have recently moved to the Bay Area, CA and am looking for a opportunity to start my career. I have a little bit of experience and have taught myself quite a bit but would benefit from an apprenticeship type position. I am a hard worker and willing to start at the bottom and work my way up. I do not want to be famous or on TV, I just love cars. My main problem is getting from where I am now to finding an employer willing to give me a chance. What advice could you give me to go about doing this? Please be specific, and if you know of any opportunities available please let me know. Again, thanks for the replies. -Jason
I am an admin for a very large security company and have 87 officers working for me. I look for drive and self improvment as well as a willingness to learn. This is my job. On the other hand I have time on my hands and wanted to learn the old ways of doing body and custom work. I started out with a very importent tool in the shop ! the floor broom. As time went I got to start watching and asking questions and as time went I got more work to do. and a new floor guy came in. I have been doing this for 19 years now and I do it as a sport not a job Its very hard work and were I you I would look for a job to use with the education you have and look to this as a part time and then go forword so I can say I knew him before he was the kustom king. Best of luck.
Best advice, use your college degree to get a "real' job to support your love of cars. Unless you are beyond talented, don't count on your love of custom cars or hot rods to pay the bills. Not trying to be a complete a-hole, just trying to be honest.
If you love cars, don't work on them for a living. You won't want to work on your own stuff after turnin wrenches all day on other people's junk. Get a career and support your hobby on your days off.
AMEN! Ive been in the custom paint field a loooong time, sometimes your on top of the world but most times your under it!.....Use that degree you worked for.
The point everyone is making makes perfect sense. But, I have heard that if you make a living doing what you love, it is not like working. I guess you can look at it both ways.
I make a living (sort of) doing what I love. I enjoy it greatly. That said, once work hours are done, I close the doors and go home. Its very hard doing anything for 8-10 hours then get off work and go back and do the same thing for another couple hours. A guy can do that for a short time, but then it starts getting old and the quality begins to drop on your projects and customers projects. Its OK to do something you love to do as your work, and it makes the day go by real fast. The problem occures when you try to make the job your hobby also. Some guys can do it, but most can not. Custom car building is a very wide employment position. There are very many different aspects, designing, building, wiring, finish work, paint, and a bunch more things that fall under the title of the custom car project. It would not be a bad deal to do one part as a job and a different area as a hobby. You may, for example, enjoy the designing a custom car as a job and the painting one as a hobby, different skill requirements, different jobs required in the finished project. Enough different to keep the interest high. Gene
I have a teaching degree, and at 28, I build custom cars for a living. I've been building cars professionally for 2 1/2 years, and I'm ready to quit. Like everyone says, I drive my '55 Ply daily, and all I ever do is maintain it. I have little desire anymore to work toward making the car better. I also can't afford it. Unless you're in a big shop that does alot of HIGH dollar work, theres no money in it for the average worker. Our cars start at $60K, and I make under $30K a year with no benifits. It started out fun, but at this point, it's pretty routine. I rarley get to do anything fun, it gets old quick installing yet another MII front suspension with the customer always complaining about how much it costs. If you really want to give it a try, go for it. It could be that you, like me, need to try it to decide if you want to make a career out of it. You always have the degree to fall back on if you decide it's not for you. There are guys that can do it their entire careers, and my hat is off to them. It's just not for me. You'll either love it, or you'll get it out of your system knowing that you've tried it and it's not for you.
Well said i am though in a mechanical trade but the cars are different so a big joy to work on . Spent many hours cleaning up and taping and sanding . This was enough to get me into Body shop management for about 8 years of my life.
all of the replies here are great. They all have the sound of experience and lessons learned. Their right! All of them. If you can work to support yourself in this field and go home at night and continue to do it and enjoy it, you are truly blessed. For me turning wrenches, checking electrical circuits, welding in new floor panels and doing preventatives wore me out, When I left for the day the last thing I wanted to do was go home and open another tool box.
Twenty five years in a dealership as a line tech ,I hated my hobby and wanted nothing to due with building cars.Now I teach young people how to work on them and enjoy my hobby. The Automotive Instructor
I admire your ambition, willingness and dedication to your dream. By getting your degree (what is it? what level? and what major?) you have created a backup plan for yourself so you have that parachute to pull if you need to. However it seems to me that you're willing to live on ramen-noodles and instant coffee to pursue your dreams...something tells me you have a lot of 'stick-to-it-of-ness" in you. I always suggest that if you want to learn how to be successful at anything, go to work for someone who is already successful at your chosen field. Thus, if I were you I would write myself a nice resume', line up your references (complete with phone numbers and email addys) and start calling upon successful shops that you would like to work for. Being stationed in NorCal, you have some nice choices there...Start attending shows they will be at, talk with the staff, get to know people there if you can and then eventually find a way to get on the calender of the prinicipals, ask, beg them for 15 minutes of their time and tell them your story....be prepared to start at the bottom just like you wrote; come to work early and stay late everyday and be a sponge and absorb as much as you can. There are many roles you could fulfill, from fabrication to business issues and everything in between. Even if fabrication and car construction turns out not to be your role, at LEAST you will be ' in the vicinity' of your dreams-and THAT is a lot better than spending the rest of your days doing what you abhor...If I were you, I would look at as a 4-year plan (like college) and make a go of it....If it turns out not to be what you hoped it would be, with your degree, you still have options. If you look around at the more successful shops, many of their lead fabricators could walk out the door start their own business and be very much in-demand... but being a creative person and being a business person are sometimes, two very different skill sets...Skills you can learn, but if you find yourself in a shop you like, working for people you like, and doing work you like...Bingo-you just struck gold. Maybe you will work for yourself, maybe you will work for someone else, but either way, I feel like you should try and make a go of it. Again, if all turns out not to be everything you hoped it would be, you have options. All the best-W.S.
A wise old man once told me that "there is great danger in making your avocation, your vocation". Trying to make a living out of your hobby usually squeezes the love out of it for most people, but try it if you must. I suspect that only a small % of guys make it work for them, but like an artist, you'll have to sacrifice for the craft to find out if it is right for you. Good Luck.
These guys speaketh the truth. I don't get to work on any cool customs or anything special, right now its bodywork on boring old semis. Get a good education and something that will provide a decent living for you to support your love of cars, as well as having the desire to dig right into them after working the day job. If you want to learn, thats fine, weather thats finding someone to take you under thier wing, or learning the basics at a tech school. But it would probably be best to keep it a hobby and fun. My younger brother and sis, both make far better money/benefits/respect in there professions then I do rolling around in bondo dust and breathing in paint fumes, and I've been doing this stuff for a living for 18 years now. They don't have a lot of thier own money tied up in tools to do their job, that are used to make someone else money. Often here how hard it is to find good help in this work, but yet so many have the mentality that your easily replaceable by some other chump off the street, or they won't pay a good wage to someone with experience. If I could start over, or were younger, I'd probably choose something else for a living (and actually be contemplating learning something new even though I am creeping up on 40), that was healthier and provided a higher income, but still do the body thing for fun, mostly on my own sheet, that a good paying job provided me the ability to afford. But i had to see all those cool looking cars in the magazines as a teen, and think hey thats cool, I want to make cars look cool and pretty. Seems like the cable shows has revamped the desire to get into this. Least you have guys telling you how tough a gig it can be, where as I was never told of the hazards, or that the pay is realitively low compared to a lot of other skilled trades. I am sure that a few do pretty well, but for every one that is, I bet there are several that have relatively little.
There are plenty of businesses out there supporting the hobby that will need your degree. Market yourself in that area so you can get "in" with the stuff you love. Then you can learn more about the craft while applying that hard earned education. One truth in this arena, there will always be more "do-it-yourself-ers" that think they can do it better, faster, cheaper than a professional can. Most will try, some will even pretend to be pros and take jobs out of the market place, screwing a unsuspecting customer along the way. The number of cash waving customers will always be too low to make a craftsman a millionaire, unless they pull a Vic Edelbrock. If they do that, they will need kids with degrees to keep them outta trouble. Make your money now so you can play by the time you die, or die trying to find the money to play.
Oh yeah...Full disclosure time-I did forget to mention that I was once a composites fabricator working for a very well-paying defense dept contractor and I loved what I did-that job gave me a great sense of satisfaction. I gave that up to return to college and finish my degree....I loved that work, but I could easily see that the work was hazardous, poisonous etc as I worked with a bunch of 40-somethings that looked like they were 60-somethings. Not good. Now today, I also work in a field that I love-car design, so go do what you love and if it doesn't work out, you can still find a role that you will love and find very fulfilling.
Thanks guys for all of the replies. It seems that each of you have a lesson that I can learn from. I am in the fortunate position of not having to solely get by on wages earned allowing me to work my way from the bottom with little money coming in. Don't be mistaken, I am more than willing to do this in order to acquire some knowledge. W.S. - I think the four year plan is a great idea, btw my major is a Bachelor of Science with finance application in Economics
What experience do you have? How motivated are you? How do you plan to get by? I have been thinking about offering a low paying internship of sorts for the right person.. I am 4 hours south of S.F. in Morro Bay..I have 3 talented guys right now and have a bit of time to pass on info and know how... You can PM me for specifics if you are interested.. Jason.
W.S. - I think the four year plan is a great idea, btw my major is a Bachelor of Science with finance application in Economics Oh yeah? That could be your in right there. You now have the opportunity to offer a prospective employer the skills that you learned in school along with the desire to learn what he has to teach you. Just another tool in your toolbox. BTW, there are a hell of a lot of shops in the bay area. Can't swing a wrench without hitting one.<!-- / message -->
W.S. - I think the four year plan is a great idea, btw my major is a Bachelor of Science with finance application in Economics[/quote] So you have a BS in Finance? Any chance you could get your MBA at night school as well as chase the dream? Why?...because nearly any MBA job starts out as $75K...and up from there but a BS will start out much like any other Bachelor's rate of pay...PLUS if you do someday wanna open your own place, having an MBA will help you at the banks or with attracting capital investors. Chase the dream, apply yourself, learn from others who have gone before you and make it happen.
Reading all the the great replies, and hearing what you are saying about what you want to do, I will put my 2 cents in. You can never make more using your hands than using your mind. Focus on earning power and then use your love of cars to enjoy your leisure time. I know that I wasted many years by chasing that love of cars and finally realized that the real goal should be providing for my family and future. That was many years ago. I am retired now and I still work on cars for fun, but I make money in land and real estate and even retired I still make more than I ever could have working on cars. You sound like you are a sound thinker and you should do fine. Good Luck
My advice is to obtain a job in the non automotive area. I worked for 4 years for a large hi-performance automotive aftermarket company 16 years ago when I was close to you age now 27. Thought I would like it and it would be a dream job-working in the speed equipment industry. Well, never turned out that way. Job never paid much money and I had to work 20-25 weekend shows per year throughout the country and it just plain got old. Also killed me to see everyone else enjoying their cars while I could not afford one let alone a place to build one. I had a 4 year degree before getting that job and I'm glad I did it for a while to get it "out of my system" . I've been in the insurance business ever since. I don't particulary enjoy my job but it pays enough to enable me to buy a nice house with a large 4 car garage with enough tools to build what I want and enough money to pay someone to do the work I can't do. Like another poster mentioned you need to be concerned about making enough money to enjoy life and have a comfortable retirement. You do not want to be working at age 70 because you have to. I paid my dues for those 4 years going paycheck to paycheck..it sucked. Also consider this. The economy is slowing up and it's going to get worse before it get's better. That means less people will be building cars and you could be laid off.
The Jalopy Journal
