boy, have i been where your at. it sucks wanting cars and parts and you have no dough. i'm in my mid 40's now, have a few old cars, garage, ect..but, it takes time. i remeber talking to an "older" buddy years ago. he had 4 or 5 old cars ,garage, always buying parts. i was whining one day about not understanding how he could do it. he asked" how old are you?" i said "26" he said " damn boy i'm 43, when i was your age i didn't have shit either!" ha ha. something i'll never forget for sure. i'm 44 now and have about what he did then. you've got the right attitude in my opinion. i never spent a dime of the "house" money on cars or parts. i did it by working on the side, swaping, selling and what ever to get there. there's no seceret formula. you already know what to do. work and more work. so, i guess i'm saying keep your head down and steam ahead. you'll get there.
Got any skills you can peddle? Personally I build website on the side for hot rod money. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Been there, still there. I started my family at 20 sole breadwinner ever since. It was a couple years before I could buy a car, but I kept on wheeling & dealing. Got into VW vanagons which are cheap and have a strong demand. Parted vans, learned what valuable and kept drivers or myself. Even now I still wheel & deal to get my play money. Look for deals and don't get too attached.
Im with rocky! Hit the junkyards up and become buds in a biz manner. Better prices! Then clean them up and sale them for profit! It's a good way to fund a project or trade up projects! It doesn't hurt to be a good sales men! Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Honestly, I don't know how I would have built my T Bucket, if I had had a family to support. My buckets not fancy by any stretch of the word, but a family would have killed it for me. When i was married, I tried and failed. So, with that, I'd concentrate on the family and save, save, SAVE. Your day will come. Save up and have the money ready when that ride fall into your lap. There's guys who don't live thier dream till the kids are gone or the wife. But if you save you can get in at 30yrs. old. Maybe sooner. Next time you're thinking of eating out, stay home and fry some yard bird. it's cheaper and cooked the way you like it. I bet if you sit down and list all the un-neccesary shit you buy, you'd see a nice little sum of cash. Cut down on the cable. Conserve electricity. Hell, set up a trash can at work for aluminum cans. It'll all add up. I had over 30 years in planning my car in my head. I kept articles and got advice, so that when I pulled the trigger, things went pretty smooth. This is where the passion starts. When you save up and barter or whatever, that first ride will be the tits. And NOTHING will feel better than knowing how you got there.
According to the radio you can make up to 60k a year for you sperm. Ofcourse you gotta be over 6' tall, have a masters, be athletic, and look like Favio to make that kind of coin. Have you tried your hand at the scrap business? I take the scrap from my shop once everyother month and usually net around $150 a trip, and thats on drops, old brake parts, and rusty useless metals. Ya got an old shit block laying in the corner?
My dad says that he and his brothers made pretty good money on junk cars way back when. Buy a couple that you can make one good one out of, part out what's left, scrap what you can't sell. He said that half the time he could put $100 into a car and sell it whole/running for a good profit because the PO thought it was ruined when it really wasn't. That's where they got money to build their rods back then. I'm trying it now with the parts donor I just bought. There's enough little pieces in good condition, I'm sure ill make my money back on this one and have a "free" BBCad/tranny when I'm done. Maybe even make a little extra for paint.
I have been selling parts on the internet for over nearly 15 years, e-bay and various other sites. I starting doing this in my late 20's to fund my Model A rdstr pu. In early 2002 I found myself unemployed and did it to make a living. Called back to work in early 2003. In 2007 at the age of 36 I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer and managed to pay off those bills by selling my rdstr pu one piece at a time and selling other parts. Thankfully I had found my delivery sedan in 2006 so atleast I still had a project. In 2009 it was announced the place I had devoted my life to working at was going to close its doors, it took until April of 2011 for them to get to me as the closure was a slow proccess. I did some temp work that summer up until Labor Day when my youngest daughter who had been battling a sinus infection that would not go away was hospitalized and the next day flown to Childrens Hospital in Omaha. Her stay there and the following stay in rehab lasted until a week before Thanksgiving. Work since then has been patchy due to the amount of time we have spent going back and forth to Omaha to see various doctors and her last 2 surgeries. Selling parts has been just enough to get us by, but I thank God I learned the ropes of doing so and when the bills from her doctors are all payed off and work life become normal again I will once again put my parts sales money back into my projects. Here are some things I have learned 1) Always have some inventory. I made the mistake of not putting a large enough percentage back into inventory. I mainly buy from farmers and at auctions. I do have a small group of antique dealers that buy salvage rights off of old homesteads that I sell the car stuff on 45% commission and that is with me going to pick the parts up and often helping them just get them dug out. 2) When times get abit harder don't lower your prices and look desperate no matter how bad you think you need the money. Start with some wiggle room in your prices alot of people won't buy at all unless they have the satisfaction of haggling you down some and feel like they won. Uncle Sam wants 30% of your profits, so a $100 gain is only a $70 gain. 3) Keep track of you travel expences and milage, so it can be proprly applied to Uncle Sam's 30%. Rod
What I did when needed money for a project was buy a couple of insurance salvage motorcycles. Fixed them and had the titles cleared. In Minnesota, motorcycle titles are cleared of salvage status after they are inspected. On the last couple I made $3500 profit on on $8000 investment. Better than the stock market!!
You all have provided some excellent advice! I am fairly handy - have been thinking about maybe advertising some small engine repair (lawn mowers, etc.) and even offering my hand around the neighborhood (live in a nice suburb of Chicago, so people hate doing labor on their own - if you know what I mean) and will just start "stuffing the mattress" and continue to buy a part at a time. Unfortunately I just don't have the coin to start buying up parts and cars and flipping them. Time I got a whole lot of, and patience, well, if needed I can find it. I am just happy to have a passion for cars, I am just ready to start participating/cruising and not always being the observer!! Luckily I should be nailing down my actual car, ad mentioned, a '63 Caddy which is already in great shape and is a runner and driver, just needs a few safety things like tires, brakes, etc. Then I can start cruising, and the rest will follow piece by piece. See you all out there....
Yep...motorbikes are quick, easy and profitable flips. I took an old Honda Goldwing and turned it into a badass bobber! Sold it due to back problems. Doubled my money. You can get pick up cheap bikes on CL, cafe or bob them for little money and pretty fast. Dammit, I'd get into it again only I get enough grief as it is for taking up the garage.
In my 20's and 30's I worked a full time job and 2 part time jobs at the same time,,it didn't leave much room for playing with cars but I managed to build a couple of hot rods. My main job was working in retail,,but I moon lighted by hanging wallpaper and helping a friend do repairs on rental property. You can find extra work but it takes away from your family time,,luckily we survived the long hours and sleep deprivation,,I ended up buying the business and only worked about 60 hours a week. HRP
earn your hot rod money with car related activities---it's more fun and you meet lots of people with common interest---cleaning ,painting, and detailing is the easiest way to add value to used parts----i have done well buying unfinished projects and parting them out---find local scrappers and get parts off cars going to the crusher--good luck
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