Are Craftsmen/Fabricators in short supply?...

I've seen posts here about shops looking to the Hamb for qualified craftsmen/fabricators, and I thought I would let the Hamb community know about The Hot Rod Garage in Sand Springs, Oklahoma (just a stones throw west of Tulsa).

I can't say enough about the owners Jim and Jason Smith, and the amazing quality builds that have emerged from their shop...all magazine type stuff...(they did some outstanding fabrication work on my coupe)

I was down there the other day ordering stuff for the roadster, and asked Jason about doing some work for me, and he mentioned he could use a couple more high end type fabricators because of their workload...

Seems a couple of his fab guys (thru no fault of the shop) had some personal life issues that took them away from building cars.

If you're interested in working for a great, fully outfitted shop that you could eat off the floors, give Jason a call at 918-241-6333.

I highly reccomend these guys and just wanted to give a little back to them for all the help they've given me over the years....

 

Sounds like a great place to work and if I had any talent I would love to work in an environment like 3wLarry stated.

As for the rest of the shops around the country, I think that they should pay them a bit better. You can hardly support yourself these days for $14.00/hr and when a family is thrown into the mix is makes it all the more difficult. It's about time that fabricators and craftsman alike get paid their dues. I think a great deal of people take for granted how talented a lot of these guys are and just how important their work is to what we do. Support them now because it's seems like they are a dying breed.

 

most place's just want parts replacen't

 

i think part of the problem is....if you enjoy doing metalwork
you dont enjoy following a strict set of directions

i know i probably would hate working somewhere clean as a whistle building to a certain plan...worrying about making a mistake or a mess

not saying i have skills to work anywhere professional...
but im happiest in my own environment on my own time doing my own thing
this may be what hurts the shops when trying to keep employees?

 

For the most part, anybody who is much good at that is already running their own shop (or at least moonlighting out of their own garage/shed/basement/etc.).

It's hard for a fab shop to be able to pay their help enough to have someone with that much skill on payroll.

 

If you pay the fabricaters at least half of the charge an hour these shops could attract more talent but if they continue to pay $20 or so they will always need help.

You got to take care of the employees that aint just bolting stuff on

 

As said before.MOST of the GOOD ones have a shop of thier own...You get an
apprentice in and teach him the trade,and when he learns to be good at it,Bye.
I'm, gonna open my own place....You will spend a lot of time to train someone,
that it usually ends up like your running a school....Been There!!!!!
By the way,Jim and Jason have an excellent shop there in Sand Springs....

 

unfortunately you'll never get rich making somebody else rich like stated above.

 

Problem I see with most shops, and companys in general is people mixing their "P"s (Personal & professional life). Have been doing fabrication for the Navy for 8 years and going custom on the side. Never let my personal life get involved with my professional life. Yes shit happens, and you will have to take care of business during working hours. Thats life. But keep the mind set you are there to do a job and to do it at the best of your abilities. If your shit hot and deserve your rewards hopefully you will get them, if not then... move on.

Relize that a lot of jobs now days companys buy indirect or hold production oversea's. Cause it is cheaper, but at the same america is lossing those critical skill sets. Custom fabrication now days is a dying art. Its pretty bad when I get a new guy in my shop who doesnt even know his basic hand tools or common knowledge cause he/she never learned them. Are they trainable? To a point, but most younger generations never grew up with the fix it your self mentallity. Its all about computers and techno wiggits. The really sad part is that fabrication or even metal work it self is veiwed as a lower class working billet, unless you establish your self to be "That Guy"

 

lmao... I didn't know this was supposed to make me rich.... that's funny...

 

The problem with all that is that a really good automotive fabricator is a niche skill-- Anyone know of a shop willing to pay for relocation, and a decent enough salary worth uprooting your family for?

The best fabricator I've ever seen- was making $20/HR before he quit to work for himself. (He has almost twenty years experience)
That's barely enough to live on.

...that's howcome I left all that to become a professional designfag.

 

The Fab shop next to me just hired a buddy of mine for $20 or more an hour. While that apparently isn't enough for some people, my buddy has full access to the shop after hours and on weekends to do his own projects and make extra money. The shop has the tools to do anything and he can use it all for free AFTER making $40k per year. That doesn't sound too bad to me.

If he didn't like it, he could go build his own shop, buy his own expensive tools, pay the phone bill, the insurance, the utilities, the shop truck, the gas, the metal, and handle the customer, and payroll himself. Then add in the fact that everyone who walks in the door wants top notch work done for the "buddy price" or a piece at a time while they make payments, etc... Talent isn't cheap, tools aren't cheap. Nothing is cheap except customers. If I did this for a living, I think I'd prefer to work for someone else.

I will say that the owner does make a very decent living though. He deserves it for opening at 6am and working till 8 or 9 most nights and weekends too. My buddy is 8-5 and leaves without a care in the world.

 

Yeah- it's a tough gig, it takes alot of talent and the right equipment.
I think that was my point-- no disrespect intended.

 

DITTO..

 

If you want to make a small fortune in the hot rod business,
start with a Large fortune!............................OLDBEET

 

True talent is a rarity today. All the newbies wanna make the big bucks jumping in, without paying thier dues. I see it as a rare opportunity for the younger ones who want to learn to do it right. It is better, (in my spiderwebbed mind) to grow your own help. Bring someone in who is young and wants to learn how to do it right. Now finding the one with the willingness to listen, and the patience to learn is the key.

 

to bad Ok is so far away, but im thinking of making the leap to another career, im young and my body is to beat up to work as a mechanic/fabricator for the rest of my days, im 25 and already had knee surgery and getting ready to have back surgery soon if something dont change,

 

If they did work on your coupe then their works speaks volume. Hopefully they will find someone soon

 

$20 isn't enough to live on? I'd do it for $20....but I'd need bennies too, cuz medical costs are way high! Got kids to cover, ya know? I took a pay cut to take a job closer to home, and for the difference in take home pay, I shoulda just paid for the gas!

I would love to get into a gig as a fabricator in a rod shop! Doing it in my spare time is a nice fantasy.....but I don't have much extra time. I get the same 24 hours in a day as anyone else. Kinda like extra money - I plan on spending all of it, eventually.

Any shops in Illinois looking for help? Just signed a lease, so I'm stuck here for a while, or I'd be happy to relocate.

Tim D.

 

Saved me a good bit of typing!

 

To answer the original posters question - yes, fabricators, body technicians, helpers and painters are in very short supply. I'm 35 years old and recently opened my own shop in SoCal doing paint and body. I was working for large body shops and dealerships as a body tech for over 15 years and I was almost always the youngest and the best tech in the shop. The problem is that there are hardly any schools offering auto body or auto mechanics to students. High schools think that all kids need to go to college. The last couple of years I was a tech I made over 100k and I know a lot of people who never went to college who make a great living. Conversely, I know college graduates with masters degrees who make half as much as me. As for finding a metalman for $20 an hour, good luck, at least in SoCal. After getting that $4 cup of coffee and filling up on $4 a gallon gas, that doesn't leave much for rent on that $2000 a month 1,000 sq. ft. home. Like someone else said, you have to look for that rare kid who has the drive and willingness to learn and just try to hold on to them as long as you can and if you can afford to pay them more do it because it'll be hard to find another one.

 

Very short supply. I have paid a few guys $35 an hour and been really happy to do it, and we are all making money. But, they have paid their dues for 20 years or so, like anything else. Just because someone can build an incredible car (though most haven't) in their garage doesn't mean they can make any money, or deserve to make any money as a pro.

As a pro, you have to due it right AND fast. It is easy to do it right, and it is easy to do it fast, but not both.

Most people I paid $15 dollars an hour to I should have only paid $2 an hour to. They cost me so much time and money redoing the work of the so called master custom builders they claim to be.

Also, the cost of living has tripled (real estate, insurance etc ) in the past 15 years, but shop rates are close to the same. Plus shop overhead has at least doubled, while labor rates are close to the same.
Labor rates should triple also. At least $150 an hour. But skilled labor is supposed to be cheap.

I would love to pay all trainees ( 5 years or less pro experience in a professional full time shop) $20 an hour with full benefits, but I would lose money on every job that came through the door, until I finished training them, re doing all of their work for free, and then when they have drained all of my hard earned blood, they move on to another sucker.

If you look at how much you pay a guy, how much time you have to spend with him of your time, then add that up a week, plus your overhead. Then look at what you were really able to charge a customer after a week of work, it is usually a much better deal for the employee then employer by far. Not even close.

Thank God, I do have a great crew now. But I could write a very funny novel on all the crazy fools who have passed through the shop. I bet, and this is no exageration, that I have lost at least $100,000 in the last 18 years in work I had to redo myself after many know it all, we are lucky to have them, great, allegedly underpaid mechanics and fabricators have graced the shop with their presence. At least I always catch any bad work before it gets out the door to the customer. Actually, it probably has been $100,000 in the last 4 years.

 

Actually thats a good way sometimes - cash flow is KING and having a one allows you to borrow for real estate etc - thats how I can play in my shed these days. Just a thought though .....

 

I'm just trying to say for those of us stuck without the funds to open our own shops(if you're good enough,which I'm not)You're not going to get ahead working for someone else,thus they open their own shops.I also think its location.I stopped by a resto shop here and asked if I could just sit in and watch them,while I sweep the floor,or do grunt work, they wanted nothing to do with it.

 

i have a shop and uncle scooby said it right they all want buddy prices and top notch work i have a guy working for me thats very good and knows what to do he,s a keeper i,ve worked for the other guy already and learned alot and only now i realize why he was the way he was and he,s a leading name in our industry you also have to know how to read customers in the end they are paying the bill.

 

I think much like many things very few take it seriously ,or actually have teh 'passion' for there work/art. Most are after fame and glory or a Television show,lol...sadly TRUE craftsman may soon be a thing of the past.

 

As stated above-- there is a HUGE difference between working in a production environment, and working on the same set of hoodsides for 2 1/2 months.......
----the biggest of which is getting paid.

No true Craftsman? How about someone that can fabricate a hood, a grill shell--- whatever, using his own English Wheel and pnuematic hammer???-

http://ohiometalcraftsman.blogspot.com/

 

Wow, you guy's talking about $20/hr. make me want to go move. The first rod shop I worked for only paid me 8.50/hr and the other guy that worked there who had tons of experience was only making a few bucks more than me and that was at a big name shop that has been in more than just a few magazines and TV shows. I left that shop because of the pitiful pay and went to another local lesser known shop and got $13/hr. although I was pleased to get more I wasn't pleased with still having to live with my parents with my wife, I eventually left there also so I could go work in a bodyshop making double that just so I could scrounge up the cash to do my own thing. People around here just plain don't pay, I could make more working for Wal-Mart than what I made at the first shop, I can see why there isn't a lot of talent in the buisness a lot of people just can't make a living at it and find another career where they can make more

 

I have my own english wheel ,medal brake, bread roller ,miller wire welder, miller plasma ,plus 3 tools boxs , about $100.000 dollar in tools .I could get a higher pay job at McDonald flipping burger around here then working in body shop and most shops want someone who went to a tech school ... and McDonald give you the tools to work there....

 

Yeah ,,how many of them still exist as apposed to before ?? Im saying its becoming a lost art