I just back form Wyotech and looking to build my first rod and looking for a lot of help finding parts and ideas. This is my life and in the beginning parts of opening my own shop but its alway hard starting out im 23 and i know you older guys have alot of ideas to shair please shot it my way. Looking to build a traditional rod for the late fiftys . I cand do alot of metal work so rust in no problem and looking to by parts that you guys might just have sitting around that you just dont need any more
Oh dude - first of all change your name, "Ratrods" leaves such a nasty taste in a lot of folks mouth... traditional rods are what you are building. Nobody is gonna "give" you anything. Most old boys on here spend months and years collecting parts. Check the cl***ifieds. Check your local junkyards, newspapers, Craigslist, AutoTrader magazines, swapmeets, garage sales and grandmas garage. Good luck!
After changing your name as mentioned above you ned to decide what you want to build. If you want a late '50's style you have tons of material to choose from. Do you want a hot rod or a custom? That would be the first way to narrow it down.
Congradulations on graduating from Wyotech. There are a lot of great guys in your area, GMC bubba and 29 sedanman come to mind. Look them up and treat them with respect and you would be surprized what you can learn. Good luck with your build.
i got something that'll melt in yer mouth sweetie... M&M's ya sick ****! listen to greg dude... hangin out at wyotech for a year or so does NOT a rodshop make... welfare line is downtown and i gave at the office anyhow
I agree 1st thing to go is that screen name..thats an insult to everyone on this forum..2nd. you get nothin' for nothin' (as Bon Scott from AC/DC said)..ya have to pony up..all my so called "stuff sitting around" is build material and worth something even if its a favor or a beer. good luck on the shop and good to see people getting educated in the automotive field of trades. good luck with it. keep us posted on how you do. And what you do with it.
Definitely have Ryan change your screen name, you'll miss out on lots of good info and get tons of flack. Actually, I'd delete that term from your vocabulary if you want to be taken seriously. Now go here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=8 and read, read, read. We have a great Tech Archive!
Wyo-Tec is a good place to find a direction. In the real world it's bearly a base line, kind of like Color Crayons in Kindergarten. Sounds like you have plenty of Zest and Drive so hang on to it, but the Real world is where your Education starts. I've been at it on my Own for a long time now and only in looking back do I see how little I knew early on. None the less I knew it all when I was 23 also. It's been a Grate Run and I wish you Grate Success. Some of this Advice is well worth thinking about. A Name and what you Drive will determin a lot of the opertunitys that come your way. If Budget Built Rough Rods is all you want to work on then stay the Course. What you'll soon learn is that those Customers have little or No money and you'll have a lot of Friends and no where to live. It's also impossible to Shake your Past so make choices wisly, even though it's international it's a small Comunity. I love this Hobby and Life Style and It's payed me well. I don't have a Shop Name or a specific nitch in the Car circle. I've been lucky enough to work on Cars in the Grate Race, B-Vill cars have had my Name on them for Years, Many, many Show cars, 1/4 milers and to many Street rods to remember. Friends started calling me The Wizzard back in 1963, I didn't make it up but it stuck. It also works in that it don't catorgise me. I've just been Lucky and if your 1/2 that you'll do well. Good Luck to ya. The Wizzard
Do like many who are now successful. Shut up and listen. Simple and it works. Keep what you learned in that cl***room as a reference for life and business, not a schematic. Oh, change your screen name. It'll help some people here take you serious. When on the HAMB, do as the.......
Yes, Like the man says. If you want help and respect and want to learn. Read and read and read everything you can before taking the wrong step. The new PC Hamb... aren't we sweet!
Just a few ideas from me here: Always be honest Keep eyes and ears open, either for advice, ideas, parts..... I can learn something from anybody, find car parts at Home depot, get ideas from WWII aviation threads. A day spent not learning something new is a day wasted. Safety first. Become an Alliance Member (after you change your screen name) Always be honest.
First mistake was going to wyotech, I know I went there also years ago. It would have been cheaper to get a magazine subscription and learn from there, but now you are in the real world so if you are looking to start your own shop like others have then find a good job where you can learn a lot and make good money then build yourself a nice car and you will learn some more, do some jobs for people on the side and then maybe you can open a side business, After doing that for some time MAYBE you can go full time. believe me I went to school at around your age and came out with high hopes just like all of the other brainwashed students but you really learned very little. I am only speaking from the voice of experience And if I could do it all over again I would have done it a lot differently, I have no idea what experience you have other than Wyotech but I spend a few years before going to school restoring GTO's with a local guy and picking up side jobs from people and I am just starting the stepping stones into my own shop, and I have spent the past five years after school working at two different rod shops and I now can say that I have 12 years experience and I am now feeling comfortable building cars on all my own for other people.
Keep your eyes and ears open around here. There's tons of great information already on the HAMB for your enjoyment and learning. I've learned more here than I ever imagined. Also, if you are wanting to start up your own shop, I wish you luck. I'm sure, from time-to-time you'll have written correspondence with your customers, as well as other people you'll be involved with. You might want to consider taking a spelling cl***. Malcolm
listen to the guys their right having my own shop and very succesful i find in my area the muscle car crowd is the one that keeps my lights on not what i,d build for myself but it pays the bills but at least i,m doing what i like, your not going to get rich in this bussiness but theres some what of a freedom i love about it.and oh yea change your screen name that will get you beat up on here,the whole rat rod thing is almost over and thank god i hate that junk.
That was my first reaction. I realize this is OT but . . . . I had a car fail inspection once for "gaged egeges". That is what he wrote on the report. I never let him touch my car again. BTW it was for "jagged edges" ie: rust hole just starting.
Plan on spending two or three days at the Indy World of Wheels February 8th, 9th and 10th in the back room where the traditional stuff will be parked. There won't be any ropes around anything so you can study, study, study. Just don't touch unless ya ask first. Then pay attention to the answer you get. Spend time standing back, listening, observing, etc. Find a decent job where you can start to stash some cash away. It doesn't have to be building rods at first. You may have to just make ends meet way before you leap off into the unknown. Don't jump into any project without a plan. You should know where you want it to end up before you start, or at least have a theme or era in mind. If you haven't already, attend the Road Rocket Rumble this summer. Go to the Hunnert Car Pileup in Morris, IL, and any other shows where you can form ideas in your head about where you want to go and what you want to do. Talk to people at these shows, but don't be too eager. Unfortunately you will turn seasoned guys (young or old) off. These guys have a lot to offer, and frankly much of it is in the reading already available to you. Spend some hours ****ing in the info in these posts and also the tech section. Starting your own shop can be as simple as building your first outstanding car, selling it and having someone ask if you can do it for them too. It's not gonna happen automatically and, frankly, it comes down to more than learning and school. There is going to be a level of natural mechanical skill, a keen artistic eye and a little dumb luck in coming up with your first winner. Don't be afraid to just build a basic rod for now to have fun in while you plan your big break. Oh yeah... I agree with the name change. And I don't have any free parts... Good luck.
I used to dream of having a business building cars, now i'm glad I don't. I would constantly be trying to talk guys into building cars the way I would want them. Probably would hate cars by now. But that's just me. Good luck.
I've had to turn away alot of work that probably would have netted me some good bucks............but I just don't like the constraints put on me by a "paying customer". I'll just keep my day job a couple more years until I'm "debt free", then I can just build what I want...when I want. It took me DECADES to gain enough skil and equipment to confidently build cars, I learned alot from all the old guys (mostly all gone now).
I really am starting to like that name more and more. rat rods are finally starting to be more safe and build with integrity with all the street rodders getting into them. It is almost like all the junk is starting to vanish.
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