car restoration

[jimmy shoes]

hi,

I've been thinking of a career that combines my two passions, mechanics and fabrication and I've come up with car restoration.

any advice on this career move, I've been looking around for jobs in restoration but haven't found anything. is it something that i will have to set up myself as in rent a garage, tools etc?

thanks

 

[malcolm]

I restored an Aston Martin for someone else once, though at that time I was all for fixed prices and was kind of caught out by the cost of parts. 18 months work for not much of your actual money. I'd recommend charging time plus parts. An estimate is only an estimate.

But I've been thinking recently of doing the same again. Overheads are high (rent, business rates, insurance etc) if you do it for proper. I'd be inclined to try starting out with whatever facilities you have and see if you can get some work before actually investing money.

 

[gavuk]

Wouldn't be a bad idea to join forums of vehicles that rust,ie transits and landrover,always seem to need welding ,mostley fitting bought in panels hadrian.....if there are lots of panels there lots of cars need welding....Gav

 

[drjim]

You can come and do my rusty beemers for practice if you like. I'll give you a good reference if I like the work

 

[Richiew]

Prices of classic cars seem to be ballooning again. Lots of people "Investing", the same as twenty years ago.

Could be a good time to go into it. No-one's putting their spare cash into banks any more. There must be plenty of cash rich people buying old cars and finding they need work.

 

[jimmy shoes]

You can come and do my rusty beemers for practice if you like. I'll give you a good reference if I like the work

lol i think the commute time would be too much for me

 

[irondarren]

I will be difficult to find work to start with once your up and got a name for yourself it shouldnt be so bad. See if you can find a banger to do up, document it as you do it, and publish to a website. That should get some exposure.

 

[andypocock]

I think your best bet would be to get a few years experience with a top quality classic car restorers. There is a world of difference between patching up a Mondeo and restoring a classic properly.
I know that whenever I have spoken to them on the subject that they are always keen to take on younger people that are willing to learn how to do the job properly.
Get the skills under your belt and the world really is your oyster.

Andy

 

[MrFluffy]

Don't! you'll end up poor
Get a good paying job you mildly enjoy, and use it to fund filling your workshop with all the toys you'd ever want.

Works for me, and Ive had a fair few jobs "doing what I love" in the past, and having to do something for money soon takes the love out of it..

 

[michael1703]

i'm currently restoring from home, it takes A LOT of room! I hardly ever bill a customer for the actual ammount of hours a job takes,i give a rough estimate and sometimes i take a hit and other times a neat profit, its worth going the extra mile to get customer satisfaction as a happy customer spreads the word and then you get a steady flow of work.

Welding gas and steel are the things that cripple you, i farm out the spraying as unless i had a spraybake i wouldnt bother, the price of paint is extortianate and one mistake or cold weather or dust and thats a lot of materials wasted

I take a long term resto on and still take on more work and hop from one to another so ive always got something coming in from a job, no point taking on a job and waiting for one big cheque

Business rates are extortionate, knock on a few farmers doors and see if they have an old shed you can rent, some people in my area pay £15-£25 per week for fairly good sized workshops

 

[hotrodder]

Good way to make a small fortune, as long as you start off with a large one . In all seriousness though 'restoration' needs defining as it can have a very broad meaning. To me we're talking about butt welded repairs that are metal finished which is an area where reputaion is EVERYTHING and is hard to obtain but easy to lose

Customer/mate of mine builds high end rods and kustoms. I met him around the time he was beginning to specialise in ONLY rods and Kustoms- the previous 10 or so years had been spent earning a reputation having begun with a few rods and the like in between MOT repairs/welding and servicing normal cars

Even now (having reached the point where he has a waiting list and picks/chooses work to some extent) it's often the same story with customers... during the 'interview' stage it's pointed out repeatedly that this sort of work cannont be done to a fixed quote, it's ££/ man hour which works out to £££/man day and ££££/man week (all + VAT and parts of course), and a ground up build can easily take many months with a final bill upwards of £50,000.

All is good initially as work progresses quickly and it looks (to the client) as though loads is being done for the money (tear down and initial work). About mid way through the build is the typical time when client asks for work to be slowed a bit or for the work to stop because client is falling behind and bill is esculating. Now the subject of storage has to raised (again). This stage is typically repeated later in the build as there's also loads of parts to add to the labour bill. Ocasionally there's also the issue of labour costs (actually VERY cheap compared with a typical garage) because much less appears to being done per hour now- always takes longer to put it back together, especially when there's ££££s of paint you can't scratch!!

Part of me would love to do this sort of work full time (always interesting, lifelong learning curve) but man is it hard! Certainly would only ever consider it as an employee personally

 

[michael1703]

very good reply, yes that sums up restoration nicely

Progress is quick to start with, stripping the shell is quick and then if its blasted it can look like theres not much to do

Customers dont appreciate how long it can take to make an invisible repair, i dont joddle or use filler, if i cant make it look as though its never been welded then i wont do the job

I hate someone saying 'just bodge a plate on and skim it with filler'

my reply is normally 'thats how the car got to be in this state'

I bare metal shells and prime then and then give them to the sprayer, i dont have anywhere as draughtproof/clean/brightly lit to do it and i get a good rate

 

[nellway]

Two of the Astons I bought had started off as restoration projects - The first i bought from someone who just found it too difficult and abandoned it. I then sold it on to become a racing car in France - the second I bought for parts for my restoration was just far too expensive for the owner to proceed with and was sold for parts and scrap.

The car I am restoring was just a heap - and deemed 'uneconomical' for restoration. Only a lunatic with more money than sense would take it on! (ahem, that's me)

My experience of car restorers is that they tend to specialise in one marque - sometimes just one model (Rikki Cann specialises in V8 Aston Martins, therefore knows everything - but is far too expensive for me). Many of the Aston restorers are ex AM staff so have that provenance.

From a business perspective I would look very carefully at your business plans, and think of it ONLY as a business. Very few people make REAL money doing something they love. Most of us earn money in a crap job and then spend it all on smelly, oily, rusty garage queens that their wives put up with cos' they're not out chasing loose women.

 

[Antsuno2]

We used to have a few quality restorers near me all small independants, all them have now gone or are doing insurance work instead where there is more money, there are a lot of man hours involved in restoring properly, i'm currently restoring my dream an integrale an have spent near 100 hours and x amount of pounds, and no where near finished but will be worth it Ant!

 

[Robotstar5]

i'm currently restoring my dream an integrale an have spent near 100 hours and x amount of pounds, and no where near finished but will be worth it Ant!

Bet it didn't look like this before you started!

 

[madkayaker]

bet that hurt

 

[Robotstar5]

bet that hurt

Yes I think the co-drivers feet got hurt

 

[madkayaker]

no sun roof conversion this time then?

 

[series2]

Don't! you'll end up poor
Get a good paying job you mildly enjoy, and use it to fund filling your workshop with all the toys you'd ever want.

Works for me, and Ive had a fair few jobs "doing what I love" in the past, and having to do something for money soon takes the love out of it..

I cant agree with this more. I trained as an electronics engineer, I used to love building stuff for myself. Then I went to work for a high street electronics retailer, I can't remember the last time I picked up a soldering iron.

Now I have a job that I am indifferent to, but the money is reaonable, And that pays for a garden full of Landrovers that I enjoy 'fixing' for fun!

moral of the story - If you enjoy doing something, for god's sake make it your hobby. If there is something you can tolerate, do it for money!

 

[Antsuno2]

hope that doesnt happen to mine