Who owns a shop?

[GeoffM]

So, I guess we've already forgotten that Skunk2 has essentially "put a hit out"
on a forum member recently?
Remember the guy who (I think) proved they were copies or something? S2 was
offering money in exchange for his address, name, ss, anything they could use
to find him.

[wed3k]

Yeah, but the OP is asking about starting a company that designs parts, like Skunk2, not a speed shop... unless I'm misunderstanding. The title is a bit misleading compared to the body of the original post. A "shop" tends to either sell other people's parts, or perform installations and modifications on-site.


a company that actually designs and manufactures parts is much more difficult to get off the ground, sadly.

it would be a good hobby but producing parts is extremely time consuming. had this conversation today with my boss about putting later model valve guides with positive seals on old heads because they smoke a lot. (Mercedes, also a lot of other models like alfa romeo)

all we'd do is simply design the valve guide and send it out to a big company who manufacturers and drop ships.

however this is something that we've done for years, not bs'in drinking beers in the office.

markekting has its time and place but you need to capture a niche. people love thier old mercedes so they'll keep them around and spend money on it. unfortunately hondas are still a hand-me down car.

[theSOB]

I've just hit that point where I have no idea what I want to do with my life. So I look to what I love: hockey and cars. Since I'm clearly never going to play hockey professionally, I'm looking towards cars. The main reason I got into engineering was just because I like math and physics and played with Legos a lot as a kid. But that love comes and goes whereas I am always happy around cars. I worked in a body shop for a few years and enjoyed it a lot. Not being certified or trained at all limited me to carwashing and sanding. I would much rather get into the technical stuff like changing timing belts and head gaskets which I have done before. I feel that as long as I have good instructions from a shop manual, these tasks are fairly simple. Most of the time when I get stuck it's because I don't have the right tool for the job and I go buy it. I just feel like if I don't try it then I'll never know if it's right for me. I don't really see myself as the dress-up fancy office person that comes with being an engineer. I'm more of the work clothes, oil-smeared, working with my hands kind of guy. Just was looking for some advice on how to get started. I've heard plenty of good advice and It makes me feel more confident with making a change.

[h22sparkle]

You dont need anything to own a shop but money. Now when getting in technical with certain things to run the shop ASE certification is a must. Then you have to have a trade in what do you specialize in particular. Most shops if you havent noticed have certain specialties that they specialize in.

When dealing with certain shops it would be wise if you are a shop to specialize in all traits across the board and most of all have insurance just incase if the cars you have in the shop break down just incase or catch fire to avoid a serious lawsuit so that your covered.

[deevergote]

So, I guess we've already forgotten that Skunk2 has essentially "put a hit out"
on a forum member recently?
Remember the guy who (I think) proved they were copies or something? S2 was
offering money in exchange for his address, name, ss, anything they could use
to find him.

Nobody has forgotten... it just doesn't apply to this discussion at all. Why even bring it up?

it would be a good hobby but producing parts is extremely time consuming. had this conversation today with my boss about putting later model valve guides with positive seals on old heads because they smoke a lot. (Mercedes, also a lot of other models like alfa romeo)

all we'd do is simply design the valve guide and send it out to a big company who manufacturers and drop ships.

however this is something that we've done for years, not bs'in drinking beers in the office.

markekting has its time and place but you need to capture a niche. people love thier old mercedes so they'll keep them around and spend money on it. unfortunately hondas are still a hand-me down car.

Agreed. Hondas, and most Japanese imports, are cars that often get modified on a budget. There are those that dump thousands upon thousands of dollars on their Hondas, but they are the minority. Most Honda tuners are like 99% of this forum. Bisi quickly learned that this site wasn't the goldmine he had expected, and that's when he stopped wasting his own time here, and started sending representatives (most of which didn't know their ass from a spark plug...) Unless you sell a LOT of cheap crap to a LOT of cheap tuners, you're not going to make a fortune designing parts in this market.
There's a reason why Bisi has gone Porsche. A Porsche enthusiast will spend much more money to modify their car, because they HAVE more money... and a Porsche seems like a more worthy car to dump a large sum into than a 20 year old family sedan.











theSOB, if you're thinking of just opening a garage/speedshop, keep in mind that the only way you're going to make money is fixing head gaskets, axles, brakes, etc... boring as shit work, on boring as shit cars. I've been heavily into cars for the past 10 years or so, and in that time (even in the height of the import craze), I've watched 10 local speed shops open and fail. 3 of them were in the same location!

[PR CB7]

Wes is right, racing doesnt leave you much money, the last engine I built was a k20/k24 and I made 2k building it, it may sound like much but builds like these take time, and since it.took me 1 month till the.customer got 100% of all the stuff needed
So really I made 500 a week :{

Were I make my bank is wiring, I can say I am the best at what I do (ego talking)
I make about 600-1000 in a full wire tuck, and all can be accomplished in a week, what I love about it is that in every job I learn something

Also when you remove, the tape, loom, zipties out of wiring you can learn a lot about wiring and the way each manufacturer does their wiring

My advice is find a field thats still small and growing, because auto mechanics will leave you broke and building engines...... you're making the customer a favor

[deevergote]

Racing itself isn't what pays. But honestly, who would be paying Bisimoto big bucks for his parts if he didn't have a 9 second Insight?

[theSOB]

Wes is right, racing doesnt leave you much money, the last engine I built was a k20/k24 and I made 2k building it, it may sound like much but builds like these take time, and since it.took me 1 month till the.customer got 100% of all the stuff needed
So really I made 500 a week :{

Were I make my bank is wiring, I can say I am the best at what I do (ego talking)
I make about 600-1000 in a full wire tuck, and all can be accomplished in a week, what I love about it is that in every job I learn something

Also when you remove, the tape, loom, zipties out of wiring you can learn a lot about wiring and the way each manufacturer does their wiring

My advice is find a field thats still small and growing, because auto mechanics will leave you broke and building engines...... you're making the customer a favor

I enjoyed doing the wire tuck on my car while swapping in my H22. I understood exactly what I was doing and I knew how to do it. I'm considering getting one of those firewall quick disconnect plugs and wiring that up because I feel confident doing it. I guess a specialty shop that I would love to open would be something like that; wire tucks, engine swaps, shaving engine bay. I live in Nebraska so there's no inspection so doing engine swaps are very easy. Not necessarily "legal" but no one ever checks. I've had one cop in the many many times I have been pulled over tell me he could write me a ticket for a list of mods that I've done. I asked him to tell me and all he could come up with was that my license plate was too low. He knew I had illegal mods, he just didnt know how to write me up for any of it so I got a warning. I feeel like if I was to open a swap shop, Nebraska would be the place. Because of the laws and also the rarity of the specialty.

[SOHC-FTW]

Around here besides regular maintenance,builds, and suspension,tuning is where the moneys at, but you have to be extremely good one mess up on any customers car whether it be a loose oil filter leaking or a bad tune it will bite you in the ass unless you back up your work 100%.

[wed3k]

Wes is right, racing doesnt leave you much money, the last engine I built was a k20/k24 and I made 2k building it, it may sound like much but builds like these take time, and since it.took me 1 month till the.customer got 100% of all the stuff needed
So really I made 500 a week :{

Were I make my bank is wiring, I can say I am the best at what I do (ego talking)
I make about 600-1000 in a full wire tuck, and all can be accomplished in a week, what I love about it is that in every job I learn something

Also when you remove, the tape, loom, zipties out of wiring you can learn a lot about wiring and the way each manufacturer does their wiring

My advice is find a field thats still small and growing, because auto mechanics will leave you broke and building engines...... you're making the customer a favor

see thats good...while you're not actually working on the car like doing tune up and maintenance but as you know, wiring is something a lot of people will not touch.

you can't see electrons so that in itself makes it more tough.

you make money especially when wire tucks are a must for any "show" car whether it be a 10 second honda to an e30 bmw.

working on cars does make money but it is boring, performance is fun but it doesn't exactly make money.

Im lucky i got into machining because it is all table top work. So if you're coming from an engineering background, find something that will utilize your skills. leave the dirty work to the grunts because if someone recognizes your skill or talent then that in itself will bring work. no matter how much it may cost.

[h22sparkle]

I would get into tuning and invest in a business like this but finding good help is another thing that is why im still looking for good candidates.