I agree, I don't think your giving yourself enough credit for meeting the right people. Got to be there and then got to have the "goods' if you know what I mean.

I never said I was not going to SEMA again. With as close as it is to my home I would be crazy to skip it. I'm just putting it out there the not usually seen risks or draw backs of doing SEMA with a car. It can be a pain in the ass.

Frank's 48 truck had to have the left front and right rear fenders both repainted after SEMA. the front fender was from some asian guy with a pull behind suitcase. The other was some dumb girl with bedazzled jeans the leaned against the fender. Neither one had a clue or concern for what they had done.

Did you ever hear about the coke that was spilled in the fancy Mercedes in the BASF that Chip Foose restyled?

And I guess I would say is most of the contacts you want to meet have no to time to go around and look at all the cars.

But starting out with feature vehicles is a good way to get your foot in the door with companies and that might lead to actual booth space later down the road.

Having a car at Sema is a pain in the butt for the owners. I'm just glad they show up.

A man of few well spoken words.

Well, its the reason a lot of us go or want to go, but the cars are there to show off products from manufacturers.
The builders take a back seat to that in every instance. You don't see a big Rad Rides booth or a Ring Brothers booth. If you don't follow some of these builds online you don't know who built the car.
The vast majority of people at the show are there to sell product and to buy product. Of the thousands of people that go there very few percentage wise are there for the cars, even fewer that can afford to buy or build the cars.
I would like to take a poll of all the builders, and see where most of their business comes from. Id say majority of business comes from, print (mags) and self promotion on there own websites (project sections) and some of the best shows around the country.

I get paid to go to SEMA and the company I work for has a big booth with 2 or 3 cars. They are there to show off new product, sell truck loads of product, and sign up new distributors. they don't advertise the builders of the vehicles.

SEMA is just one week out of 52. Where else can you get a captive audience all in one location for that one week. Its a numbers game.

Where is that product that people are coming to SEMA to buy, on the cars. Ford, Chevy, Dodge have large areas of cars, among other stuff. There is a large wheel section, with alot of cars with product on them. Wheels with no displays, ie cars, is worthless to most. Rings, Troy don't need booths, their booth is on 4 wheels in someone else's booth. But someone with the funds sees the car they just built may want to build one by them, or see a part on those cars they might want on theirs, etc. Guarantee people know who built those cars even though BASF booth is displaying it.

Of course there are 51 more weeks to attract business in many other ways.

We get builds through referrals mainly. Good Guys booth space has been good to us. Is SEMA good to us? I would say YES. Does it stroke our egos...YES. Is it a pain in the butt to get a car done, in place and then spend an entire week in Vegas babysitting a car? YES!!

We are at it again. Putting together an LS9 67 Nova for the Dynomax people. They are awesome to work with and this will be the third year with them. They treat me like family.

Have I ever got a job out of it? NOPE. But, where it has helped is the other 51 weeks at the shop when a potential customer stops by and we can usually show them one or two cars that have been to the "big dance". It gives us credibility. They can see our work first hand.

but mostly I enjoy meeting people I have looked up to. last year my highlights were meeting Bobby Alloway and Jeff Smith checking out a car we had brought.

Well that is a understatement, but it is so worth the trouble and hell.
I left for SEMA at 10 pm the night before I was supposed to be there. I had been up for 31 hours straight before doing this 8 hour trek to Las Vegas from NorCal. Mind you this was after pulling three straight months of 16 hour days to get my car finished for the show. Lets not forget the hospital stay in Barstow on the way there, then cleaning the car and finishing it that night at 1 in the morning.

If you're willing to take the risk of your car getting scratched and the exhaustion, then hell yeah.

I think you guys are spot on with parts placement and car justification. Not being a builder with extensive mag coverage looking to attract customers, it's a different animal for me. I've traveled to car and industry shows all over the country, but SEMA holds a special spot for me. I think it's the international flare that changes the dynamic of the crowd. Last year I spent so much time looking at CHC's red '66 because it's so similar to what I'm doing. The guys spent time with me explaining how they got there, and the relationship with Magnaflow. I appreciated that. As a consumer I came home knowing I was gonna use a Ridetech system, House of Kolors paint, Vintage Air, and an MSD Atomic EFI system. All of those decisions were up for grabs on the plan ride in, and none of it's gonna be free. Getting a car there isn't about free parts or an ego trip for me, but rather just knowing my car is sitting on the world's stage with my family's interpretation of what a '67 Chevelle could be. I think that's the most rewarding part.