Money Generating Idea?
 

Just out working on the fender on my '68 Camaro, and was wondering, if a guy can build his own car from start to finish, including bodywork, why couldn't he turn a car every year or two.

Seeing the big money PT Camaros are bringing and my lack of resources, mybe this is a way to finance my passion. If I can sell this idea to my finacial consultant (wife) maybe this would free up some more cash for the Camaro.
$25k to build (take-out LSx, etc.) $50k resale= money set aside to build the next one- :D

Any thoughts?
-Chris

I'm no sure of exactly what you are saying. Elaborate please.

Even doing your own work you cannot turn out a quality car for $25K. Not even close. You'll spend $15K-$20K for the car, and you have no idea what shape it's in until you strip it. You'll have every bit of $50K in it (probably more) so there will be no profit selling it @ $50K.


Jody

Chris, you asked so I say save your marriage and sanity and DON'T DO IT. The cars you see that are selling for 6 figures have 6 in them!!

Listen to the previous posts. Building cars to make $$ sounds enticing, but usually doesn't pan out.

I tend to disagree. Many people that "flip" cars tend to just do exterior and only stuff you can see don't repair things as they should have been. With doing this they save quite a bit of money and many buyers will pay more than what the car is worth.(can't see rust, etc.) However if you take a camaro, strip it down and replace every part such as how you tend to build them(very nice by the way)you will have upwards for 50K in it.

Chris, in your post you say the word passion. If you have passion for these cars, which is great, don't turn it into a BUSINESS, because thats when the fun become a job.

Being in the business of building other peoples cars, maybe, but don't try and flip your own cars.

I agree with Jody. Besides your time is worth something, either to the family or whatever - there is a price paid for doing the work. Like you said if it takes you two years and you make 20K with NO labor paid but your time only, that's not much per hour.

Quickest way to end up with a million dollars building and selling cars is to start with 2 million!

A very true recent story. I have many others like this over the years.

Friend of mine that is very green to the business and hobby, but is badly bitten, desperately wants to make money flipping cars. He wants to be someone in the industry, a player, so bad he cannot stand it. It was all he talked about. When he would tell me about his fantasies of flipping cars, I used to tell him he could "get rich like me" (sarcasm). I tried to warn him, I tried to stop him, BUT...... he buys a project, tells me he paid $15k and is going to put $15K more in it, and it will be worth $40K. I only agreed with one thing, it would probably be worth $40K if he did what he said he was going to do. Only problem is I explained he was $50K away form making it worth $40K. Of coarse he disagreed.

That was 6 months ago. He got it and tore right into it. So I talked to him a couple months ago.

How's the car coming?

Oh, I sold it.

Really? How much did you get?

Oh, I sold it to my friend for what I paid for it.

Why? Surely it was not going to cost to much to restore was it?

No, I just wanted to help a friend out.

Really? What about the money you already spent?

Oh, I just wanted to help him get into the hobby so I call that a donation.

LOL! I am way to nice a guy to tell him I told you so. I will let him keep his pride and let him think I believe he wanted to help someone get into the hobby. But ya know, I saw him a few times since he sold that car in the last couple months, and he does not talk about buying, building and selling cars anymore?

:rofl:


:lol: :rofl:


Chris, if the real estate market isn't toast in your area and you have the testicular fortitude to get it done, try flipping properties. It is NOT easy but the gains are worth the effort. Let me know if you want to learn a little more about it.


Bryan

I dont think you can make money by flipping a regular decent car. If it is a super star plastered in the mags maybe there would be a buyer.

By the way you can build a nice Camaro if you do all the work yourself and start with good find Camaro around 30000/35000.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ptcama.../ph//my_photos

After these photos it got all the missing trim parts and nice Momo steering wheel. Only comfort creater missing is an a/c.

I say its a bad idea....It sounds easy but it doesnt always work out that way...Its like Real Estate...Fliping houses may sound fine and dandy but you can get stuck with it...You may not be able to flip it for a few months, maybe a year or maybe even longer...Now if you were gonna go out and rebuild a Judge or something my mind may go a different way...When it comes to cars i have realized that you never get back what you put into them, unless you have something pretty rare...I think your best bet would be to find people who want work done to their cars and then do the work for them, this way you know the money is there...

What do i know though, im just a young kid lol

You are correct, but he wasn't talking about flipping car with little or no investment; he was going to install an LSX engine, etc. Now it becomes a project and the more you get into it the more you'll spend to get the other areas up to the level of what you just did.

There is money to be made buying a car right and then re-selling while just cleaning it up and investing little or no money. Problem is those deals are getting harder and harder to find and you never know when (or if) the next one is coming.

Thanks for the nice words, I appreciate it.

Jody

Thanks for the input, I love the '68 i picked up a few months ago. $4k for a true Cali car...no really it is!! It is very clean without a motor or trans.

I'll be keeping it, I jsut got a little crazy seeing what stuff was bringing on ebay. but my time is worth something.

Thanks for keeping me pointed straight. pics coming soon! :thumbsup:

i agree with the staements made about trying to build a car to sell and make "good" money in most circumstances.

however, that really only applies to "old" cars, i have financed all my projects and tools by "flipping" cars, most of them being newer clean title fixxers. example, just picked up a clean title 02 lightning with 33K on the odometer, truck is a driver with stocker wheels, regular F150 bumper, and a minor frame tweak(guessing front end collision).... paid 8500, truck books for lil over 20, cost maybe 3k to fix it and put decent wheels on it..... so if im into it 11,500, and sell it for 19k(nice round number and a good deal)...thats 7500 into the project fund, in about 2 weeks time. so yes, there is money to be made, but just not with "old" cars that need a lot more time and money than they will ultimatley be worth.

now...if i didnt have the "job" and a car goin to sema, then i would be in great shape, but the lightning project will more than likely be a shop decoration until december...but thats ok....cuz its almost like money in the bank :thumbsup: