This has been a learning experience for me, but not in the way you might think.
I too was trying to get something off the ground in the fabrication world, my target audience was the Datsun 510 crowd. I've built parts for a lot of years for these poorly supported cars, have painted a few, and generally can pretty much do anything when it comes to making 510's go fast and handle. I got a pretty good reputation, and got some referrals from some very respected shops in the SF Bay Area for customers looking for work in my area (Sacramento). So I took on one project, and it went pretty well. All the mechanical and tuning went great, I was very timely, to customer was happy.
So with this new found confidence, I took on another project. This project failed miserably. It was my fault, I'll admit. I returned the owner's car, and have been paying him back for about a year now for his deposit. He has been very patient and understanding, and did not share the details of our bad experience as far as I can tell.
What I have learned is this; just because you can work on cars doesn't mean you should (for others). I became bitter and board because I couldn't get any time to work on my own car. I even rented a shop to have more room to work on customer cars and my own also, that didn't work out. I hated the pressure of knowing that my time belong to other people beyond my 9-5 job (more like 6-6). So now I've moved all my stuff back to my tiny garage, and I've gotten to spend some time on my own car. And it feels great! I spent 3 hours working on a transmission crossmember last Sunday, and it ain't finished, but I don't care. That 3 hours was stress free, my creative juices were flowing, I slept better, felt better and was more productive at work Monday than usual.
You guys should not have had to go through what you did. But, I would bet that Chris feels horrible about it all. And I bet that if he had the means, he would repay you all the money you gave him, and pay to have your cars built. At least I hope that's the way he feels.
To you pro builders, my hat is off to you. The more I learn about business and finance, the more I know that I need to stay in my field and just grind it out during the week, and keep my personal time for myself. Maybe someday I'll hit my stride and go out on my own, but for right now, I'm content tinkering in my cold little garage...
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