Quote:
Originally Posted by Ketzer
This is exactly why I don't work on other peoples projects...
Jeff-
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Yep. That's a good policy, and one I stuck to for many years until I found a few people who wanted it done correctly and aren't worried about schedule or pinching pennies. Those people in turn referred their friends with the same attitude.
I'm very, very picky about what I'll work on, and honestly it really boils down to the person rather than the car.
Cars are everywhere (and nearly all of them need work of some sort) but good customers who understand what it's going to cost to do it right and how much time it's going to take are rare IMO, especially when I'm only doing it in the evenings after work and on weekends. I'm not doing this 8-10 hours a day as a full time job so they have to be cool with the wait.
A good example of finding the right customer was a few years back when a friend's father in law came over with a laundry list of stuff he wanted done to a 69 Camaro he had recently purchased. It was basically turning a nice mostly stock resto into a more PT kind of car. I looked the list of wants and desired parts over and said probably about $100k for parts and labor and figure about 9 months to do it. He blew up and told me I was out of my damn mind (using some extra 4 letter words) and I said that's fine, go get some estimates from other shops. Cheapest estimate he got was $170k, and when he came back apologizing I said thanks but no thanks. After the blow up over the initial estimate I knew he's not the kind of person I'd want to work with; even though the money would have been good it would not have been worth the headaches. He never ended up doing anything to the car and sold it about a year later.
Given the choice between working on an absolute heap for a really cool owner who says "whatever it takes, I'm not in a rush", and working on a really nice high dollar car that's owned by someone who wants it yesterday and is already bitching about the price or wait time before I've even agreed to work on it, I'll take the heap with the cool owner every time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by camcojb
Yep, same for me. I help good friends but have never taken the next step to take on jobs for people I don't know, though there's been a lot of opportunities. 35 years of being self-employed in both retail and service has taught me a lot about customers...  |
The customer is not always right, I know that.
I get enough phone calls I probably could quit my day job and start doing this stuff full time, but I do NOT want to do it full time... because sometimes you just need to tell someone no and walk away. If I was doing this for my day job there is eventually going to be a time I'd have to accept jobs I didn't want to do or take a job from a problem customer just to keep the income coming in-- and that's something I don't want to have to do. Being a side job I only take on what I want to work on, and I like it that way.
I do really need to get back to working on and finish my car, it's been off the road way too long. I have nearly everything needed to assemble it other than AN fittings/lines, ABS harness, new wiring harness, intercooler heat exchanger, clutch/flywheel, and I might change my mind on gauges (thinking rather than using the custom dash insert with Stack ST700 tach and gauges that I put together about 10 years ago, I might change to Dakota Digital HDX gauges plus a Holley 7" screen in a center console.) Might also sell my new in box Vintage Air Gen IV underdash box and upgrade to a Gen V box when they're available for the Chevelles.
Lots of mockup/fab/assembly to do though.
And no, still no plans for bodywork/paint.