Am I Crazy?
- Thread starter bigring911
- Start date
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I started working on other peoples Cruisers in 2018. I was humming along buying tools and making it easy on my body to do it.
I had just expanded my shop and added a lift when Covid hit and my company made all “work” virtual.
I went full time for those 18 months and when my company let us go back to work I put pen to paper and realized I could easily replace my high paying corporate job (26 years with Pfizer) with Cruiser work.
I don’t do service or maintenance. Just full projects. One truck at a time. I also stay in my lane. There are lots of things I don’t do but I have partnered with like minded folks and I concierge for my customers
With those shops for newer cruisers, service, maintenance stuff
The big thing I had going for me to make it an easy transition is I had a shop and most of the tools already. Not having that is a big big leap.
Getting certified would be mostly for you. No one in my world cares about that.
If I was advising someone I’d say pick a range of Cruisers you want to work on and get good.
General guys usually don’t put out a product people are willing to ship their vehicles to.
I had just expanded my shop and added a lift when Covid hit and my company made all “work” virtual.
I went full time for those 18 months and when my company let us go back to work I put pen to paper and realized I could easily replace my high paying corporate job (26 years with Pfizer) with Cruiser work.
I don’t do service or maintenance. Just full projects. One truck at a time. I also stay in my lane. There are lots of things I don’t do but I have partnered with like minded folks and I concierge for my customers
With those shops for newer cruisers, service, maintenance stuff
The big thing I had going for me to make it an easy transition is I had a shop and most of the tools already. Not having that is a big big leap.
Getting certified would be mostly for you. No one in my world cares about that.
If I was advising someone I’d say pick a range of Cruisers you want to work on and get good.
General guys usually don’t put out a product people are willing to ship their vehicles to.
You've got a great brand and product that backs up the hard work. Tons of behind the scenes stuff too with social, tech, and keeping up with build threads I'm sure can get time-consuming but it's important for visibility.
That’s my deal for sure. The build threads are great for the customer if they decide to sell
They help me remember what I did and I enjoy it.
The other thought I had on this for the OP is that what you choose to focus on (service, restorations, parts, etc) can dictate your clients, their expectations, pace of work and so on... only you can define what works for you and what doesn't.
Sometimes the most important decision is directing a customer to someone else. (Probably true in just about any business tbh.)
Most mechanics can’t say no. That’s why there are 25 trucks outside most shops. Especially Cruiser shops.
Never take a truck from someone that does not have enough money to finish it.
It’s ok if they only do a bit at a time but it’s got to go between
Lots of cruiser guys just want a place to park the truck away from a HOA or wife. Don’t fall for “I’ll just bring it to you and you can work it in”
Never take a truck from someone that does not have enough money to finish it.
It’s ok if they only do a bit at a time but it’s got to go between
Lots of cruiser guys just want a place to park the truck away from a HOA or wife. Don’t fall for “I’ll just bring it to you and you can work it in”
It's really hard to be selective if you need money, which usually seems to be the driver of not saying no. Picking the right clientele that understands the costs AND is willing to pay it is pretty difficult, especially if you don't have a lot of a brand or are well known.
The storage thing is so real. It gets overwhelming at an alarming rate if you don't keep it in mind or charge enough for it to keep the storage people away.
Everybody has a project, very few people follow though and complete them.
The real costs of operating a shop get expensive quickly, especially on the front end.
For me, at least, finding an acceptable rate to charge has been hard. I'm cheaper than most, but it still adds up quickly. I'm 100% fab basically, I don't wrench on anything unless it needs to be installed with fab goals in mind. The amount of money I have in tooling is stupid, and I'm still nowhere where I want to be to efficently get things done.
I'd say wrenching is the same, with different tooling costs associated. You can get by with limited tools and equipment, but so can everyone else. Anything that can set you above the next guy efficency or capability is what makes the money.
The storage thing is so real. It gets overwhelming at an alarming rate if you don't keep it in mind or charge enough for it to keep the storage people away.
Everybody has a project, very few people follow though and complete them.
The real costs of operating a shop get expensive quickly, especially on the front end.
For me, at least, finding an acceptable rate to charge has been hard. I'm cheaper than most, but it still adds up quickly. I'm 100% fab basically, I don't wrench on anything unless it needs to be installed with fab goals in mind. The amount of money I have in tooling is stupid, and I'm still nowhere where I want to be to efficently get things done.
I'd say wrenching is the same, with different tooling costs associated. You can get by with limited tools and equipment, but so can everyone else. Anything that can set you above the next guy efficency or capability is what makes the money.
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I found this to be true also.
My first career was as a motorcycle mechanic and custom bike builder; seemed natural because I lived and breathed bikes growing up. The pay was great for back then, but I realized after a few years is that I was: a) working on everyone else's stuff instead of riding/working on my own bike. Working weekends to meet customer demand and expectations. b) Fixing and having to guarantee repairs on junk that the owner or another shop had f*cked up. One of those almost killed me, literally. c) Living and dying by the flat rate manual - customer was quoted a price for a job, which then went down the rabbit hole of all the other stuff that had to be fixed or worked around to do the original job right, but still under a deadline. d) Having to deal with the shop owner's bad habits and poor decisions.
I could go on, but yeah, I finally realized what @Mark Jennings said, went back to school, made another career in the oil business that funded many bikes, Land Cruisers, a nice home shop, etc. Plus, I enjoy what I do every day, work for myself now, and work only on my schedule.
My initial priority is becoming a competent, licensed mechanic.
This isn't meant to sound harsh, but if you didn't start life fixing lawn mowers, snowblowers, dirt bikes, etc. at age 12, you can't train your way into being a mechanic (at least quickly enough) now. If you just want the certification for street cred, that's fine. But, you need to be competent before you open the doors of a shop like this. Another reply suggested knowing what you will and won't do - this is critical, lest you get sucked into areas where you can't make any money (body work, for instance - vend that out).
A friend of mine once said, 'old Land Cruiser owners are cheap bastards...' and many shops die because of this. Unless the customer 'gets it', most people want to put less and less money into a vehicle as it ages, vs. the more money actually need to fight age and decay. Good shops simply do good work, and charge a lot, but they often have years of dirty work and hardships to get to the place where they can charge $225/hr and put smiles on customer's faces as they hand over bags of cash for a job done right.
Perhaps you should apprentice at some shop (almost any repair shop) for a while, so you can observe the owner and workers, and pick up useful info.?
This isn't meant to sound harsh, but if you didn't start life fixing lawn mowers, snowblowers, dirt bikes, etc. at age 12, you can't train your way into being a mechanic (at least quickly enough) now. If you just want the certification for street cred, that's fine. But, you need to be competent before you open the doors of a shop like this. Another reply suggested knowing what you will and won't do - this is critical, lest you get sucked into areas where you can't make any money (body work, for instance - vend that out).
A friend of mine once said, 'old Land Cruiser owners are cheap bastards...' and many shops die because of this. Unless the customer 'gets it', most people want to put less and less money into a vehicle as it ages, vs. the more money actually need to fight age and decay. Good shops simply do good work, and charge a lot, but they often have years of dirty work and hardships to get to the place where they can charge $225/hr and put smiles on customer's faces as they hand over bags of cash for a job done right.
Perhaps you should apprentice at some shop (almost any repair shop) for a while, so you can observe the owner and workers, and pick up useful info.?