Overhaulin'

is a Car Restoration shop a good idea?

thinking to have a car restoration shop when i finish school ill be ase certified and i have experience working on classic cars i was thinking doing all things like mechanical and body work as well as full restorations . how much will this cost to start .or should i even do this i dont wanna start a business that dont have any customers

Public Comments

1. 2-3 million
2. you should just start as having a little side shop.. renting it and restoring some cars and building up your experince and can show people what you have done .. i know people who buy roller bodies and put 5-10 grand into it and sell them for 25,000 grand another idea restore a vehicle yourself and put it into a few shows if its any good it should drum up buisness.. but your not gonna have buisness booming right away.. its gonna be hard and slow at first just my thoughts hope it helps !
3. It's a big business today. You almost need a good reputation to do well. That's hard to get starting from scratch. The equipment alone will cost a a lot of $$$$$. You'll need the best help you can pay. You can't afford to do crappy work, you'll never get a good reputation. You'll need Capitol for tools & equipment, a building, materials, and front money to pay everyone to do the work until you complete a car and get paid for the work. Think - complete machine shop, body shop, paint booth, sand blasting booth,fabrication and sheet metal shop and a big enough building to house it all and room enough to have a 2 or 3 vehicles being worked on at a time. I'm thinking at least $800 K to start.
4. Opening a restoration shop....Think Jesse James and his custom bike building. Oh wait....he had to close shop because there was no money in it. He was actually only making money selling T-shirts and his trademark. Think Orange County Choppers. Oh wait, they too only make money (or stay afloat) by catering to corporate orders not every day people.