OFFICIAL CENTRAL KY THREAD

We have a state dedicated BST thread. Post it here and in there!

 

You would be astounded at how many Toyota owners are shopping for someone to do lift's, installs, and repairs. I still get several phone calls every week, wanting to know if I still do them. Just too old and tired to do them on a regular basis...

 

This is why I wanna open a shop.

Shit, I'll even bolt some garbage on a Jeep.

 

May be buying a Jeep soon. Looking at building a dedicated trail rig. I found a killer deal on one just a few blocks away from home.

 

This is the same argument that gets spun around and around. Some heep owner wants a 10" lift and 40" tires, but only wants to do spacers and wonders why the performance is poor and he keeps breaking things or there is vibration.

Most of the shops I know, will not just do what the customer wants, they will have a selection for the customer to pick from that they know won't cause complaints or poor review. Kind of unfortunate that this is how the world works today. You may do good work, exactly what the customer asked for, but it could cause you a nightmare in poor publicity because they asked for something ridiculous.

But yeah, there are a lot of people out there that couldn't install a tonneau cover or nerf bars. I had an engineer come to my office one time and ask to borrow a screw driver. I asked what he needed it for out of curiosity, he said he wanted to hang a picture at home. An engineer didn't have a screwdriver in his house, I told him he can keep it. He grew up in the caste system in India, and his family was well off, so they would just pay someone to do anything. I have known lots of people that grew up in households where they hired it out to someone when it broke.

I digress. If you had a shop, I'd also buy some used but good condition rigs and fix them up for the perspective customers as pre-built "trail" rigs or mall crawlers. There is a good market for that. Dealerships are putting aggressive tires and a 3" block lift on a gently used F150 all the time and taking a bit more money.

I do need to start shopping around for a good gear shop for next year. I may use my uncle if I can't find anybody.

 

Most shops are limited to what they can or cannot do by their insurance carrier. Typically, they can't even do an alignment by anything but factory specs.

 

That's why I only offer to work on friends rigs. I get asked all the time to build bumpers or install lifts and I refuse them all unless I really know the person

 

Depending on what you want done, you have 3 guys right next to you that would help you out.

 

I'd need a backer for sure before going down this road. Never mind a location and equipment.

The fact there isn't anything that's an exclusive off road shop near me is what brought up the idea.

 

My Stepdad and his brother just rebuilt and regeared and rebuilt his 67' chevelle from the block up replacing with dished pistons and a bunch of other goodies and regeared the transmission for how they wanted the vehicle set, they can set backlash on gears and have the tools to do so, but for something as critical as this, I'd almost want to take to a shop for the warranty if it goes south.

I'm thinking about regearing and going with 35s NEXT YEAR, but not in a hurry. There are a lot of things I feel confident doing, but setting the mesh and backlash on gears, though not impossible, requires some finesse or experience. And the part cost is $1200 - 1500 or so and could be 8 hrs labor at a shop, so it's a big money project, that if I do wrong, will fail. I don't like the idea of a dead truck. I want the confidence that I won't get stranded somewhere due to poor workmanship. Not even so much about the money.

Though, knowing me, I'll watch some youtube videos and read some forums and just do it myself. LOL

 

That's the difficulty of any business, may need $50K-$100k to pay the bills while waiting to be paid or parts inventory, etc.

 

Just do the core swap with ECGS. That's what @beertimecontinuum did.

Luckily, being a 4 banger, I already have 4.10 girz. I am gonna need a new clutch before too long.

 

Chances are, I'd have to receive some inheritance from a rich family member (YEA RIGHT!) that I don't have, or pitch it to my current CEO and see if he'd back it. Then employ the CFO to take care of the business side of things.

Or shoot for the moon and hope a bank would actually loan me the money for a start up ran by someone with no mechanical certs, no business certs/license, no equipment, and no building.
Not impossible, just not probable. I'm a realistic type of person, not a pessimist.

 

6 mos of night classes or less to get a cert. I'm pretty sure someone will give you one online in a day or two, lol. Get me some crayons and let's make a certificate. LOL. Forget about the shop business, let's get into the certificate business.

 

The scarier thing for me is most mechanics know how to replace a part or an entire system, but not how to diagnosis the right part or system to replace.

 

I broke a lug on my sequoia the first time I tried to rotate my tires. I knew the shop I bought it from over tightened them so I took it back and complained. They replaced the lug for free, and before I left it with him I told him the torque spec was 80. When I picked it up he said he torqued them all to 120 because he was scared about a wheel falling off. This guy has a degree in mechanical engineering

 

A.S.E. certified mechanics with legitimate references. Helps if OWNER has a history of professional wrench spinning. Hobby mechanics need not apply.

Then you need to know how to run a business. Differs from knowing how to turn bolts.....

 

Don't be trying to crush my menial dreams

 

BTDT...owned my own business.

Find good job and let someone else have the heart attack by age 45.