Starting a Custom Shop
 

Recently I've been pondering the idea of opening up an automotive repair and customizing shop. Personally, I don't have any true experience besides working on my own car, but I don't really have the tools or the money to do what I want with it. However, everytime I get under the hood, I quite enjoy it.. and really would like to get to do it full time.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can get started in this career path?

TIA

Re: Starting a Custom Shop
 

why don't you try working for a custom shop and trying it out?

Having worked for a couple hi-pro shops I will defently agree... What you do to your cars is 10X differnt than what you will end up doing. Its a fun business but there is a harsh side to it....

First and fore-most when there is a problem the customer always want you to fix it for free but there is no telling how it broke. We built a 17k blower motor and told the guy not to change his pully untill after 1k on the motor. Blows it up, blames us and drops the car off hasetly.. Thank god he did becuase we were about to eat it and have to pull it, R&R it, replace the crank (I love spun bearings) and a bunch of other little crap when we saw that he put on a #12 pully and took of the #6 that we told him to keep on the car. Better yet, he didn't reset his data logger :o hummm 7.5k on a motor with less than 100 miles. This is one of many "things" that happen. Its a very tuff business to get into. You have to be tuff and fiar and every company struggles with that. But it is a lot of fun getting paid to make horse power :D

Thanks for all the pointers... I guess my next stop would be to look for a local shop that would take in someone without professional experience, or possibly just as an aprenticeship.

Once again, thanks for all the advice...