We’ve all been around the restoration world long enough to hear a few horror stories: botched jobs, runaway bills, delays that last years, missing parts and more. These miscues rarely end well, and on top of that, the owners still need to get their cars properly restored. Now what?
We’d like to say that these things happen for simple reasons—maybe …
The stories I imagine you could tell!
I project manage for a living. A restoration is the quintessential example of a project that can and must be managed. Ant the truth is that car projects are pretty esy to manage since there are few surprises to a qualified team.
What I never see in restoration management is what I call "Cute Puppy Killing" A lot of projects should never get off the ground, and a good project manager will kill these cute little guys before they grow into mean dogs. I could save people a lot of time money and marriages by talking them OUT of doing a car project.
We've fixed several bad restorations now. Autobody guys need to learn to get on the ground and sand rocker panels.
We also kill the cute puppies. A customer had a sad the other day when we told him his 1975 Corvette wasn't worth the trouble.
I've told members here that restoring their baby, even doing it themselves isn't worth the trouble but nobody listens until they're over budget and still have a project taking up two bays of a garage and part of a storage unit.
Just food for thought, there are quite a few free project management apps and software available, and they can really help keep a project in line and manageable. Seeing a visual timeline is quite a motivator, at least most of the time. Unless you're "that guy", and never look at it once you've filled in the blanks.
As a 30+ year restorer being realistic (on both sides) is crucial! Never low ball a job to get it, we do quite the opposite - ugly truth first, if we're still talking after 10 min then that's a good sign. It's not a cheap hobby, there's no getting around that, your car doesn't know what it's worth and you're primarily buying time. Education on the part of the shop is one of your jobs - tv shows in particular have given people an unrealistic expectation of time and cost.
Had a guy stop by in an early 911, clearly rusty, and asked about restoring it - I said if we do everything, expect to start at 150...he asked if that was hours! No, that's (Canadian) dollars...he went white and drove off. Had no concept of what 'restoring' the car would entail.
A big up front deposit should be a giant red flag. Unless there's a big parts purchase the shop should be solvent enough to carry the labour and misc costs for the month, and bill every month thereafter...then everyone's on the same page. As the client, if your situation changes, say so! We've had a number of jobs paused for a period of time over the years - wife wants a kitchen, kid started uni etc - easy to deal with before you can't pay a big labour month.
Trust your gut! Again, on both sides - we've declined work based on the hair on our neck, and found out later we were correct in doing so. Same goes for a client, if it doesn't feel right move on to interviewing someone else.
Stop by on a regular basis, don't drop it and say call me when it's done. We enjoy showing you the progress, and seeing your enthusiasm for the car and work. We're all car guys, and enjoy doing work for the same.
Underpromise and over deliver, and remember that restoring a car can be fun...and if it's not ask yourself why. We're currently running a four plus year wait list, and everyone of them is a repeat client.
Happy motoring!
Aside from the shops giving clients the usual vague and ambiguous "fix the rust" or similar, none that I know of give a detailed hours estimate plus parts. And it's usually accompanied by the equally ambiguous "a number". The reasons for this are many. First, they don't want to pinned down or analyzed as to why the door took ten hrs to fix when they quoted five. It's just all part of "the number". Next, the shops have no concept of "billable hours" since most of them are run by body guys, not businessmen with a talent. Assuming a 40 hr work week, the most a shop hand can bill out is 2,000 hours - 40x50 weeks. But that is assuming the guy not only works 40 hrs/wk, but also the hours he spent are billable - working on a car. Going to the bathroom, cleaning tools or doing paperwork doesn't count. The guy will probably be on the clock for 2,000 hours but the most he can realistically bill is maybe 1,800, assuming an 80% efficiency rate which is high. Last, they're lazy. "Why should I do all the work for a detailed estimate, only to be pinned down later for working too long on a door?" Another reason for all this is demand. If a shop is in demand and has too much work, they can get away with anything.
Is there any Excel spreadsheet or something like that that plots a generic restoration ,
just so you or the customer can see all that is involved ,
I have "restored" lots of cars but not to the point of taking every nut and bolt off.
and they were my cars , not a customer.
Thanks for the info
When I ran S.I.R. ( Stale Iron Restoration ( or racing ))
I couldn't accept people who just wanted a paycheck. Guys motivated by doing a perfect job just didn't stop in. Eventually I gave up on hiring help and did it all myself.
The trouble with that approach is time vs space. A complete restoration take 2000 hrs. You need several projects to keep a shop going because sooner or later most people will run out of money. If when that happens you push it outside and tell them to come and get it, your reputation is shot.
So you are going to have to sit on a few partially done projects. 1800 sq ft isn't enough. Stack and label parts as neat as possible and 4 projects will barely leave enough room to work. An hour a day will be spent dealing with everything.
Plus even 4 isn't enough to properly cash flow. You'll simply have to use credit at times and it's pretty easy to lose thousands in interest costs. Put it on a credit card at 24% interest? It's the fastest and easiest way to deal and yes time really is money. But the bank wants a lot of paperwork even with flawless credit. That takes time. Eventually I worked with a banker that wasn't the time problem but finding that right guy takes time.
My administration was far simpler. I would collect the money and achieve what that reflected before presenting him with another new bill for additional work. Things outside of what was discussed earned a phone call and further discussion. If something was acceptable without additional work or only partial work that too got a phone call and credit on the next bill.
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