Hey guys,

I'm planning to start small and hoping that all the necessary tools/equipment will be purchased within two months. Is there money to be made here in the automotive fabrication business? Anyone here consider themselves successful and making a descent living when doing this full-time or part time? I'm still working a 9-5 and was thinking about doing some fabrication 4-5 hours in the garage for some extra cash which would most likely go back into the business.

Anyone would like to chime in?

 

the problem when you start out really small, is if and.or when you get big, you find yourself scrambling to keep up. look at all of the fabrication people of the past that are no longer here... if you are successful you will get to the point where you either work 9-5 or focus entirely on your fab buisness and the possibility that you will need to expand (employees, etc) or that it could flop entirely

Locally, there is money around me to be made but its a niche market... some shops cater only to a certain brand and make/model. general fabrication is big, but you have to be well rooted in the community (at least where I am)

your best bet is get everything setup, get a feel for your equipment and the buisness side (start small, an exhaust here, maybe a turbo manifold or two, downpipe, etc) but give them to people you trust to test at first... I know a lot of people just started puking out manifolds and such when they had 0 idea how and how long they would perform, then everyone went ham when the manifolds started to crack, etc.

 

keep it on the side and youll still have more work than you know what to do with once you earn a reputation. and big thing is, it will still be fun.

ive seen it happen to friends and family personally. side jobs/work turn into a successful business and first it gets hard to make a living due to economy and other factors in this sort of work, second the fun factor goes down the drain and you hate cars.

we have a successful family business here that has its ups and downs but i listened to my pops and stayed in school. still fun to work on my own race car and help him out on customers projects on the weekends. also depends on location, hear-say, reputation.

another example, my chassis builder. he does chassis/header fabrication on the side (weekends and nights after work). he is slammed with work right now through the end of august. but he has a reputation here in the nw, been doing it for a long time and has the necessary evidence (for lack of a better term) to back up his work.

 

^see, it gets to a point where it consumes you and you start to hate it... of course another employee would alleviate the load but that could end up opening a whole different can of worms.

I've always been told theres no real money in working on cars 100%, the economy is too wishy washy, especially now. Keep it small and on the side and keep your normal job. you'll enjoy fab and won't want to burn your car to the ground everytime something goes wrong. Oh and you'll still have money to live off of and whatnot, should fabrication slow down or crash and burn

 

keep your 9-5. unless you can deal with it, stress will own you.

 

Thanks for all the input guys, I have worked in a fabrication shop and I understand the meaning of hating cars and not wanting to do anything with them at all. But it just seems that since I feel I am capable enough to build a great reputation and great products I should just at least try. If my business grows I'll grow along with it and make sure I don't take on too much work because that would make for very unhappy customers.

How much did it cost you guys to start up? I've set aside about 7-10k for purchasing all the necessary equipment just to get started hoping that it'll pay off pretty quickly.

 

Doctors can prescribe pills for that! :D

But I understand where you're coming from. weiR can you link me to your price sheet regarding laser cut flanges? I've been trying to look on your website but it has a few little bugs to work out.

 

https://honda-tech.com/forums/welding-fabrication-53/starting-my-own-fab-shop-2267900/

sit down and read through this thread tonight or whenever you have time. its one of the best threads on honda-tech in my opinion.

 

Will do so!

 

yea, agtronic's thread is a good read as to the real world aspects of buisness/shop/fab ownership

 

and i dont mean any judgement against your work, but look at the quality of his work and keep in mind the struggles that he mentions in the thread.

 

Markku is a different story. he didn't work a 9-5 while running his fab shop, he is full time doing it. even after he hired a new guy he still struggles, but his clientell isn't nearly as large as it should be. his skill and efforts can easily put him at the top of great fabricators, but its all about your clientell

location is extremely key. if you don't live in an area where there is a large amount of car people than your business will drop like a rock. for the OP, i see what you would LIKE to do, but i don't personally think that $7-10K worth of tools and equipment will pay for itself for quite some time, especially if you don't already have a name for yourself. Markku had a name for himself from the start because he was the head fab guy at a reputable business

there are tons of things to factor into starting anything like this. you just really need to sit down for a while and weigh the options because there are really only two ways to go in this sort of business, either successful or bust

 

exactly my point, we are all letting this guy know to keep his 9-5 job and do the fab work on the side because to be honest the nw isnt the greatest place for automotive fab. read the previous posts from everyone

 

Go read the book I recommended Markku read. It is a good book. A business is not a job, it is not to keep a good technician employed, it is to make money and grow the business. If you are a good technician, just do side work, life will be a lot easier. I have done both.

 

You will be better off doing it on the side and using it as a fall back option if you ever get laid off or fired.

 

****ing AMEN.
dont get into ANY overhead. work out of your garage a little bit at a time.
i made the mistake of getting into a lease and its slow as **** so im pretty ****ed. i wish i had a 9-5 right now to fall back on for bills etc, i'd just do fab work on the side for the enjoyment/little bit of extra cash.

 

OP, make sure you're a jack of all trades because one thing will lead to another. it'll stack up quickly too. had a buddy try and do something similar and he got more requests for things he could do but not what the "business" was.. slowly but surely he was overwhelmed.

 

Yea I have about 7 years of welding/fabrication experience and am mechanically inclined. I will try and start from the garage first and I believe building a name for myself should be fairly easy if the quality of my work is topnotch. I'm trying get all the input I can and yes I'll keep it as a side job, was thinking about leasing but I'm seeing where Markku and everyone is coming from.

 

ive been wanting to do this for years. i just for a 8-5 making 50k yr, def wouldn't give it up to deal with people. but i may still do some stuff on the side. i really want to do a dyno/tuning, some small fab stuff on the weekends. from what i seen, i would have to build stuff and have it ready to ship before i sell, so not much "custom" stuff would be done.

 

I have been in the process of doing this for years.. Im scared to quit my job because i have kids and a house payment but i feel like it will not go anywhere unless i dedicate all my time to it. My biggest issue right now though is how to charge? What do you charge for labor? There is really nothing out there for welding and fab like there is for mechanics to tell you how long something should take + materials.. Im kinda stuck there. My uncle owns a huge body shop and i am going to be using his place to do the work but still lost on pricing.

 

The labor rate for welding ranges dramatically, but i've seen anything from $20-$40/hr from garage/hobby fabricators to $85-$125/hr for regular (not even highly skilled) shop welding labor. Your best bet is to call around your area, determine the average rate for your process & skill level, and price @ 60% of market until you are established.

 

You would be wise not to confine yourself to the automotive market. I would say there is more money in other welding markets. Also individuals are cheap bastards but businesses have deep pocket. A mobile weldin rig could turn a lot of coin fast.

 

Thanks everyone for there valuable input. So far I have started my business and fell into some zoning regulations in my city so I'm not taking any more work until Oct when I move to a shop that's up to code.

I have had a few customers thus far and I do believe that yes, the automotive market is saturated. Doing custom work takes up valuable time and I should look at other options such as manufacturing/production which will bring in the most profits. It's great that I am doing this part time and still working a 9-5 so if my business is not raking in any money I still have my job to help pay the bills.

Now, how am I going to run my business, work a 9-5 and go to school since I recently enrolled back in college hmm... I guess if I have that can-do attitude I can make it work.

I'm always trying to think up ideas of what I can do to create a product that consumers would want and is time and cost effective at the same time but all I am having so far it's been brain farts. I'll just pop a NZT pill and within 30 seconds it'll come to me... If only that were true!

 

If it is a successful garage operation, then keep it that way! Keep it as a small operation, and you will be fine. If you want to make big money, look at it outside of the box. Also, don't do exactly what everybody else is doing and expect your quality of work to be the selling point; this is 2011, quality means nothing. You need to offer something that nobody else offers in your area. Think local first and foremost, don't try to go national unless you have a team to take it with you. Old words of wisdom apply here; knowledge is power.

 

I know a fabricator in the automotive field...He does mainly cage/chassis/suspension, but he's done a stainless hotside and stuff for us before.

He's always swamped with work. He'll be working on one car and have 4 others lined up waiting. And these are $2500-10000 a piece for the cage/suspension/etc.