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Besides a name, what kind of advice are you looking for? Financial advice, layout or floor plan, what kind of tools should you purchase, what kind of services should you provide? You’re question is too vague, please be more specific.
I retired from AB in 2002, but before I did I had an idea to start a shop of my own. I wanted to call it Holy cow collisions, if you needed a miracle. I was going to have a sign with a cow that had angel wings and a halo.
I also like the s car go idea too.
Are you going to have a specific kind of shop, or specialize in classics, or resto mods, or general collision repairs? Are you going to be in a big city, or smaller community?
What you want to aim for professionally will give you a sense of direction.
The man that taught me was one of the guys that invented the pearl white paint job. It was originally done by painting a car silver, then a thin layer if pink, then a thin layer of white. A shop that can do layered work like that would have a competitive edge. I have an idea that you are welcome to have. When you look at a speed boat, you notice how the metal flake is larger than that of an average paint job. Harder to work with, but more interesting.
Imagine a large metal flake brown as a base coat, then add layers of candy red on top of it. The metal flake would appear red on top of the brown. I think that would be very eye catching. VW had a limited color called opera red. It looked brown at night, but in full sunlight it appeared a very nice shade of deep red.
I liked doing suble interior upgrades. After working on a number of salvage rebuid and customized Corvette c5’s I gained a solid knack for fiberglass work. I’ve done a lot of custom door panels, consoles and a few dashboards. I’ve even created special hidng places for laptops and firearms.
You want a few solid practices that will lay the groundwork for a positive reputation. Body filler is a fact of life in a body shop, but do not ever use bondo brand, its like a dull red clay and it NEVER dries all the way through. Use a polyester based filler and never use it if you have to pile it up more than 4 mm thick. If you need it that thick, then work the.panel out more instead. Get a downdraft paint booth. Those things are awesome!
Avoid the orange peel affect when you spray and don’t have runs. The big thing for show car quality is taking the time to wet sand between layers of the various types of primer and color layers. This will make for a glass like smoothness to your paint jobs. It is labor intensive but amazing to gaze upon.Last but huge, is how I learned. The man that taught me had a saying “just like it was made that way”. Every time any job was completed, he would say that as a seal of approval. Didn’t matter if it was a common wreck repair or full custom job, it all had to work as if it was engineered that way from the factory. Every bit of work you do has your signature all over it. Be efficient, but be exquisite in how complete your work is.
PS –
There will be customers that scam you. Example –
We had a car in that needed repair on the front right area, a Honda prelude. The wreck damaged the suspension and surrounding panels. After all that was repaired, the lady that owned it said her left door window stopped going up and down because of what we did in a completely different area. I chewed her out for being a scammer, but she cried. I had her buy the part and I installed for free, but it was upsetting. Be prepared for some strange.things and good luck man.
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