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How cool would it be to be able to drive all over the US and buy cars to get them back and have them restored. Any one on here roll the dice in life and been able to do this? Glad his videos don't have the Gas Monkey vibe to them. Seems like a down to earth guy.
 

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I like watching his videos. I attempted to buy a car, restore it, and sell it for a profit. It only works well on higher end/rare cars.
On the 72 Chevelle I bought, did a frame off restoration on, and sold, I made $12,000. Not even remotely close to what I should have made.
mid I could have taken that money I got when I sold it and rolled it into a better car to buy and turn over, it would have been easier going forward. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that.
 

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my buddy does a car for barretts pretty regularly. I'm talking regular chevelles or el caminos, 454,4 speed, 12 bolt, bucket seats
usually a digital dash ac everything new. while he gets good money for them, we joked about him making about 1 dollar a hour for the labor involved.
when he had his shop, he kept 1 stall open for his car he was building and worked on it when he didn't have regular customer cars. now that he's retired, these builds are more to keep him entertained.
He could make more working on customers hotrods but that means dealing with customers jim
 
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I have several friends addicted to flipping cars. They'll call me all excited about their latest find and seem so excited. A month later the cars gone and I'm like, I thought you loved that car and aways wanted one...? It get's old. Driving and enjoying them is way more interesting to me than buy sell buy sell...
 

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actually the hunt for me is better than owning and driving. I love to find my next project then start the hunt for used parts. my 66 hasn't moved probably since Aug. the camaro longer than that. only reason yhe 70 moved is I sold the trike sitting in front of it. jim
 

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I also think most of fun for people is the actual hunt and finding something cool or rare, most times your lucky to get your money back or a small profit and working for peanuts 🥜😂. Usually better to do a quick flip and not put a money or a bunch of time in it if your goal is the $$$$$ imho
 

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1967 Chevelle, daily driver, LM7 5.3 swap.
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Nothing would be cool about “having them restored”. I’ve been doing my own full restorations for almost 30 years. I don’t pay anybody to do anything, from engine/trans, body/paint, interior. I don’t farm anything out, and it’s all show quality. Nothing is fun about signing a check for work somebody else did for you.
 

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Nothing would be cool about “having them restored”. I’ve been doing my own full restorations for almost 30 years. I don’t pay anybody to do anything, from engine/trans, body/paint, interior. I don’t farm anything out, and it’s all show quality. Nothing is fun about signing a check for work somebody else did for you.
I agree to a certain extent aboput finding and restoring a car with one big BUUUT. fIrst off i would buy a car that was fairly solid and needed minor body work not cars that were completely rotted through. Right there is a lot of work time and money. Faded paint is ok. Now to the mechanicals engine swaps or rebuilds to the power train are easy cvompared to the body work . then there is brakes and suspension . a disc front conversion is a necessity the rest is fine. I would focus on decent driver quality #2 cars that everything worked and showed well. To go for the long buck is going to take 3 or four times the amount of work and you never make a ton of money . They are ruining the hobby especially with the paint and body supplies. they should have never out phased synthetic enamel . I t was great stuff and came out like glass if you knew how to spray it . years ago i hot sprayed many cars all came out good . Here again these were noty 20 k paint jobs like today but more than presentable and they lasted because it was all paint no thinners. if io wanted extra depth the last fog coat would be clear enamel heated with just a smidge of even flo slow drying thinner 55/60 lbs at the gun Devilbiss MBC-510. When that settled it was a nice job. not everybody can have show or num,ber one cars. Alex
 

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Nothing would be cool about “having them restored”. I’ve been doing my own full restorations for almost 30 years. I don’t pay anybody to do anything, from engine/trans, body/paint, interior. I don’t farm anything out, and it’s all show quality. Nothing is fun about signing a check for work somebody else did for you.
that’s a narrow-minded point of view. The ones that don’t have the skills but have the means keep me employed. There is nothing wrong with having someone else build or restore a car if someone can’t do it themselves.
 

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1967 Chevelle, daily driver, LM7 5.3 swap.
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that’s a narrow-minded point of view. The ones that don’t have the skills but have the means keep me employed. There is nothing wrong with having someone else build or restore a car if someone can’t do it themselves.
There’s nothing wrong with not having skills. There was a day I didn’t have any skills. I never understood why people don’t bother to acquire “skills”. What bothers me is when people sign a check for a car they never turned a single bolt on, and proceed to accept awards in car shows for work that somebody else did. When I approach someone at a car show or out on the road and ask something specific about a car, and they have zero clue, I turn around and walk away shaking my head. If somebody is going to ask a question on a public forum, people need to be accepting of ALL the responses, even the ones you don’t happen to agree with.
 

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I'd love to learn paint and body myself but I don't have room nor would the next door neighbor be very happy with me pounding, grinding not to mention the bondo dust or the paint fumes.
It's great if you have the space and time to learn it. But some of us don't have the room. I will try the rustoleum tractor paint someday. jim
 

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There’s nothing wrong with not having skills. There was a day I didn’t have any skills. I never understood why people don’t bother to acquire “skills”. What bothers me is when people sign a check for a car they never turned a single bolt on, and proceed to accept awards in car shows for work that somebody else did. When I approach someone at a car show or out on the road and ask something specific about a car, and they have zero clue, I turn around and walk away shaking my head. If somebody is going to ask a question on a public forum, people need to be accepting of ALL the responses, even the ones you don’t happen to agree with.
Not everyone has the time to learn the skills. By that reasoning, people that don't have skills already nor the time to acquire them and build a car shouldn't be allowed to pay someone like me to do one for them? That I do not agree with. It keeps people like me employed in doing something I like to do.
 

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Nothing is fun about signing a check for work somebody else did for you.
I respectfully disagree. At 55, and 20 cars later I don't need that sense of accomplishment anymore and I'm just fine paying for certain work including body and paint. I'll still do a lot of things even though I can afford to pay someone but the older I get the less I want to crawl under a car.
 
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