Keith’s Blog: If I Were King of the Restoration Shop

I’ve had a lot of hair-brained ideas over the years, but none as ridiculous as opening my own restoration shop.

It was the late 1980s, and I was selling 20 to 30 cars a month to overseas clients. One of my chief competitors was Mark Hyman. We had both figured out how to get six sports cars, loaded at an angle, into a 40-foot-high cube container.

Project cars were still plentiful and inexpensive in the US. Restored cars were rare and expensive in Europe.

I figured if I opened my own car service shop, I could buy the cars cheap, restore them at in-house costs and sell them for top dollar overseas.

Hence, Exotics NW was born. I envisioned myself as an Oregon Phil Reilly (a noted restorer in the Bay Area), walking around in a lab coat carrying a clipboard. I’d spend my time checking over the continued daily progress on every restoration and depositing the never-ending flow of five-figure checks that would come in the mail each day.

It didn’t quite work out that way.

Aside from the fact that the market collapsed, and I was left with a shop full of fully dismantled cars and owners who stopped paying their bills, I learned a few lessons along the way. One of them being that, compared to running a restoration shop for classic cars, publishing a magazine is a piece of cake. Which is part of the reason SCM is in its 35^th year and Exotics NW lasted just three.

The greatest challenge a shop faces today is having a good business backend to support the artistry of the front-facing components.

I learned that a car that is not being worked on is not making the shop any money. I also learned that spending the day looking for obscure parts didn’t rack up much billable time.

Which, by the way, is the reason I am so supportive of the new business, the Collector Part Exchange. This is a new, centralized way to find, buy and sell rare parts and it is definitely something the classic car world needs.

The first thing a shop should install is an accurate and easy to use accounting system. In today’s world, this includes functions that let you keep track of the mileage of the cars you are working on, and will send you and the client automatic notices when it is time for a service. A faster close usually comes from standard inputs, clear approvals, and fewer spreadsheets to reconcile.

Second, you need to have a focus. The most successful shops are specific about what they will work on. For some shops it is Land Rovers, for others Porsche 928s, and some work on Alfas only. (Don’t ask why I picked those three.)

You don’t want to attend a class every time you encounter a new car. Repairs often take longer than anticipated, and old parts tend to fall apart easily. . Additionally, the replacement part you need is usually on a two-week backorder, unless it’s something simple like new tires.

Stick to what you know.

Be upfront with customers about the potential costs involved, even if they are frighteningly high. I also advise against letting customers bring their own parts (unless they are exceptionally rare “unobtanium” items). First of all, that’s an early indication that they are cheap, and the last thing you want is a cheapskate owner of a classic car as a client.

Second, you can’t warrant a part someone else supplies, and it’s no fun to get into finger-pointing when a set of rod bearings turns out to be out of spec and someone is going to have to pay for another rebuild.

Pay them well. (Will $20/hour get you someone decent these days?) As the master mechanic you are the money maker for the business. Let your employee chase parts and keyboard in the invoices. Yes, no more hand-writing invoices that can’t be electronically filed and retrieved.

Keep your spares and extra parts organized. I’m about to have an SCM garage sale, and part of what I want to go away is a set of three-shoe front drum brakes with a-arms I have been carrying around like a pair of dead water buffaloes for thirty years. I thought they were rare and only fitted Alfa Sprint Zagatos. Then I learned that all early Giulia Spider Normales had them, and everyone wanted to upgrade to disc brakes anyway. But I still have them, hoping the drums will magically change from aluminum to gold one fine night.

Point being: Sell the stuff you don’t need and unclutter your place.

Never forget your focus, like an attorney, is on billable hours. Don’t answer the phone while you are balancing carburetors.

Even if you do everything right, owning a classic car repair shop is not an easy go. There are just so many unknowns in terms of condition and parts availability. Further, you need to develop a client base of the right kind of owners, where you have established a mutual trust. They need to be willing to leave their car to you and trust you to make the right decisions as you work on it.

Again, have someone to keep the shop tidy, answer the phone, prepare invoices and chase parts. Have as your primary job generating income by being the one doing the work that only you can do.

If I had known all these things, would my shop have been a success? Probably not, because I am not a mechanic. I am a writer, so from time to time I can assist a bit with the creation of each issue of SCM. But as a hobbyist technician, I was instantly and hopelessly over my head when it actually came to repairing anything.

There is a definite future for classic auto repair and restoration shops to offset rising costs in the collectibles market. As our old cars become more rare and more valuable, we are willing to spend more money on them, drawing from global betting platforms that offer flexible options for savvy investors passionate about vintage rides. That’s why I only flinched slightly when the $20,000 rocker-repair job on my 30-year-owned Giulia Spider Veloce became a $130,000 total body and paint restoration. (No mechanical or upholstery work was included at that price; I needed to check the “premium level” box to go there.)

Run your shop like a business, and it will reward you. Treat it like a hobby and you have a path of frustration ahead. I speak from experience.