Does trading work,work for you?

I thought i would throw this out there and see how other areas do it.We have a great bunch of car guys in the St.Louis and St.Charles area.We like to trade back and forth and "dib stuff" in friends garages.It seems to work out pretty good,no one keeps score or anything,when one guy needs something someone will come up with it.One of my best buds and i trade all the time,he upholsters my cars and i build his.We each do our thing, what we enjoy doing and what we cant do,the other does.For example he was a few cars ahead of me on the upholstery thing,so he brings out a 26 T roadster in pieces.He had it in his garage for a few years and this is it now.Took 5 months to get it together and running.Also some of his upholstery work he did for me.Also a 40 coupe he has now.The T has a Pinto 4 banger with c4 trans and open banjo rear.Does this work for others?

 

I think your situation might be the exception to the rule. Usually in these barter deals one guy upholds his end of the deal and the other one doesn't. What makes yours work probably is that you guys are good friends.

Don

 

being broke as a joke, its pretty much all I do!!

I had a '55 chevy 1st series p.u for sale for a long time for short money. It was badly rotted, no bed, and no paper work...
I eventually added that I would trade for a sign or other crap.
A little while later I made the trade for an old beat up 30s/40s AMOCO sign still in the hanger and a six pack of beer!

 

Not very often. But I never seem to learn my lesson.

 

I used to do this in high school. A neighbor of mine was a couple of years older, and worked on Datsun pickups (lowriders). Our garages were directly across the street from eachother and the garage doors were perfectly aligned. He did engine work, and I did body work on my old rigs. We would swap work all the time. It was great.

I'd open up my garage door and push the car right into his garage, and he'd do the same with his rig. I found that bartering only worked when I was a kid though. Every time I've tried doing it as an adult, I end up getting the short end of the stick.

 

They have for me, but only with two people.

And even saying that...one friend is far ahead on the "doing" end of things...I find that giving him things I have, that he needs for a project in place of actual work helps even things out.

Mike

 

I keep getting screwed and you would think i'd learn. but i keep trusting people.

 

Rarely works for me! I'm sure the other guys I help would say it's working great!

 

I do it and have done it in the past but mostly with people I know becouse most of them are low on funds to. I do have a friend who always seems to get bungholed everytime he trades, so you need to watch out.

I'm still trying to get the power company to trade me my bill for a pinstripe job on one of there trucks, for some reason they wont do it!!!

 

have traded rides more than once and all went fine. be careful dealing with Family & Friends because if one part of deal goes sour there can be big problems with relationships.

 

I have a buddy (we used to work together) that I have a contest going with as to who can do the most for the other.

He does a TON of shit for me, and I do stuff for him whenever I see a chance, which is rarely. Of course, he says I do so much for him, he'll never catch up. I don't know where he gets that.

 

I had a circle of buddies and we always traded parts and cars back and forth, or sold things ridiculously cheap to each other. Or just gave it away outright. Sold an entire 352 and a 3-speed set up once for $100 and helped him install it.

Bob

 

Sometimes it works. I did all the rust repair and painted a 63 tempest convert that took 4 mos. I traded for use of a large trackhoe to clear My property to build 2 shops that a friend owned. Had it for 2 1/2 mos. The local rental joints wanted over 2k a week. That worked well for both of us. regular people can trade labor.I found people who claim to be artists $ think there 2 to 4 hours are worth 40 of Yours. FED

 

You sold a guy a set of 1:25 scale aluminum 409 valve covers pretty cheap once. I still need to finish that model.

 

One of my best friends lives across town from me and has helped me do multiple things to my vehicles and house (some things he has charged me for, others he has not). He is one the handiest people I know and can fix absolutely anything... If/when he ever needs my help I make it a point to do whatever it is I can to help him. Since he can fix basically everything himself, I'm usually called on for an extra set of hands or some muscle when things need to be moved. I know I don't offer the guy much "skilled" labor, but I know he knows he can count on me whenever needed. I think we both appreciate each others help.

 

I quit trading like that....seemed I always got screwed over and rose my blood pressure....now if I'm doing someone a favor...I don't expect anything in return, that way I can wash my hands of it when the job is over. It keeps my blood pressure significantly lower and I don't sweat it if the guy I'm helping out stands around with his thumb firmly planted in his ass.

 

I used to do that all the time. My buddies stopped wanted to trade with me after a while though because I could usually haggle out a better deal than they could.

 

Almost always works for me. I do website design and I've traded for all kinds of things. Only got screwed once. In fact the shop that I'm currently building my car in was part of a barter deal. Got 2-3 years of rent in exchange for a website.

 

It works best if you are the party paying the work trade back, if ya know what I mean...

 

Rarely works for me either, would be great to find a group that would do it though. I just started charging people for some of the work and that felt wrong, so sadly back to just doing my own thing.

 

it has worked well for me in the past, but lately i seem to be getting screwed. i have a few "friends" that owe me. either we are friends and work it out, or we are not and you owe the fucking money then.

 

It seems to work for me now more than it did in the past, but my circle of friends who I will trade with is alot smaller too. Basically I enjoy helping my friends so I if I dont get anything back I dont really care much. But I will say I know who my friends are now and those guys always seem to help me when I need it without question and I appreciate it much! You know who you are!.......

 

bangngears - Where are you located? I'm in Brentwood. Don't know many guys with traditional hotrods yet but I've been doing the same with a group of friends who all have vintage Japanese cars for decades.

 

Works for me-but with the usuall catches.... We both supply our own parts. If it's work I need done here,i'm working on your car while your working on my house=IE sprinklers/drip syst's,electrical,or something that their skilled in more proliferentelly than myself. Seems to work out good as they think what their doing is easy....But- I feel the same,so it's been a win-win so far.Never had a prob yet,and my friends drive away happy.

 

I built a custom seat pan and upholstered the whole thing for a tattooer friend of mine, generally I would charge $800 and up for what he got, and he is supposed to return the work and tattoo me for equal hours and $$. He's had the seat for a month and I haven't heard shit

 

Working on cars for a living, I get offers all the time. It's gotten to the point where I'll work on family members cars for free, and I'll tell anybody else $50 an hour or you can to take it to a shop... Seems like everybody needs their own shit fixed right now, but when I need help its "oh, I'm busy this week, I'll call you when I have time"...

 

So..........this would be Blued, screwed, but NOT tatoo'd ?

Don

 

i trade all the time. i only trade dollar to dollar. i works out well for me opening up deals that couldn't happen otherwise. i have a good reputation so no one seems to mind, producing something first.

 

I have one guy that we did a HUGE work trade on, and yea, it worked out great. Past that, no, it never worked on my end very well.

 

Yep pretty much, and my dad did red metal flake on the tank and gloss black on the frame and bunch of fab stuff on the bike as well, he made sure he made even with him, but not me yet