Soooo, What Out of the Box Methods do you Have to Raise Car Cash?

I can't resist this one. I'm a newbie to the H.A.M.B., but still an old fart who's been around the block enough to know that easy money is never easy. Time invested is what it all boils down to in the end. And, hustle: which is why I like the dismantling aspect of the 'copter' sales of Kallie49. I've gone that route several times with vehicles that were marginal for selling, or trading. And, part is parts. Ebay is just another format to hustle in: and they sure do hustle you on the way out past the cashier. And, put in their proper light, most flea markets and swap meets et al, are what I grew up thinking of as the Black Market. The Tax Man gets his fair share in other places, so why sweat the hard up and put upon who drag stuff out of the darkest corner of their garage, or basement, that's been out of circulation, and put it back into view for someone to recycle or keep as an object d' art? We all go there looking for a bagain, a steal, or something to complete a project stalled between the ready made vendors who've gotten fat and sleasy on the hot rodding/street rodding hobby to the point the run of the mill guy forgets it's about the buzz and not impressing someone else with the ready made stuff, between them and the ever constant search for the holy grail of part N.O.S. Feast or famine, I guess. My story is that I got hooked on the idea as a kid reading the car books was that hot rodding is 'ingenuity in action', I still believe that. So what do I do to make my lucre? (That's the question, right?) I spent 25 years in Southern California, met a few righteous people who would fit right in with the best of the traditional thinking hot rodders, and when the Real Estate pendulum swung back far enough, I sold my house and moved back to my old stomping grounds, here in the South. I reinvested in a old house and a new shop. I live by myself with my dogs and take in fabrication work for street rods and what have you. I'm real fond of early Fords, even though I'll weld and fab on anything. Chassis work is my specialty. It's not what I trained for in life, but that nice work I was looking forward to doing dried up and withered on the vine, so I fell back on my hobby as a means of dealing with the world. And, in case you're wondering, I'm in NorthWest Alabama. Just send me a message if you need anything done. (How's that for hustling?) And, yes, I love Alabama. I got out of the box and ran off.

 

I was a male prostitute and went broke. I kept giving it up for free.

Like my daddy always said never turn anything down except an old man then turn him face down.

 

Hahaha.........I know what you mean.

 

I'm friends with the local machinist,a great painter,and Choprods so i just look pitiful when i want something done.Actually i put in hours at different shops if they need help and then when i need help they return the favor..............

 

i take as much money as i can to the swap meets, and keep my eyes open for stuff i don't need. same at the junkyard, yard sales, the flea market, everywhere. it helps to have a broad knowledge of lots of stuff. for example, i spotted the tailgates for an old toyota land cruiser in the wrong section of the late model junkyard, bought for $15, sat on them for a couple of years till i needed the cash, sold on ebay for close to 4 bills. another was a 70's vintage analog synthesizer i bought at an auction for ten bucks. nobody knew what it was, i had a vague idea and was right, it was another $400 in car parts. my house has piles of car parts in it, stuff that i like and will use someday unless something comes up and i need cash, then i can flip it for a few bucks.

one BIG thing i did to have car money, got rid of all credit cards and other unnecessary expenses. no new car payments, our old cars are our drivers. by not paying a small fortune each month in interest, etc. i can easily spend more in a month on car parts and tools than most people spend on their mortgage, on a farily modest income.

 

They're spectacular......hence you can touch Big Olds any time you please.

 

I did not do this on purpose or recommend this. In 2001 I got hit head by a school bus, I was driving a cabover Isuzu. The bus cleared my trucks frame by a couple inches and sheered the cab off the frame and pushed it into the cargo box. How does this earn extra money? From 2002 until 2005 I got insurance settlements for pain and suffering and loss of income. I bought my F-100 and 84 GMC with some of this. I paid 40% on my house and paid cash for having my shop built. I invested the rest. My extra money comes from no car payments and a lower house payment. Also retirement will be taken care of with the money I invested. The pain part was breaking my hip and the tibia in both legs also my right ankle and foot. I tore the anterior and posterior ligaments in my left knee. Suffering was sitting on a couch for 9 months, rehab and having my wife drive me around. Now I do some welding and general handy work for friends and family. I just got to do something I've always wanted to do I got to demo my parents den! They pay me by letting me eat lunch at thier house every day.

 

Well said crazyman....yeah itsa hustle...it is fun in a sense....but it takes loads of time, something of which I dont have alot of....therefore I only do it when the hobby bank account is on life support....

in response to ray's comments,

I have a broad range of knoledge, the problem is is more like the paint code on the first car I ever owned, or the width of the bubble in viscous dampers, my junk base of knoledge is regulated from 1940 to 1959 stuff....on either side of that I'm kinda a hurtin unit....

 

up until my dad died this year i had a custom arcade machine bussiness. he was my arcade cabinet builder so when he went so did the bussiness. its a shame, we were selling about 8 of them a year. we were just starting to make a name for ourself. i still haven't taken down the website. it is the link in my signature. i have turned down 6 orders already. that would have been $9000 extra bucks this year. oh well

 

Free money, just a little hard on the back!

 

I know this sounds kinda stupid, but I used to buy new cars every 3 or 4 years . Like a lot of folks I ALWAYS had a car payment. I finally decided I really didnt give a shit about what I drove . I now drive an 87 Toyota pickup that I've had for 20 years. I take that 250.00 a month and spend it on my Hot Rod habit Thats 60,000 dollars guys..... My wife is fine with it .She even feels sorry for me when I get in that POS each day. kinda begs me to get a new car. No way . She has a nice car and even lets me drive it on occasion.

 

I work for Chaz on Fridays as an extra job and put away some of that, Plus selling the frame that came under my stude truck (37 marmon herington) to the point I am still $750 ahead on the project

 

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..Quiet man, they must never know .

 

quit smoking, stopped buying beer, go out to eat less, use coupons at the grocery store, clothes shopping every 5 yrs, duct tape on the shoes, less driving (unless its to get car parts and racing events), only buy car parts i can use.... that means you will need to stop buying every $100.00 pile of shit that comes up for sale, sell everything you dont need to use immediately.

 

I MOVED! Sold my big house and got a 900 sq. duplex. Now have 2 br 2 bath 2 kit. and live in the best part of town! My shop is @ my girlfriend's house. Total savings on taxes, insurance, and utilities is over 1500 bucks a month! CAR MONEY! Now I just dont screw up and lose my better half.

 

Confucious say: when you start gay prostitution ring, do not advertise in Wallaces Farmer.

 

I poke badgers with spoons .

Seriously , brings in good money , even got Chuck Vranas practicing when he was over for the SuperNats back in August ...



We always start the newbies off with model badgers and BIG ladels , takes a real expert to go in with a teaspoon

 

They tried to tax internet sales for private individuals years ago when ebay was first starting but it was put down because they wanted the internet to grow. I'm sure that will change in the future.

I have been selling on ebay for a long time now as well.
I just pick new niches.
I started off selling Hot Wheels, buy them for 79 cents and re-sell for $20-$40. That allowed me to buy lot's of parts, including rims and stereo system.
Then when I was working on the cars, extra parts and parts I knew were hard to find in good shape were sold if I didn't need them which ='s more money for more parts.
I also sell DVD's and collectibles for my friend.

I still buy car parts at the local junkyards and re-sell them, but there are a lot of others doing the same thing so you really have to be up on it. Same thing happened with the toys, eventually all the jokers jump in and the profits start dropping.

Looks like you already have the basics covered though..... The most important thing I tell people when they ask me is to find something they enjoy doing or collecting and sell the excess, etc. It makes it a lot easier. If it isn't something you enjoy it will just be like work.

 

I quit smoking a little over a year ago thought i would have that extra 125.00 a month dont know were its going...started working second shift so I dont have to pay a babysitter$300 dollars a month dont know were its going...opened the wives closet today....holy s#!*

 

Al ducks whenever his wife comes in the garage





Just kidding.

 

I just buy and sell.. I do flea markets and shows year round, plus eBay, pay the state tax on it all, figure income taxes for it.. I did good this year, I expect to have to pay some on it this time. Mostly car stuff, but I take a little bit of trains and toys with me, or I do trains only in the winter.

I've owned more rare cars I thought I'd never see in my lifetime, though, I just sold a Buick Skylark - a '53 - that I found upside down in a junkyard and bought for the scrap price. Guy that bought it even wanted the mangled fenders, I guess it's going to see a $100K restoration - the hardest part was dealing with the old fart that had POA over the property, he wanted everything just scrapped so no one else could make any money off it. I just hauled the last car home I'm personally buying, today, a '57 Custom Royal 2dr wagon. Frame and most of the floors aren't bad in it and it's full of carbs, generators, starters, hubcaps, and a '37 Chevy fender I stuck in it.

 

money???? hmmm.. that that stuff i havent seen in a long time?

i think i had a job once...... i think i gave alot of money to the metra train and food. money for my car???? never happened.

 

HAHAHA - To avoid the missus...my brown packages come to the office.....it's a running joke with the UPS man..." what no car parts today?... Where's the love Bobby? " My patients even tease me about it.....

 

When I first started my coupe I was working at a machine shop that was offering almost all the OT we wanted. So the wife and I struck a deal; anything over 45 hours up to 55 hours in the OT pay went into the hot rod savings account. Anything over the 55 hour mark went into the house checking account. I almost always got about $180 every week going into that account and man did that get the ball rolling.

Now that I'm working a better paying job, I can get away with the 'it's easier to ask for forgivness then permission' theory. That seems to work pretty good so far.

One thing that helped me out was setting up that separate savings accout that we could both deposit and only I could withdraw from. That way when I wanted something fo rthe car, I couldn't get if the money wasn't there and if there was money there, I knew it would be there when I needed it. No fear of her going on a spending spree at the local outlet mall at the hot rod's expense. We still have the account and it's still got a little green in it.

Vance

 

I work for my uncle's auction monday nights (shameless plug)
I sell random stuff I bought on eBay. I rarely do better than 10% profit, you figure in gas, time I actually lose money.

 

Man I tried something like that in 2001, fell 1000 ft with two malfunctioning parachutes. (Reserve got tangled with the damaged main) I was serving in the Army at the time, broke both ankles, smashed up my right knee (Had 8 operations on it so far) Broke my hip, all my ribs on the right side, my back in three places, had some bad internal injuries too. Had to be resuscitated three times after it.
I put in for compensation as it ended my career, I was discharged onto a VA pension,
VA fucked me, took away my pension 18 months ago, still don't know why, still cant work. They also turned down my compensation for all injuries other than my knee. I got a HUGE $1,200 bucks Australian!! Its all in court now, has been for a while too.
Just pointing out, compo isn't a guaranteed thing!!
Screwed over a lot of things in my life, I earned well (SF) and deployments netted a lot too. Had almost paid off my house, four cars, one drag car then wham!
I have one car now, half built sitting there. (sold the 38 to my parents and they stiffed me on 10g) Lost everything else including my home and live on my sisters lounge room floor.
Some of my tricks were hunting (With a Bow) feral animals in national parks on a license. Worked extra shifts with a Paramedical company, instructed civilian free fall and also did camera work, sold some artwork. Now I cant do any of that.
If you all have easy money ideas I really need em. At the point now where I really need to sell the A model, don't want to but you gotta eat!
Man I wish my art was up to Tingler standard, I could sell that easy!!

Fuck what a sob story.

Doc.

 

My wife and I just had this discussion this morning. I have a "stash" that she knows about, but doesn't understand. I told her point blank...If I put it in our savings account, I have to explain every time I buy something. If I have a cash stash, I don't! I have a buddy who's been married for a couple years, and never understood "Man Money". I think he's finally catching on. My Dad has done it for years, and told me recently: "If anything happens to me, search the shop, as there is money stashed here."
Another way I get a liitle for the stash now and then is to do a little work for my father-in law at his body shop. I get a little for helping, but then we go have a drink after work and play pull tabs, which he buys. If we do well, he usually splits the profits with me!

 

got a job at mcdonalds my girlfriend kept coming in and force me to give her free frenchfries. got fired from there.got a job at a shoe store. girlfriend force me to give her large shoes.got fired after that.just hope my wife doesnt read this.or ill have to sale the parts i got.

 

I do this:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94752

~buy (and fix), sell and trade cars till I get the one I want.

~Mowed my neighbors lawn - grass that is.

~I did trash pickup for a guy once on the side of the freeway (weekend duty)

~clean out and repair used sh*t tanks out of old RV's

 

I'm a tightwad, I control the bank account, I buy what I need for the project I have. I keep everyone's belly full and their asses warm. Consequently when I do buy parts I don't get any static, the only real requirement is that I do something with it which really ain't so bad.

Doc Watson, make lemonade out of lemons. You are a smart guy, if an insurance salesman from Maryland can make a zillion bucks writing about the CIA and the military which he never was a part of, why can't you a real honest to God veteran do the same? That insurance salesman is Tom Clancy. I'll bet the hairy shit you did would be better than his fiction.