vsawmike
9 mo
It's cool to go back and look at these threads. When I went out of business in May of 2006 I owed about 22 people for control arm orders. I thought at the time it was about 15 or 16 orders. Ended up being 22. I told everyone on the forums that I would re open and pay everyone back. I could have easily filed bankruptcy and legally not owed anyone a dime. That cost would have been $550 and some court fees. As some of you know I reopened in December of 2007 pretty much a year and a half after closing and losing everything I had in that shop. All my tools, equipment and even computer and personal items. I started building arms and once I sold one set I ordered parts to make two sets and the rest went to a payment for someone I owed. It took me several years to pay everyone back. Not because of money but more that it took a while to find people.
Even though I had the BYC banner on my new website it still took time and looking to find folks. However I did pay everyone back. Everyone with the exception of Jason at SSD. I owed him I think about 5 sets. It was 10 sets but I was also owed some shipping from him. He was gracious as anyone could be. Never trashed me on forums but rather he took the high road. Saw him at a show a few years back and told him I would pay him back too. Her said no, to forget it happened. I literally almost broke down. All those years I was mad and disapointed at myself for not listening to my dad about my business. He had one 25 years and told me what I was doing wrong. I didnt listen. So I was mad and disappointed at myself for giving people my word. Doing business on a small level like this is giving someone your word. I gave these customers my word and I gave Jason my word. I didn't live up to it. So I re opened a year and a half later and started paying people back. As I said it took me years. But I did it.
Remember in that time not one, not two, not three, but FOUR other shops opened making control arms and all four closed owing people money and not one ever came back and made it right. Only me. Now there could be someone out there that wasnt made right. I lost all my paperwork in the shop. I did go thru emails and orders I remembered in person at shows. But I did pay everyone back. So the haters were proven wrong.
My dad came to work for me tig welding in 2005. I called him and asked if he knew anything about tig welding. He said "I used to tig weld back in 1965" and I thought um ok. I asked him to help me find a good welder and show me how to do it. I told him of the contract I had wirth Jason at the time. 10 sets of S-10 arms at a time. At one time I was making 5 sets of S-10 arms a day. We made a bunch of them.
My dad had a radiator shop at the time for 25 years. He did that and A/C work. He said I was ready to close it and retire and do something on the side. So he said he would come work for me welding. We bought a used machine online. It was damaged in shipping and when we got it we found it didnt work. It had a boar burned up. It was a huge machine. But shipping insurance covered it. We then went and bought a brand new Miller Synchrowave 250. Worked great.
When we got behind was doing Jasons S-10 arms and all the others. But the main thing that got me behind was taking in cars and trucks to work on. Should have stayed with nothing but parts until I built it up to having more help building them. Got behind, wait time grew and people started backing out of orders. Once they told others on forums there was a run on refunds. Well by then I had been spending. Built an 8ft table with stands all around it to mock up pieces in jigs and save time. Built a shipping table and backdrop for photo shoots, built an office in the space I was renting. I ran water lines and added a sink and started building a bathroom with a water heater. Had hot running water and a sink for washing hands. Built a big work table and a chassis table. Bought another Miller 210 mig welder and a smaller mig welder for sheet metal. Bought a plasma cutter and ordered a bunch of DOM tube and laser cut parts. So when people made a run on refunds I didnt have it.
People thought I was living in a big house driving a new truck. Nope, renting a small house, driving a used F150 on payments. I didn't waste money on things. I just didnt charge enough for what I was making. My dad said you have 3 things wrong here. You're renting too many shop stalls. I started in two 1000 sq ft stalls for $500 a month. I added two more for the projects I wanted to work on. Never had time to work on them. He said you're not charging enough for these parts. He also said I should be doing parts only. He was right about all of it.
Now as some of you know I did Dallas Hotrod Parts from December of 2007 thru January of 2012. I was rolling along good at that shop. But I was doing it out of the armored car shop I was working at. We worked 6-3 M-F so every day from 3pm to about 7pm and all day Saturday and some Sundays I built parts. I got so busy that that it was every day. I lost that job when my employer ran out of contracts and money. So I had no place to build the parts then. I only had a half garage at the time. So I decided to start doing woodworking from the garage just to stay busy and have some extra income. I started selling on Etsy. Tables, desks, clothing racks etc. It blew up and within 6 months I was doing it every day after work and at the time I was doing commercial bodies and service trucks again working 6-3. Well this time I waited an entire year before I quit and did it full time. I did the Etsy shop 7 years. I was in the top 1" of shops on Etsy for sales. I added an awning to my garage and then added the awning forward and backward after that. Then I built a building right where the awning was around it. It as an extension of the house. So after 7 years of doing that I just got so tired of it. At the time my brother was asking me to come work with him at Branded Customs. This was June of 2019. So I just went ahead and did it. I missed the custom truck world and that helped. Had a great time there for two years. Then I went back to work for the guy that had the armored car shop. More of a money deal than anything. The bad thing was I was driving 45 minutes each way every day into Dallas. Did that for a year or so and found a custom car shop 6 minutes from my house in my town. Huge shop, well lit, painted floors and a heated building. I got that job and I'm still there today.
But I started making tube control arms for Crown Vics since people use that front end under F100s. I made shorter arms because there is only one other company making them. So I guess I'm back in the control arm game again. This time from my home shop. I'm in the process of converting it from wood shop to metal shop. I have two chassis tables and a small fab table as well as a stand that holds two control arm jigs at a time.
So I hope all the haters see how wrong they were back in the day. They just knew I was sitting on a pile of cash laughing. I wasn't at all. I was broke, disgusted and mad at myself. At the time I was coming off the high of a magazine cover. Building a bunch stuff on another few trucks that also made the cover. Then within just a few months my name is mud. It sucked about as bad as it could. So here I am making control arms again. However I have made changes. I don't take payment until a set is made. Not even a down. If someone wants some I make them first. Now I have a shop on shopify which is safe for buyer and seller. The policy moving forward is the same. Make parts and then sell them. Not getting behind ever again.
You guys that called me a thief and a liar and all that BS, I don't fault you for it. I can imagine what it looked like from your view. But remember what I said above. I could have filed bankruptcy. I didn't. It cost me thousands of dollars and years to pay people back. The way I see it if I had filed bankruptcy I would never be able to have a shop again of any kind in this scene. That and I gave people my word. My word means something to me.