Crash Gordon

Well, Me and my business partner had to close our car shop a little over a month ago. It almost seems as if the import market has died in the last year and a half. The market could no longer support the shop. It was a gret 8.5 year run. I wasnt an owner from the beginning, but I was a part of its inception from day one. I will always miss the friends that I made, and unfortunately will not get to see them as often as I used too. I am now going back to school to get into the medical field.

I will always miss making cars fast, but will never miss dealing with the industry side of the business.

It looks like I will have enough time to go on the forums more often now.

SkylineUSA

That sucks.

I might have to stay here and open up a shop then

Fast cars are very addictive, you will still have those in your life, right?

Good luck in the med field.

spt

Sorry to hear that. It's not easy closing down something you love. Good luck in your future activities.

Crash Gordon

Yeah, I will still race alot, and be building my race cars. I will soon be building a complete tube chassis car witha a custom body, just for kicks. I love cars, and have spent my life building, and designing cars, and car parts. There is nothing that will stop me from loving cars, but I really am enjoying not having to deal with all the crap associated with owning a shop.

SkylineUSA

I hear ya, I would hate to have a deadline when I do my work. Its nice to set into the garage and just go at my own pace to make sure its perfect, rather than having to push with a timelimit hanging over your head. Like on American Hot Rod, when they missed their deadline, I guess its what would keep you in buisness, but what stress.

Crash Gordon

actually it wasnt the deadlines that were that bad. It was the employees. You could never count on anyone to be on time, or even do their job correctly. The deadlines were never a problem. I would stay and do all the work myself if i was afraid of not making one. I remember having to do a motor swap, and custom turbo kit on a del sol. It really sucked. I recieved the motor at 5:00 in the afternoon (integra gsr motor) and had to swap to a cometic low compression head gasket, and install it in the car. Well the wiring harness was jdm, so it was completely different than what I needed, so I had to make a new on, and to top it all off, I had to fabricate a turbo kit and front mount intercooler kit to fit the motor. Needless to say that the car was of show quality the next day, and ran like a dream. I didnt take a brake until the next night when the customer picked the car up and drove it straight from my shop (orlando, FL to Texas. It had 0 problems. That was one of the highlights of my job.

SkylineUSA

That is impressive, a new wiring harness on top of all that other work, DAMN!

I have been working forever getting the wiring straightened out on the project car, but then again the GTRs have a little more wires than most cars I must have binned about 50lbs of wires all ready, but I have to make sure I don't cut out the wrong ones

bonzelite

died regionally, or in general? it doesn't seem dead here in socal.

Crash Gordon

It has died locally to the point of virtual non-existant. As for nationally, I know alot of companies are hurting. Place racing went out of business, and most of the companies began calling me asking what the deal was. It was the personal relationships that I had developed that allowed me to get a good insight. I feel that the hardcore performance market will be dead nationally in the next 5 years. There hasnt been any drops in sales for the add-on stuff, like Wheels (cheap ones) and Bolt on exhaust. It is unfortunate.

bonzelite

i think the next catastrophic bombing event in the united states will pretty much kill it sooner than 5 years. as well as many other things.