we're setting up shop
 

David Sanchez and I have been throwing around the thought over a year now and have made a decision to get a shop together. We are both tired of not having enough room at our respective houses. Mine because of my mini-machine/welding/powdercoating/flame spraying etc. stuff and David with his race cars.
Early on David was inclined to want to do general automotive work and that was not appealling to me for numerous reasons.

It is hard to describe this shop because there is a huge amount of variety we are wanting to do.
A lot of the things I've posted threads on will be what we will be doing. So it is a fab shop but there will be fiberglass and composite work too.
Making motor mounts, pport'ing housings, intakes, seat covers, impact powered bearing presses, mini bead rollers, small part powder coating, welding, T-bucket frames,
narrowing rearend housings (I've done Ford 9's) are some of the type of work we could go into right away.
Things I have done outside the auto related field is copper work like hanging pot racks (kitchen) lamps and other household gizmos that the ladies go goo-goo for ;)

At some point we want to get us a good fiberglass/composite man to build T-bucket bodies and radiator covers/fender kits to start. If that goes well we would go to some body kits.
Both of us are keeping our day jobs and I have the equipment to get us started. We are looking at the beginning of February to open.
A lot of the stuff will be sold through Ebay and we are planning on ads in some publications for the T-bucket stuff.

My goal is just to get room to actually do something without spending and hour or so moving shit around. I like to develop things but I hate the production end of things. I will be content just to cover shop, material, taxes and labor costs but of course we want it to do well.
We have one guy that is David's longtime mechanic/driver (his name is Orlando)on his racecar that will be working for us. He will be my trainee :) as far as showing him how to make the different parts for production and handling shipping etc.
Right now there is no method to the madness and we are playing this by ear. :eek:

We will see what works best for generating revenue and profit percentage and set production accordingly.
I will be aiming most of my time outside of training Orlando to finishing the mandrel bender, testing the ceramic flame spray process, any welding, and whatever else seems to pop up. David drives a truck during the week so he is limited to what he can do in the shop for now.
If things go well he will not be on the road though unless it's delivering parts ;)

So for all those who keep up some some of my weird ass projects I wanted to let you know what is coming down the line..... and yes I know I have said before that I really did not want to deal with a shop :confused:
I still had room left in my garage then though ;)

Here is David and Orlando. David is in the middle in the black shirt and Orlando is in the red with his hand on the trophie.

http://nhraimport.com/2001/events/ra...os/photo12.jpg

Bout time, Mike. Let me know when you guys need some help moving and setting things up and I'll be right over.

B

Hey Brian did you get moved into yours yet?

Good luck with everything !!!!!!!!!

find a name yet?

hell we haven't even decided on that yet. We talked about carrying over "Scalliwag Performance" but this is a joint venture and I think it's important that people don't associate my nickname and think this is just me. After all if we suck I don't wanna be the only one looking *stoopid* here ;)
We will probably have to have a name that is more universal because a pot rack from Scalliwag Performance sounds a little weird :confused: Or we may have a second name in cases like that.

Scalliwag Productions

my 2 cents worth
and if you like it my fee is affordable:)

matt

Nice GLC!!

That is David's little "hall of Famer" That was the first year and first race of the year the NHRA had the import series. He won the All-Motor class.
He keeps talking about selling that car with the trophy. It is running a 9" with an aluminum pumpkin and a solid spool so it hooks up real hard.

Congrats

Yep. Tony and I got most of the stuff moved in but we're still lacking the air tools, etc. We're partly moved in. It's gotten in the way of some of my work, too, that I need to finish up. :)

B

Yep the transition can be pretty rough. Just ask Steve. While Rich was goofin' off in Iraq ;) (j/k) Steve was getting all that in order.
But adding lifts, a showroom, restrooms, etc. made for most of that headache.
Hopefully you are not trying to take on anything more than getting a shop area in place?

Hopefully the only prep work we will be looking at is plumbing out air outlets. We have trailers and pickups/vans since David has a little hot-shot delivery going on the side so we can move everything in one trip.
We also have the luxury of this being a side project so it is not interupting our incomes during the setup.
Between the two of us we could pay the shop expenses without any income from it. Not that we would want to.

Knowing you as soon as you got started five people called wanted their motors built! See what happens when you post up those shiney ports, dyno sheets, and time slips?!?!?!?! :D
Just remember that being busy is great. My Dad always said you have plenty of time to rest when your're dead.... and something about "no rest for the wicked". ;)
I need to come check out your shop. Need anything fabbed or welded?

You need to buy my MIG Welder
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2581961057

But I need a big one now. I already have a 110 unit :(
Most likely I will find a used wire feeder that will handle up to at least 1/16" wire. I can run it off my AC/DC stick for the time being.
The shop will have 3 phase so I'll probably get a 300 amp power unit. I could play with that thermal arc spray wire with that :D not to mention I could toast some heavy ass plate with that if the project ever required it.

Congrats Man! :bigthumb:

Thanks dude. The shop we have had our sites on my not be the one we end up with. I was cruising the business park area that is about 4 miles from home after work just to check. Most of the shops there are 5000 sq.ft. up and even at a good price it would not fit the startup budget.
I found a 2000 sq.ft. with a rent/buy sign on it and called and fortunately it was not a realtor type so I actually got an answer. He told me that the rent would be $600 per month. The floor layout is about 35'x55' with a 10'x10' small office in a front corner. It comes in just under 2000 sq ft but close enough. It has one bay door which bites a little but I hope we don't work on many cars on a daily basis anyways in there and no customer type cars.
It has two walk in doors, one to the shop and one to the office. Anyways I am going to get a tour of the place tomorrow and if it looks good we are going to make a deal on the spot :)
I will post pics if that works out.

if your not really looking for a business front shop, i would go more on the outskirts of town. you should be able to find something alot cheaper than that. theres a place in town that i was lookin at just to store all my crap, it was 5000 sq.ft. and had 3 10x10 offices, a 30x10 storage area over the offices. a 50x30 enclosed 'workshop' with 3 huge bay doors, i could of fit 3-4 rv's inside, and 2 coverd huge overhangs on either side that were concreted. it was going for 300$ a month. but it was about a 10 min drive from where i live and to get to it you kinda had to go a little offroad.

-Daniel

Property costs even on the outskirts of DFW are higher than where you are at evidently. You can't rent a beat up barn with a leaky roof for $300.
There is some places in really rough neighborhoods that are cheap. As a matter of fact to guys two guys a couple of weeks back were cleaning up a warehouse their company was leasing for extra space and someone came in, robbed and killed them. That was in Dallas.
So that's a cheaper alternative just not one I'm willing to do. Even property on outskirts is not cheap. But if somebody hears of something I am definately open on it. Cheap can be good too ;)

good luck

hey scalli.....i haven't been on the forum for long....congrats man....if u ever need an extra man.....i'll move from club icicle without thinking twice.....i could be an errand boy.....an amateur welder.....i can do almost all automotive jobs other than taking motors and tranny's apart and putting them back together......just a thought....good luck anyways and take it ez man

Mr. BiG G :cool:

Haha!!! Club Icicle is not a bad place to be in a Texas summer I can assure you. But right now I bet it does suck.

I met the guy at the shop and he wants to sell the place so renting would be on a month to month basis. That would suck to have things going good and then have to pack up and find another shop in a 30 day period. So that is not going to work. Good thing the original option is still in place. ;)

hmm....yea it's good u got the original option still...keep lookin u might find something better....see scalli i was born and raised in the middle east where we had temperature's of upto 52 degree's celcius....after being in that for 16 years i can take any heat summer can offer :D

Yea buts its more the humitity that makes the problem. here it gets like upwards of 110*F and 100% humitity. That alone makes the heat index like 130*F

I really hate cold. Bundling up really sucks and it is awkward to work on stuff like that. Not only that but when you are cold it is painful. Your hands get a little cold and you barely hit your finger on something and it hurts for days. If it would have been warm you probably would have shook it off in less than a minute.
Being hot is just miserable ;)

An idea that would be nice would be to find about 5 acres in as close a unrestricted area as possible where someone put a trailer or small house and a nice shop. Buy the property and rent the living quarters out preferably to a shop helper.
Since this shop does not rely on visibility for walk-in customers it would be fine. It would be wide open what you did with the property as far as adding on shop space or putting more living quarters, storage facilities or whatever.

Those are future options that may be practical. I've done enough structural steel that I could save money on future building, except for the concrete and electrical work. As far as welding anchor flanges to beams and frame up goes that is simple. I just need a helper to help me grunt stuff around.
But buying property with at least one descent size shop already in place and not having to pull permits and fugg with code inspectors would definately be cool. Extra land to keep parts cars :D

Congrats and best of luck. I would love to be the guy that you're going to be training, if you move to MD and set up shop let me know. ;)

Milan

I hope it all goes well for you! I would like to see you succeed.

more power to ya... i wish i never left texas somtimes.....

Well the shop is OFFICIAL!!! I signed the lease today and we are going to start moving in.
One thing of special interest. The red arrow points to where the shop is. The blue arrow is to where Eric Carter's house is :D Carter=Cold Beer :)
Anyway if I can get my damn camera working I will take some pics.

http://scalliwag.com/shop.gif

:rofl: sorry... i just found it funny that there is a road in texas named "Hicks Rd." LOL!!
congrats too BTW. :D

man, it sounds nice.. im excited already bout you guys opening one up still, i don't think imma ever have a chance to ever drop by.. cause im for california.. seems like Texas has all the nice spots.. sUre makes me wanna move there!.. ehehe.. but yea good luck guys!..

1990_whitecomet

There is a road on that map called "rapp" too. So I guess it ain't all Hillbilly here ;)

I lived in El Monte and Baldwin Park 5 years total when I was a kid. Texas is where I was born as well though. They both have their pros and cons.
But Texas is pretty much central to both coasts and that can be real handy.

congrats

Here we go folks. It rained almost all day yesterday so I could not haul any equipment up. I got one up today and another one sitting in te truck waiting for David to get in in about 15 minutes.
So will have two truckloads up at the end of the day. I wanted to be alot further but oh well.

Here are some pics including my garage AFTER I got the first load out. I had pushed my engine hoist back in so there is actually a couple of holes in there if you look real close :)

http://www.vintagerotaries.com/shop/shop011.JPG

http://www.vintagerotaries.com/shop/shop001.JPG

http://www.vintagerotaries.com/shop/shop003.JPG

http://www.vintagerotaries.com/shop/shop005.JPG

http://www.vintagerotaries.com/shop/shop016.JPG

They are putting a 10'x10' office in also

I bet your wife is happy your getting a shop
and emptying the house garage lol

You bet she is! She even came up there and cleaned up the bathroom and stocked us up with paper towels and stuff! :D She can't wait to park her SUV in the garage :)
It has been many years since a car has made it all the way in my garage ;)

hey Scalliwag its been a while, great to see you got the shop, Ill have to come up and visit one of these days. What all are you guys doing up there? fab car work etc...?

David and I both have full-time jobs so are shop time is pretty limited. Making solid motor mounts has been the only thing I have been doing for a few months now. Since my frustration level of trying to do much in the garage reached critical mass back then I am finally motivated to take up the other projects I have neglected.
One is a semi-solid motor mount that will be pretty wicked. All the people that want the hard hit of a solid mount without as much vibration will love these.
Since this requires me to weld as you could see from the pic of my garage that was not the safest place to weld.
I would spend an hour moving shit just so I could do a phase of a project and then have to spend another half hour rearranging shit to do the next step. The inefficiency of my time was pretty overwhelming.

David and I just unloaded more equipment and going over ideas and we are like a couple of kids at Christmas right now :D
He's pulling the race cars over tomorrow. I'm trying to find a plasma cutter and a good deal on a lift.
The mandrel bender project is about to take off for another attempt and the bead roller (for the IC pipe) are going into production and will get a test run on Ebay soon as well.
Oh, and anytime you can make it up just come on. Even if we aren't at the shop you can always stop by Gotham and see the guys there and I am sure I can get over there and probably make a run to the shop from there.

Does this mean I can get my wheels powedercoated soon? :D

Mrs. Scalli must be a saint.

We are going to get a bigger oven because I can only do 16" wheels max right now.

Oh and Ms. Scalli is "the Devil" Bobby BOOSHAY!!!

What a coincidence! My wheels are only 16".....


.....you'll have to come up with another excuse ;)

Haha!!! Okay, let's talk $ then :D We'll (or wheel) hook you up :)

I have a new toy on order. Ready for pickup on 3/27 Just like this except black :D

http://www.teamlift.com/images/tpo9_a.JPG

Congrats man. Sounds exciting for you. I need to make a trip out to texas sometime, seems there's always something going on. By the way you wouldn't happen to have a position open for an AE and ME major with an EE minor in say three would ya? What you are doing is what I want to do. Unfortunately as a college student I have no funds, and because of the majors and minor that I've chosen I won't be out in the four years like I'd hoped, but I should be out in three and would love to at least drop by your shop sometime and talk with you.

- Steiner

Heck you have the market cornered on the engineering fields bro! I would love to talk to you sometime. Just having someone that could take my raw ideas and drawings and convert them to CAD and then to CNC programs would be one hell of an asset to me.
Someone with the capabilities and access to equipment to digitize and reverse engineer something like a side housing to develop a CNC program to make them from billet aluminum would also be a valuable person.

Of course some ideas are not very practical but many I would not mention here I have made working prototypes but the next step for mass production would require someone like you. So anytime you come up I will be very happy to meet you :D

Awesome man awesome. I have some ideas of my own that I've been toying around with. When it comes to CAD, I'm there. I had one year of it in High School, and I am in my first semester of CAD right now. I'm about four projects ahead of the class. My teacher actually told me to stop doing work one day because I was making five designs in the time span it took everyone else to make one. I have limited time with a CNC machine. I know how to use it but I unfortunately with my curicullum I don't have time to go to the lab and practice on it.

- Steiner

That's cool. Keep working hard. One really good design brought to fruition could set you for life.
So do you know how to build burn programs for CNC plasma tables? I have access to one with a BurneyIII controller. The water table is 20'x55'!!! Here is a 10'x20' table. Hell I would like to have a 5'x10' someday :)

https://i10.ebayimg.com/03/i/01/83/dd/ff_1_sb.JPG

yeah!
sounds fun, and good luck

My possible brother-in-law may be able to help you with that. I mentioned him being interested in your housing resurfacing attempts when we met at the first Cheddar's get together. He has a degree in Industrial engineering, and refits old analog CNC machines with modern controllers for a living, among other things.
Matter of fact, he and my dad have one a table something like that sitting out in the pasture (no tool head - they want to make it a CNC router for wooden signs and rifle stocks, I think.)