Whats your side hustle

My pops spent tens of thousands on NASCAR die casts in the 90s & 00s. He must've had a couple of thousand of them. One I remember in particular was the Dale Earnhardt "Crash Car". IIRC Dale Earnhardt crashed, rolled the car, and was about to get towed to the garage when he got it started, drove back to the pits, got it patched up & finished the race. I think he paid 800 for it. I see one listed for 220 just now.

@motion and @BigBird do you guys have a collectibles investment division?

 

I used to refurbish mountain bikes. I'd buy on craigslist, at garage sales, etc. Most would just need a polish, tuneup and maybe some tubes. Almost all would sell within 24 hours of my sales postings, and I couldn't find enough to meet the crazy demand. I then started buying higher end mountain bikes, a few years old. They were worth more in parts than they were as a whole, so the chunks went up on ebay. Same thing with used hardwood furniture. I'd buy from people who had online ads showing their stuff stacked in a garage or storage unit, covered in boxes and other household crap. I'd polish it up and take photos showing the stuff staged in a my spare room, surrounded by vases of flowers, nice decor. Again, huge demand. Those hustles paid for the down payment on my first house.

 

The crash cards are very rare and I myself have never seen a dale crash card . They were so many varieties and variations that mattel did and still do , it's a rabbit hole for sure . I do have some dale stuff and if your interested you can have them and I will set aside for you .. the wife is on me to shed and that's fine as she has allowed me the garage for bikes and stuff .

 

I used to do a lot of fabrication work from my home shop. Mostly race car chassis stuff like roll cages, and a lot of turbo system design/build. My previous company was kind of "bought" by my friends local performance shop.. I then just did my work there (was still a side hustle and I would do it as well as my day job) I helped them build up their fab business and then after about 2 years I decided to leave and do it from home again. I have TIG welders, a MIG welder, a full suite of tube bending equipment, saws, etc...

Money was great and my GF (now wife) and I were long distance for a large portion of that, so working 16-18 hour days was really no big deal for me. Helped me race cars AND I was 100% debt free when we decided to move in and buy a hose together.

Now everything kind of collects dust. lol After I switched to race bikes and not cars, I kind of don't have the time/desire to work on peoples stuff... Most bike dudes don't need fab work. Also, other then the drag race dudes who literally get a hard on watching money burn, its hard to find clientele who understand that custom work is expensive. A lot of guys feel that because I'm doing it out of my home shop and not a giant facility somewhere, that I'll work for chicken shit. lol When I tell them my hourly rate it quickly thinned out the riff-raff.

I'll still do fab work no problem.. But these days I choose the clients more then they choose me. Nowadays I actually do more CAD design work.. If anything I'd like to transition away from motorsports work and focus on building tooling for weld fixtures, CNC fixtures, and assembly aid fixtures.

My wife wants me to quit my real job and start my own shop full time. I think about it pretty often.. I think if I just pulled the trigger on a few CNC mills and maybe a CNC lathe with live tooling it would be that last little bit I'd need to push me into the deep end.. I have a CAD software seat

Also, taxes get annoying for all that shit. Especially when you have real, full time job, a side business, and al the capital gains stuff from day/swing trading. I'm married to a CPA, so that helps.. However, she hates doing tax work so its still me preparing 95% of everything and her just reviewing it. lol

Here's some pictures I guess? lol

 

I think everyone knows that I had a large 2 stroke collection + another 20 4 strokes from the 80's, 90's, etc.. The collection been thinned down quite a bit in the past few years and will pretty much dry up over the next few years. Back in 2008, I was the only guy in the USA buying 2 strokes. I ran around in my pickup buying every single one that I could. I was buying TZ250s for $5,000. They've done very well... I'm guessing on average, they are up 400%, but you have to factor in tires, batteries, storage, etc. Motorbikes are the only investment that I've ever done well with. Everything else has been a disaster, LOL.

 

that is awesome stuff! Modding anything that moves give me an eggplant

 

Sweet! I need an engine stand for my '12 CBR1000RR to aid in its re-assembly.

Fantastic lookin' work. I love it more when a fabricator's results look like art or jewelry than some mass produced name branded stuff, even if that stuff has a top shelf finish.

 

Reeeeaaallllly.

I may have to be in touch if you want to do some cage welding. I need some bars added to my existing cage but at some point I wish to re-do what's in it to current spec, aka all new cage. I dont know what circuit guys pay for cages but the rally cage guys get $$$$$ for a DOM cage.

 

I don’t know why you think you need something custom. These things have been mass produced for years and are durable as fuck.

 

Nice work. I always found it funny that people will gladly pay a plumber or an electrician over $100 an hour to show up and change a light/plumbing fixture or some other task they could easily do with minimal effort themselves and $20 in tools, but cry poor when I say I don't turn my multi thousand dollar machines on for less than $75/hr to do some custom design and fabrication/machining.

 

Well, yeah. Plumbers deal with shit and electricians get zapped.

You push a button.

 

Not always, sometimes I crank handles......

 

I responded earlier but forgot to hit the reply button...musta been emotionally damaged.

 

Hey big boy. What ya doing Saturday night?

 

I get $250/hr for trauma counseling.

 

I'm an engineer by trade and used to work in the automation field as a machine designer. That type of CAD work is actually really enjoyable. I have considered trying to do freelance work in that area, but I feel like I need to find a machine shop to team up with to do it. I now work in the tool and die industry (metal stamping), and know a ton of machine shops now, but I'm not sure how conflict of interest would work if I am partnering with a tool shop on a side hustle.

 

usually this
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unexpected/comments/y89rhb/pov/

#Ionlycrankmyownhandles

 

I'm too stupid to actually charge people for things. Generally if it doesn't take more than a couple hours and you show up with Mtn Dew and hang out with an insufferable bastard that's about all it will cost.