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We’re looking to put together a new 'shop car' - something we can pull out all the stops on to really wow customers and show them what we're capable of.

We've done old school and tuner in the past and had success with both. This time around, we want to do up a newer, more common car. Something the majority of customers can relate to.

We'd love to hear from other shops that have taken on similar projects. What types of interior upgrades did you make and did you find that having a shop car was worth the cost and effort?

Any advice you can give would be appreciated. Also, feel free to post pictures of your 'shop cars' - we'd love to see them.

The majority of work we do is repairs. It's where our bread & butter lies, so we definitely want to focus on that as opposed to working on a car that only a slim margin of our customers care for or can afford.

I suppose that I'm less concerned about the car - as any common vehicle in good shape should do. The point is to take it from bland to beautiful, so customers can see, feel and even sit in a 'living, breathing' example of our work (so to speak).

What I'm interested in is other shops' experiences with such projects. Does anyone have a 'shop car' they keep on display? And if so, how has it worked out for you?

Well we don't have a "shop/display car" so to speak but we do have 2 rolls royce clouds (mk2, mk3) the mk2 has had all the paint work done, chrome and all the wood vineer work done, engine bay and mechanics are done and has sat in the corner of the work shop for a long time now waiting for a spare month to do the interior! the car looks stunning and soo many customers have shown a interest and when money changes hands thay can have any colour interior thay wont, but it will be going red unless it gets bought (2 tone silver grey body), the other is still in the paint shop thank god!

In the area the work shops in a car like this wont hang around to long...

I've be lucky enough to travel around a few bits of the usa and from what i've seen the type of motorcar varies massively from state to state?

What i'm getting at is if your client base is say bmw,merc etc then go down that road, from what i've seen theres no point making a pruis look stunning if your surrounded by muscle cars/4x4 etc as 2 out of 10 people will notice the hard work/ detail you've put in and the rest will go to to the muscle car/4x4 guy....

I'm i making seance?...had a few friday night beers lol

thay were bought as a wreak or to settle a debt.....

Quote from Gjudd on June 29, 2012, 21:35
What i'm getting at is if your client base is say bmw,merc etc then go down that road, from what i've seen theres no point making a pruis look stunning if your surrounded by muscle cars/4x4 etc as 2 out of 10 people will notice the hard work/ detail you've put in and the rest will go to to the muscle car/4x4 guy....

My thoughts exactly.

Assuming that the Rolls Royces in your shop are the types of cars your customers generally own/collect, have you found them useful in selling jobs?

It's gorgeous by the way!

Just this week i had a customer tell me that he had been told where my shop was but never thought much about it until he saw some of my work. in his exact words "a friend of mine told me there was a kid over in staley that did upholstery but it never went any farther than that because there are lots of guys that do upholstery, but very few do good upholstery, but after seeing your dads old chevy i decided that's the guy that's going to do mine." he basicly walked in with a "i don't care what it costs i just want YOU to fix it attitude," i don't mind customers like that, but he never would have walked through my door like that had he not seen the interior in my dads chevy truck that i use as a rolling business card/ shop truck... you can spend thousands on radio spots, newspaper and phone book ads, or even billboards... but it will never get you as much work as a few hundred dollars worth of materials, an old clunker, and a few dollars for registration at your local cruise night!

Only being in the business under a year, I do not have the funds for a "shop car", nor do I live in an area where we could ever specialize in high end cars. We get some hot rods but the large majority of our more custom work is "pimping out" the Honda Civics of the local 20 year olds. I just have a crappy 2007 Toyota Matrix but a while back I decided I would customize it. Got the back bench, passenger seat and passenger side door panels done and then things got really busy. As embarrassing as it is, I had my own version of a "before and after" car for almost 2 months now. Believe it or not, I've got quite a few jobs from it. I guess seeing the "before and after" in the same car really works for people. Kind of makes me wish I could afford another car for the shop, just to be able to draw an imaginary line down the middle and customize the hell out of one side it.

We are lucky enough to have 3 cars to work on here. So this is my plan. Let's see how long it takes to unfold. My daily driver is a 2000 Ford Ranger. The seats in it are simple but, that is what the majority of our customers want anyway. So I used some stuff that we had on the shelf already and whipped up some covers. This truck has already made atleast 2 sales for us. I have had it for around 2 months. Then, we have my '63 Pontiac. I am using original pattens for this car but will change a few things to make it 'mine', i.e. diamond stitched perferated inserts instead of parallel horizontal seams.Also changing the colors for the carpet and headliner. Still an original look and feel but just not as boring. We also have my dads '57 Ranchero. If he ever gets far enough along on this car to start the interior, I think it will be an awesome candidate for a true custom. I will have to make door panels from scratch, wrap the dash, modify the seat foam and make covers for them. That should show our customers that we can be versatile. And give me lots of practice on custom stuff!! Kind of 'grandious' but, we all need goals right?

Hitting three different markets - it's an ambitious plan, but I like it aunc! Most of our customers are also the type to want simple seat covers, so that's why we're thinking of doing-up a common car. If the Ranger already landed you two seat cover jobs, I'd say it was well worth the effort. We're hoping to see similar results.

Thanks for sharing your experience. It makes me more confident in our plan!

Ferbs, There is a body and restoration shop in my area that did exactly that but with everything body engine and interior. It was at the SEMA show a couple years ago. Super cool. It atracts lots of attention.

Quote from Nadeem Muaddi on June 30, 2012, 00:12

Quote from Gjudd on June 29, 2012, 21:35
What i'm getting at is if your client base is say bmw,merc etc then go down that road, from what i've seen theres no point making a pruis look stunning if your surrounded by muscle cars/4x4 etc as 2 out of 10 people will notice the hard work/ detail you've put in and the rest will go to to the muscle car/4x4 guy....

My thoughts exactly.

Assuming that the Rolls Royces in your shop are the types of cars your customers generally own/collect, have you found them useful in selling jobs?

It's gorgeous by the way![/quote

these been sooo much interest on the rolls but without a interior there is'nt a sale in my eyes,to trim a rolls is big money.....The bosses view is you can have what you wont interior wise as it a blank canvas....my view is it would be better trimmed and sold as a complete/finished car.....

I have two shop cars now both in a ton of pieces just need sometime to put them together. The first one is a 1932 ford woodie with the shop name to go in the back side windows or on the front doors, and the second on is a 1971 Honda ln360 panel van.. Both shop cars arent stock. Most work in the shop is street rods and customs and mid 60's cars.

I purchased a brand new nissan in 2010 for advertising of some of my work. Drive it to work everyday and to shows on weekends.Gets seen on the road and even get phone calls when Im driving.
Great idea and something you can finally do for yourself.