So fella's...me and my Buddy that came down to the meet have been doing some thinking. I just want to put this out there to get opinions back. But were considering setting up shop and opening a business to do mods like these for a price. Things like exhaust swaps or intake mods or brake jobs or even modding headlights to name a few. We would also offer other services like fluid changes and even some more crazy stuff like custom fabrication. So far we have custom 3" downpipes for a VW GTI's and a complete custom turbo setup including custom manifolds for a Mazda Miata and soon an entire turbo kit for the 370z. Also everything we have done so far has undercut the competition by stupid amounts of money.

Now my question is would anyone be interested in us doing something like this? Should we even bother? There are a ton of shops already established with good names behind them and for two kids to try and rival that is there even a chance?

I'm looking for input on things everyone would like to see offered and if this business venture is even worth it.lol

Dude, this sounds awesome.. i see the biggest key to the success of your business is going and setting up shop where theres a market for your work.

It takes a lot of money to open up your own shop, i would research it, and look at all your options.. hell if anything, you could render your services on craiglslist and kinda get a taste of what a business would do without having an official building/business. Most importantly getting a taste or gauging the interest of the community for which you'd serve.

Well I know there is a market but I don't think it will be crazy busy for a while which is cool.

As of right now there is a 3 bay garage up for rent right down the street from us which is in nice shape and would be good for working in. That would hopefully be our starting point.

I am considering craigslist quite heavily. I think it would be a good place to get interest other than forums. The problem with forums is there is a fine line between member and vendor.lol I don't want to push buttons with the Admins.

The other thing we are considering is if anything gets going we will host group meets to share we offer huge discounts to the Z community or something like that. For maple the headlights. I think DM said this but some shop charges $200 per headlight to mod. Well we would do a group mod and charge $100 per set or something. That is for those who simply don't want to get their hands dirty or spend the hours doing it and stressing out about their lights. But that's just an example lol.

Hell, you could easily do the labor on those headlights for $150 a pop. Which is still very fair.

I'd be in for a set of Whitelines, likely.

I think it depends on where you set up shop and what other established shops are in the area. You could do really well in an area where there aren't a lot of shops. I know the Columbia/Baltimore area has a lot and so does NoVA. Hell I'm within 15 mins of both AAM and Hill's Garage who both do excellent work with the Z's. Not sure how it is out in PA though.

Location is EVERYTHING...:tup:

uploading all 90 something pictures now

Didn't realize manual mode was set to RAW so each picture is like 10mb's lol need to resize all of them but they should be up shortly

Here’s some pricing for you guys
Whiteline
27mm adjustable front bar: $227.00
24mm adjustable rear bar: $202.50
Adjustable rear endlink: $141.50

Eibach
Front and rear sway bars: $350.35
32mm front bar: $194.35
29mm rear bar: $194.35

+tax for MD resident
subject to shipping fees too (I have to find out if these can be drop shipped)

I understand what sway bars do but is there any point in upgrading to eibach over the nismo sway bars I already have? Would I be able to notice the difference cornering?

the difference between oem/nismo vs aftermarket is it's adjustability. Whiteline, thickness wise is I think almost the same as stock maybe a couple mm's difference. But having the adjustability and mounting your endlinks at different angles calls for the difference in performance

Makes sense. Pictures from Saturday going up now. Khoi, where are yours being loaded?

I pretty much maxed out my Picasa account lol. making the thread now

Pictures up here:

Nissan 370Z Forum - dmhenderson's Album: Headlight Mod "Shop Day" Event 9/15/12

oh I made a thread in the Mid-A

:tup:

Alright so what supplies do I need to pick up to do the headlights this Saturday? I know you had some stuff left over. I know I'll need paint and some gloves would probably help. Anything else I need to pick up?

Get like 2-3 bags of gloves.

yes!! please lots & lots of gloves..

FYI those nicks definitely happened when I was trying to re-seat the painted part back into the housing. I took a picture right before I did it and you can see that there are no nicks at all.

I just knew I didnt do it. lol... I was thinking, there's no way I woulda missed those spots with paint, it was just too obvious.. but nonetheless, if you wanna fix it, let me know.

You can paint them black satin lol

I like the carbon fiber overlays, they look really sharp.

LOL yeah that's what i figured since the plug is the main wiring/electrical harness for every other lights you have. Glad you figured it out. simple fix :tiphat:

Will do. Where did you (or whoever brought the gloves) get them from? Also, 1 can of black paint is enough for 2 sets of headlights, right?

I'd get an extra can if I were you. It's not super expensive. You want "black satin" not gloss or flat black.

I got my gloves from Giant. I plan on getting some more. Who all is coming on Saturday - do we have anyone with bumper removal experience because that could be a sticking point...

Gahahhahasdhahsgahshfsahfssa

won't be in town this weekend guys. going up to NJ Saturday for Nissan Infiniti Shootout on Sunday

Yeah next saturday - is that still on?

Edit: Frank has requested that I leave him at home for the 2nd go-around which I think is probably for the best.

Don't care for that look but that's just me.

Why the hell didn't I think of this? Hurrrrr....
So yeah I'm just going to spray the entire piece black satin.

yes.. i think it will look nothing but sharp.! I really like the black on black (I am a big fan). :tup:

Ok I'll get 2 then. I'll see if Walmart has any gloves when I go there to get the paint. My cousin and I can help with the bumper removal since we've done it on my Z before.

I'd love to help, but this Saturday i can not make it, i will be out of state (in MA).

Yeah thank goodness man, as soon as I removed the wheel well panel, i saw it immediately...

I can of paint will work, i have enough painters tape.. just make sure you get a sh1t load of plastic gloves. Like 50 pairs. Im being serious.

I got the bumper down to a science, no problems there.

DM...no Frank?:ugh2::ugh2: Nismo isnt gonna like that...

Nah frank being there stressed her out too. It's her territory - hence all the frantic humping. She's not used to other dogs in her space.

Yeah, i wasnt expecting nismo to turn into a pornstar... :bowrofl::bowrofl:

Nothing to do with that. She was stressing because there was another dog all up in her space so she felt the need to let him know who was boss (over and over). She wasn't mean or anything, she just doesn't want other dogs invading her territory.

That's why pits make such great guard dogs. They're super territorial.