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Flipping cars. ..

Black Sunshine

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Any thoughts on this? i am a good mechanic and had a bro that did this balls deluxe.... Any thoughts....??/
Thanks
Black Sunshine
 

spinich

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Been there did that. You need to be real selective on what cars you choose. Car market is very trendy. If you are going to restore the car before flipping know that it is spendy to do it right. Auctions are your friend for selling not for buying. Frankly it takes money to make money so best have a 100k available, storage and transportation capabilities. Not an easy way to make a buck. Trust me on that.
 

Chev.Chelios

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been doing it for years..

subaru is my bread and butter, especially up here in the northwest.

have to know the whole car inside out mechancley and be prepared to overall any used car you buy just out of principle.
(I'm mentally prepared to overhaul the engine and trans if a car I buy blows up the next day) (it's happened more then once lol)

finding and sourcing used and cheap parts is also crucial, auto parts stores will kill you're wallet. time and cost of parts should.be calculated before buying a vehicle.

most of the time before buying a car I'm looking around for the parts to see if I can find them for cheap before I buy it.

say if you find a clean, NICE bmw with a bad engine, I'm looking around to source a good running engine for a deal if I'm lucky and will connect the 2 deals together. if i can't find one i will not buy the car

(STAY AWAY from anything european.unless you know exactly wtf you're doing lol, I love bmw and audi I know them like the back of my hand and can make money with them, but out of ant used car on the market they are the most deadliest to your time and money unless you know exactly what to look for.

stay away from rebuilt, salvage titles, cars that have had/need body work done on the unibody. unless you're a guy that knows and is skilled at that type of stuff but for me fvck that.

some cars I don't care about title status unless it exceptionally clean and in good shape with a stack of maintenance records.

the best deals I hunt for are cars the owner thinks have major mechanical problems, but end up being easy fixes. ie the person took it to a shop and the mechanic quotes some outrageous price for repairs the owner doesn't want to bother paying. mechanics love to lie about problems to sell pricey jobs, I've seen alot of this and works to my advantage.

example, i bought a subaru forester that was overheating and the sellers mechanic shop said it needed a headgasket job so common in subaru engines. ended up being a little hose that was leaking coolant under the intake manifold, 10 minute fix, sold car for triple the price I got it for. it ran perfect with zero issues.

the ad was on Craigslist for a week and nobody bothered to go out and look at it, guy was sort of in a rural area which worked to my advantgage since the 1000s of other greedy car flipping maniacs in the city didn't
want to waste the time driving a half hour out in the sticks to look over a car with a messed up engine. towing fees, flatbedding etc is a pain in the azz.

(unless you have your own truck and flatbed, towing non running cars all the time isn't productive.)

had my friend give me a ride to go look at it for fun, found the issue, bought the car dirt cheap, signed title in hand, drove it down the rode before it overheated, fixed the leaking hose and drove home with a very nice running vehicle. (;

all the deals I make play out very similar to above.

being able to diagnose a vehicle on the spot within a few minutes is a must have skill. buying a car that ends up having issues later you didn't know about will kill your whole life and business.

id say out of 95% of cars posted in online classfields are not profitable investments.

5% of available cars might have some money to be made.

1% of cars that are posted weekly actually have real money making potential.

the ads that pop up with a screaming deal will have 100s of emails, calls within an hour.
(you can test this with a fake ad lol)

people are money hungry and ridiculous in this market.

you have to find and discover all the little niches in the market. i myself found several that work 100% of the time and if sheer experience.

can talk and write for hours about car flipping lolol some of the funnest adventures I've had.

when i was a younger i went as far as driving 300 miles to seattle, camping in my van just so I can get the deals, but I'm crazy like that.


theirs 100s of little nuanced details you must know about the business.

you're the smart mechanic that knows everything trying to sell cars to people who know nothing about them, elderly couples, college students, single moms with cash, etc are the demographics you want to target, avoid vaping billhat wearing teenagers who know everything and are just their to lowball and waste you're time.
alot of the business is doing the leg work for the customer for an easy transaction.

you are selling something that can be the lifeline of an individual or family.

if you're working on a car that is going to be hauling a family around with baby's inside of it you better make dam sure you're not cutting any corners or lying about the problems a car might have.

people can lose jobs being late if it breaks down, get in accidents, the car can break down on a bridge and a semi truck hits it with fireballs and dead bodies flying everywhere.

a wheel can fall off and kill somebody, pedestrians, motorcyclists.. the wheel can fly into the window of a puppy nursery etc

lol just something to keep in mind always do a 100% job <3
 
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Bible_Belt

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Great post, Chev. Your point about specialty knowledge is key. I know of one guy whose thing is Geo Metros, the little tin can 3 cyl that GM made in the 90s. They get better gas mileage than a Prius, and two guys can swap an engine without a lift, because it is so tiny. He buys them junk and rebuilts or replaces engines. His business is somewhat geared to the price of gas.

I do best with motorcycles. Especially if you live where it is cold around Christmas, guys will sell their warm weather toys for next to nothing to buy presents for their kids. But once again, you have to know what to avoid, like old bikes with gunked fuel systems and tank rust.
 

Chev.Chelios

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it's something you have to dedicate A TON of time into or you won't get anywhere.

personally I fell in love fixing things when I was real younge and ended up buying my first car for cheap and sold it for a couple hundred more then I got it for.

started only buying things I knew would return money back.


had to replace a subaru engine without a hoist when I was in a pinch one time xD

striped the motor down to bear block and lifted the short block out with my bear hands, put in another shortblock with just my arms and poor back, lined up the trans and engine mounts with a jack..

cussing and screaming all day my neighbors think I'm a psycho lolol

motorcycles are far easier to work with, especially the old little honda, Yamaha twin cylinders that sell like hot cakes ❤
 

switch7

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it's something you have to dedicate A TON of time into or you won't get anywhere.

personally I fell in love fixing things when I was real younge and ended up buying my first car for cheap and sold it for a couple hundred more then I got it for.

started only buying things I knew would return money back.


had to replace a subaru engine without a hoist when I was in a pinch one time xD

striped the motor down to bear block and lifted the short block out with my bear hands, put in another shortblock with just my arms and poor back, lined up the trans and engine mounts with a jack..

cussing and screaming all day my neighbors think I'm a psycho lolol

motorcycles are far easier to work with, especially the old little honda, Yamaha twin cylinders that sell like hot cakes ❤

My dad recently restored a honda cb750c from barn find to immaculate condition. He is a very good engineer but lacks knowledge on what old bikes sell well and what don't... Any information you have on favourable models to restore would be really helpful.
 

Chev.Chelios

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My dad recently restored a honda cb750c from barn find to immaculate condition. He is a very good engineer but lacks knowledge on what old bikes sell well and what don't... Any information you have on favourable models to restore would be really helpful.

figuring out the most sought after and popular models, makes, parts etc is just a matter of immersing yourself in the hobby.

personally I got heavily into e30 bmws and wrx/sti subarus, I know the markets of these things inside out because I've spent so much time fixing and selling them out of pure joy of owning the cars. knowing what everybodys after, figuring out what's the most desirable parts and peices, finding out what's rare and what's not. just takes time and interest.

I'm having so much fun doing what I'm doing the making money part is just a by product.

as for bikes, usually anything thats twin cylinder, clean looking cafe and bobber/brat style builds are super popular and sell really easy. the hard part of course is finding the deals. Honda cb, and yamaha xs series(twins) are always gold.. 4 cylinders not so much.

bone stock bikes that run arnt worth much unless their mint clean.
 

Spaz

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My dad recently restored a honda cb750c from barn find to immaculate condition. He is a very good engineer but lacks knowledge on what old bikes sell well and what don't... Any information you have on favourable models to restore would be really helpful.
Honda cbr's are great buys.

Bought a 2nd hand Honda CB400 (1990 model) in 97 and never gave me a single problem for the next 3 years up until I sold it off.

Popular models are those Honda Rebel series.

But I personally prefer Yamaha Virago series, had both.
 

Bible_Belt

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Never buy an old carbed bike with a dented gas tank. Dents rupture the lining of the tank, making it rust. Then the rust ends up in the carbs. Even with cleaning, it just re occurs. My last bike was a 1990 suzuki gs500e that I paid $600 for and rode almost every day for a year. Just the carbs on the bike go for $400 on ebay. A new tank is impossible to find unless you pay Suzuki $900. Any old gs500 with an undented tank and clean carbs is usually a good deal if the price is reasonable
 

Sunnypoo

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Never buy an old carbed bike with a dented gas tank. Dents rupture the lining of the tank, making it rust. Then the rust ends up in the carbs. Even with cleaning, it just re occurs. My last bike was a 1990 suzuki gs500e that I paid $600 for and rode almost every day for a year. Just the carbs on the bike go for $400 on ebay. A new tank is impossible to find unless you pay Suzuki $900. Any old gs500 with an undented tank and clean carbs is usually a good deal if the price is reasonable
I had a ducati monster dark 750 with a dented tank I received in trade for a rifle. I fixed the dent, it was carbed, it ran like a top and still does, it was a 2001. I sold it to a colleague, fun bike and strong engine.
 

Bible_Belt

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I had a ducati monster dark 750 with a dented tank I received in trade for a rifle. I fixed the dent, it was carbed, it ran like a top and still does, it was a 2001. I sold it to a colleague, fun bike and strong engine.
How did you fix the dent? Did you use the 3 part process, Krem brand I think? If so did you apply the final step, internal coating?

The rust takes time to accumulate. Ducatis might have an inline fuel filter between tank and carbs, too. Old Japanese bikes usually dont. It is a cheap and smart mod. The chunk of rust that leaves you on the side of the road will be caught by the filer. If the filter clogs, it is an easy roadside repair.
 

switch7

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Never buy an old carbed bike with a dented gas tank. Dents rupture the lining of the tank, making it rust. Then the rust ends up in the carbs. Even with cleaning, it just re occurs. My last bike was a 1990 suzuki gs500e that I paid $600 for and rode almost every day for a year. Just the carbs on the bike go for $400 on ebay. A new tank is impossible to find unless you pay Suzuki $900. Any old gs500 with an undented tank and clean carbs is usually a good deal if the price is reasonable
I thought the filters collect any rust? My dads tank was full of rust when he got it. He filled the tank with nuts and bolts and put it in this contraption that vibrates. Then after that he filled it with acid, and after that he sealed it with Redkote rubber sealant.
 

Sunnypoo

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How did you fix the dent? Did you use the 3 part process, Krem brand I think? If so did you apply the final step, internal coating?

The rust takes time to accumulate. Ducatis might have an inline fuel filter between tank and carbs, too. Old Japanese bikes usually dont. It is a cheap and smart mod. The chunk of rust that leaves you on the side of the road will be caught by the filer. If the filter clogs, it is an easy roadside repair.
Wooden dowels to punch the dent, internal coating and went a step further and welded the tank hinge. The hinge is a common failure point on these tanks.
 
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