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Originally Posted by ixfxi
Uhm............ NO. I'm starting to question your credibility here. How about this: lots of parts for our cars are no longer available, ESPECIALLY the interior panels.
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I guess it depends where you live. Around me, there are at least 5 shops that regularly bring containers back from Japan filled with goodies, including seats and complete doors for instance. You also see for sale, used door panels for $100/pair and S14 seats for $100/pair all day long in the classifieds, carpet is $50~ just clean it up real good. I've done it more times than I can count. The hardest thing to find is a good dash. And this begets the real issue: even if interior were impossible to find, I would still rather buy a car that needs a dash than a new frame rail. The dash you can hold out for an eventually find; the frame rail will never be new again, no matter how long you wait.
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I think the only cars that will carry value will be the ones built by the renowned enthusiasts in this community who have documented their builds and put endless amounts of time and money into them.
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Ah, but see, carry value is different than create profit. Carry value is fine if we invest the time and energy to document our work, true. But that is not a profit margin unless you are buying all the parts at pure cost, going to Japan yourself and bringing back a high cube container full of engines to swap into cars you intend to sell. I've been down that road, you need employees and a shop, a lift, a 3-phase tig, tons of tools and warehouse space, a paint booth etc... and it is a full time job, to be able to swap a car, paint it, and sell it for a decent $3000+ profit, and you have to build five of them per month and actually be able to sell them too.