The Windshield Repair Forum water cooler for topics that do not belong in another forum. Feel free to put your feet up, relax, and get to know each other!
I have been in the automotive aftermarket business for 18 years. (Stripes, moldings, graphics packages, sunroofs, simulated convertible tops, window tint etc. I had both a mobile techs serving the dealer and a retail location. Got tired of all the employees, high overhead and stress and sold out.
Having been on the car lots over the years I have seen many hack jobs, inferior work and products I would not want to be associated with as well as some really great ones. I am now looking at and considering windshield repair, chip and scratch repair and head light restoration. I want to keep it on a small scale (By myself). I am trying to find the best systems and companies to become involved with. I found this forum and it appears to be made up of a bunch of great people with a wealth of experience. I look forward to getting your ideas. Your input will be greatly appreciated.
Welcome to the windshield repair forum titanvestor. Like all forums you have to use a bit of common sense to weed out the misinformation, but overall I think most of our members are very well intentioned, and many are both knowledgeable and generous.
I retired from the Home Improvement industry in 1998 after a buy out from my son, only to return with a Seamless Gutter Company for another 2 years and again was bought out by my son and my brother. The wife and I sold the house and bought an RV and headed to FL and spent about one year doing nothing, it didn't take long for me to go nuts riding my bike, roller blades and trying to out walk my wife.
Then I got this phone call from my son and said he bought a farm in southern IA, 3 floors and 3500 sq ft, he wanted me to come back and rebuild the house for him, never do that again, from that point I found the best job in the world, didn't pay much but we saw the country on someone elses dime transporting RV's, once the fuel prices started shooting up the sales slowed down and I started a courier business, good money but I never hated a job so bad in my life as I do this, I won't get into the reasons as I'm sure I will hit someones sore spot.
Well, how did I get interested in HL's and WS, this came from a long time friend that put a WS kit together for me and I worked on all the farm trucks that was on my son's farm, never once did one for money, LOL I just enjoyed doing the work. The way I got interested in HL's is my wifes VW tail lights got so foggy that they didn't show very well, so I called my friend and ask him to check it out for me, when he hit it with sand paper I thought he was nuts, then he said he was going to do the HL's also, that was about 2 years ago, they still look great.
Now my wife and I want to head south for the winters and I just have to be doing something, so this winter I'm going to fix everyone's HL's for them for FREE, LOL If I run out, I will put out a sign saying free HL restoration! No I'm just kidding, however I will do some kind of cheep advertising and at least pay for my new HL kit that I bought from DELTA. As soon as Spring comes I plan to buy DELTA's WS kit, I want to go to a glass show, get a day or so of training from them and get some good experience this spring, summer and fall and then head south.
Well that's about it, I'm sure I'm a bit different then most, but if I can't enjoy what I do then I really don't want to do it, If I can't do it right, again I don't want to do it. So doing something right and enjoy doing it is way more important then $$$$. But don't get me wrong! the $$$$ is important also.
