Must be our week to send home some beauties! Our customer drove his Ferrari 330GT 2+2 home today! One of our finest total builds. Took home his parts car too. Glade loved the test drives. To see the history of this beauty, make sure to see it in our...
Breaking The News
Breaking The News
Over the past week I had two customer visits from two different types of customers. It got me thinking about the differences between the two, both really nice guys who want work done on their cars.
The main difference is that for one, it wasn’t his first rodeo with a car review and scope of work. The other, on the other hand, it was his first walk-around his new beauty without its clothes on.
As fair as we try to be, when a car needs work, it needs work. For those who have been through this before I try to simply point out what we found, and what out remedy will be, regardless of how extreme.
They usually get it and we move on and call them if there’s anything really bad. The experienced car geek is usually happy you were smart and diligent enough to find the issues and flaws before they either became cosmetically worse, or simply dangerous.
For the poor soul who bought a car without exercising due diligence, it becomes a bit more delicate. If it’s their first time, most had no idea that older cars had so many crappy parts. Welcome to the fifty-year-old mechanicals club, my friend.
Again, when a car needs work, it needs work. It’s how the news is delivered that has a big impact. In person is best, with the broken bone exposed, so to speak. We typically ask the customer out to the shop to review the work with us before dismantling anything. A solemn bedside manner and a bit of suicide prevention can help prevent a disaster.
Typically, both types of customers come out of the experience happy, but it sure helps to get their buy in up front. Everyone wants a nice car, right?
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The Ferrari 330GT 2+2 goes home today! One of our finest total builds.
The 2018 Sport and Specialty Drive Out – Cool cars, nice people, fun projects!
Thanks to all who attended our first ever "Drive Out." The impromptu car show was a great success and the weather couldn’t have been better. This will be an annual event I think. I need to thank the Sport and Specialty crew, Ryan, Bill, Max Lindsay, Glade,...
Carry Your Weight: How We Keep a Healey Balanced During Restoration
There are sand bags hiding in these two Healeys. We're not waiting for a flood or storing for the sandblaster, we’re making sure that everything is in balance. To get the lines and gaps right you really need to weight a car’s chassis when you do a total...
It’s Insurance Review Season: Do you even know what the limits are on your policy?
Write this down on your car’s to-do list: Check your classic car insurance coverage. Today! Do you even know what the limits are on your policy? Do you know what the current value of your vehicle is? If your car gets hit, will you be able to fix it or will...
A Fast Five – Learning to How Balance My Passion With My Livelihood
Hurray! In a few days I will celebrate five years as a small business owner. I often believe I have made it over the hump, but I know enough to never become complacent when moving forward. I hear a lot about “Living the Dream,” but there are some days I...
“Cars Yeah” Podcast Featuring Sport and Specialty
I was honored to be interviewed by Cars Yeah's Mark Greene, "an incurable automotive enthusiast interviewing successful automotive entrepreneurs who live a lifestyle around their passion for automobiles" for his latest podcast. You can find the full...
The 2017 Austin-Healey Conclave
A quick wrap up from my trip to the 2017 Austin-Healey Conclave - in short: another great event, organized this time by the Texas Austin Healey Clubs. A quick wrap up from my trip to the 2017 Austin-Healey Conclave - in short: another great...
Arizona Auction Week 2017 Wrap-Up
After spending some time studying my new Hammer Price app (a must-have) and going through some of my auction notes for the week, I have come to some of the same conclusions I did last year—some marques did well, and others lost a little ground in value. it...
My Annual Arizona Car Week – Trending 2017
Ever since I sold Mark Baker’s 100R Healey at Bonham’s Auction in Scottsdale four years ago I eagerly await coming back to Arizona for my now annual trip to the land of auctions and car shows. Once here, a common question I get from old and new friends...
New Year’s Resolution: Don’t Touch It!!!
The majority of our restoration work at Sport and Specialty doesn’t drive or roll into the shop. Most of our work is pushed in on a transport dolly and unloaded unceremoniously in a variety of mismatched wood and cardboard boxes. Sometimes we even see...
The New Sport & Specialty Website is Here!
Last weekend we pulled the trigger and launched the latest iteration of the Sport and Specialty website. All of the digital switches fell into place and with a sigh of relief a year’s worth of effort came to fruition. We had put together a simpler site...
Love to see these kind of smiles!!!
We delivered this beautiful BJ8 Healey to David and Ellen with a mini mechanical restoration. Full engine and all accessories rebuild with a new wiring harness. Good for many more thousands of miles of fun! Read More of My Blog...