Old car restorations are becoming popular in Cagayan De Oro.Car import taxes are based on age and engine size. You could go to America, buy an old 1940's or 1950's car with no engine for very low cost and ship it to The Philippines for very low taxes, set up a low-cost and high-skill restoration facility here to do a ground up restoration, have the parts fabricated by hand, or shipped from America (including a new engine), and then ship a show-ready sedan or roadster or hot rod off to clients in China, Singapore, Indonesia, or even back in America or Europe for a very healthy profit... say, 1 million pisos per car?
Just a thought. Not my thing personally, but I'll put it out there as a freebee for anyone who wants to do it.
On second thought, a 1972 Corvette Convertible (I like black, with pipes, thank you) sold to me below cost will be a fair trade off if you take my idea and make a fortune with it.
7 comments:
Stay out of the sunlight.
Jill,
I just saw this article and think its great however I do serriously wonder how they restore a 1965 mustang (without a engine) at less than 200,000php. My first car was a 1965 mustung and I can tell you the parts would cost more than 200,000 assuming its a true restoration. I mean where would you get a 289v8 there, pony interior etc? It would have to be imported I think at very high cost or non original parts used. Do you have any pictures of these 200,000php restorations? I meen if your going to buy them in America , truck them to a port, ship inter island to cdo, ship it back to america to auction etc it would have to sell at high price here and be like barret jackson auction quality to earn proffit. Btw, Have you seen price of a truly classic roller in America these days?
Car stuff is one of my true interest, I like all kinds of customs and in past have had a classic (the mustang), lowriders as showed them from early to late 1990's, and now am into more of the HIN style JDM cars. Since you like cars also you should go to the drag races in CDO. Ive been told theres a group of racers that meet up there and is organized by a fellow named Capt. Chavez. Didnt hear of any American muscle cars racing but heard they have some quick hondas , some evolutions and etc.
Hello, One last idea. Besides for restoring and importing cars one could also set up a custom shop there that could do true custom work like shaving door handles, lambo doors, suspension kits,body drops, airbags, custom exhaust, engine mods , decent custom paint, stereo stuff including fiberglass boxes etc. Since most cars would be hondas most likely shop could deal in brands like tein, volk ruims, fujita cai, etc.
Anon,
I think that when it comes to engines, you just have to grin and bear it with the price... just like the price of the car. I have seen some classic cars in Thailand (an old Camaro springs to mind), but they put little Japanese engines in them... sad.
You could re-upholster and recarpet an interior, and redo a convertible top from local materials. Body panels and frames and chrome could be done locally. Glass? Who knows. Exhaust, check. Engine parts? You could probably get about 75% of things shipped from Australia if you're dealing with a 302 or 350 or some such block. Obviously older engines will have fewer sources for parts. Still though, I think the end cost would be less than what any shop could do it for in the United States. Shipping on one 10-pound part from America to The Philippines might be $20, but one hour of labor installing that part in The Philippines would save $40.
You couldn't make a Bloomfield Gold Corvette in The Philippines if you wanted to... but you could get a nice classic car that looks every bit perfect to the casual observer.
You wouldn't want to get into the modding business in CDO: There aren't any people here in CDO who can afford to do $20,000 worth of mods (or even $5,000 worth of mods... or barely even $1,000 worth of mods). On top of that, all of Asia is filled with mod shops that do all of those things for low prices.
Jil,
Ive live in Mindanao and built two custom cars there. One was a custom van and the other was a resto custom fj40 landcruiser with custom coil over suspension, aussie safari snorkle, steel wheels, super swamper tires etc, it was vuilt for off rode racing.
Regarding the resto to resell in America, if not correect it would have very little value here as car buffs want matching numbers, correct interior etc.
Regarding custom shop, Theres not many people who can afford such things but there are some, I meen the rick folks there are really rich, like dollar rich. Theres a guy in Butuan named John Lim that owns a custom shop, most parts he mustr special order but he has some stereo equipment and minor things like HID kits in stock. Guy makes a good living selling 20,000php hid kits, 5,000php fake hid kits (just xennon bulbs) and stereo equipment bhy Alpine, JLAudio, Rockford Fosgate and etc. Some of the head units are over 100,000php but some are like 250,000-30,000php for head unit that cost cost only 100-150 bucks here in the states. Curiously though he has no dynomat. I asked in past about having a car done in dynomat , fatmat or the like and was told none exist in PI and they couldnt even get it shipped from Luzon to Mindanao. Anyway, Ive never seen a complete custom shop in Mindanao nor even a shop I thought did decent custom work (must remember I have background in showing cars so I know show quality). However, I do know shops in Manila that do it and the guys in Mindanao I knew with serrious customs had shipped their cars to Manila to get the work done.
Regarding noone being able to afford 20,000 bucks, there are plenty, guess it just depends on who you run with as I know personally people in CDO who earn that per day, the Elipe family is one example and their are others as well. Rather or not they will spend it on car modding is a toss up though, guess depoends on
Below Ill put link to a forum of Filipino racers, most on the forum have 2.5 million peso evos with heavy mods since its a evo forum but others also have spare cars as well like ferraris, porsche, heavily modded wrx's etc etc. Just scan through the pics.
http://tinyurl.com/lj62ml
BTW, Quite a few filipinos can afford to throw 20,000usd into a car. I mean I personally know some people in CDO earning 1 million php per day (yes per day) and have a buddy not far from there that has a Highly customized BMW, A Adventure with about 15,000 usd in sound system alone (it sits on 22" rims also etc etc) and same guy has a Ducati as well. Even right in CDO theres quite a few such cars as well, guess it just depends upon the circles you run in, but it highly sully to say noone in CDO can afford 20,000usd or even 5,000USD as it just simply untrue.
Jil,
Sorry to keep this up but cars are my true hobby. BTW, Your right about labor and it would save a bit more than 40 bucks as shop cost in America is now 100 dollars a hour or more at decent shops, there are some cheap shade tree places but if having frame up resto done youd not want to go to such shop.
Regarding engine etc, only way I can see getting a true resto done in PI would work would be to import the parts from America together with the car so that you have accurate parts. If you start throwing toyota engines in them youll in no way earn any money as noone in America with decent money would touch it, the Japanese as perfectionest would laugh at it and well youd quickly develop the reputation for creating jink, just like the Veitnamese Vespa folks who sell "restored" Vespas.
Hey what car do you have there in CDO? I read about the chinese motorcycle, you should have bought a used Virago or etc instead, but havent read about your car. There are some cheap local cars there that look good fixed up some examples are the early 70's toyota corronas (they have kind of a lowrider type look), Late 70's Toyota Macho (Celica in states), Box type lancers from the 80's , VW Bugs etc. etc etc. Many cars you can for around 700bucks put another 500-600 into paint, tint, interior, powder coating rims (new rims are expensive), etc and have pretty nice looking ride for cheaper than a decent mororcycle, plus have ac and some level of comfort as well for less than price of a motorcycle or one of those junky multicabs.
Nope... don't own a car here. Can't afford one, but more importantly, don't want to sit in the traffic here because I'm in a car when I can zip through on a motorcycle.
As for the engines... sorry I wasn't clear: They stick Japanese engines in classic cars in some places, but of course I think that is a bad idea.
If you'll look in the article, note the countries I mentioned principally: China, Indonesia... places where mismatched numbers probably wouldn't be a deal-breaker. You might be able to sell cars like I'm imagining in America, but not for the big bucks. A perfect, high-optioned 57 Chevy might go for $75,000 in America, while one restored here might go for $40,000... but the shell could be purchased for $8,000 and the engine rebuilt for $8,000, and the body and interior restored to a functional condition for $8,000. Add in shipping and handling for another $8,000. Of course, a high-volume, high-profile car like that would be tougher to make a profit on... but you get the idea.
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