Classic/Antique Car Repair: what do I do when retired, repair instructor, brands of cars

Question
Hello Howard, I am a collision repair instructor in western Mass (18 years) and am thinking ahead to retirement in a couple of years. I will probably need to work in some fashion. I have a good workshop for body repair at my home, but no booth. Is there any work in the restoration field for a person who is looking to do just fabrication/reconstruction of the body (and suspension perhaps)and send it away for the finish. I have been self employed and see no sense in working for low pay, but would not need commercial shop rates.Thanks for considering this.

Answer
Hi Louis,
There are some parts that are getting hard to find on cars to be restored. The trick would be to find out which parts on which cars are in need. The only way I know to do that would be contact as many restoration shops as possible and you will probably need to not specialize in one or two brands of cars. Then you will need a unit to copy which also may come form those restoration shops. It may take some fancy talking to get a restoration shop to send you their only rare piece to copy. I have seen companies start producing body parts for several British cars that have been out of production for some time but very few produce a good replica of the original piece. The complaints I hear are usually "Poor Fit" and "Thin Metal" for body parts.
I think there may be a nitch in restoration parts if you can make a quality part that fits.
You need to start signing on to as many car news letters as possible and maybe even contact the existing parts suppliers to see what parts they get requests for that they can't source that part or source a good part and would be happy to find a quality supplier.
Howard