When life gives you lemons...

[DRD57]

As you may know my life has been a pretty rocky road for the past couple of years and especially bad since the first of this year. Since I lost my job and haven't been able to find a comparable corporate gig in 4 months, and my wife of less than 3 years is filing for divorce because she "made a mistake", I find myself with no responsibilities and no ties other than my extended family and my friends. I get a "Do Over".

My brothers pitched an idea to me that seemed a little far fetched at first but the more I thought about it the better it sounded and the last few weeks I am very excited about it. My youngest brother owns a very successful 4 wheel drive and sand car fabrication shop (www.3dsandcars.com) in Visalia, California. The shop next door to his is coming up for lease and they suggested that I lease it and open a hot rod shop there. I would have free reign of his shop to use his equipment and could even "borrow" guys on his crew when needed.

I plan to have "Highway 99 Hot Rods" open for business in July. I will start out by building a few spec cars. I've already got 80% of the stuff I need to build a 32 highboy including a new chassis and Brookville body. I also have ideas for several products that I want to develop, produce, and market. Third, as word gets out locally, I'll do hot rod repairs and upgrades for the local market. And finally, I'll do complete ground up
builds for customers, these may be local or not.

I've got a lot of ideas for promoting the business. I'll leverage the traffic that I get from my existing web site. I plan to keep the photo coverage of events going which will mean trips to SoCal and NorCal a couple of times a month. I'm sure that's the main reason my current web site gets an average of over 750 unique visits per day. As soon as I get set up in the shop I plan to transition most of the existing web site's content to www.highway99hotrods.com .

Finally, things are moving in a positive direction for me.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

[enjenjo]

Good luck Don, and most of all, do what you are good at, have fun.

[58 Yeoman]

As the saying goes: "Do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life."  

Good luck with your venture.

[chimp koose]

Good luck Don. I think you will enjoy the challenge ,and compared to the other challenges you have had to face in the last while this one is a POSITIVE one!All the best to you!

[purplepickup]

Dang it Don.....with all those lemons you should have plenty of lemonade.  

You'll do good.....nothin' to it.  Just hire your ex-wife to be your book keeper, get a young girlfriend, put a guy named Duane in charge, and get a "Pay up Sucker" tatoo on your palm.  Good luck!

[rumrumm]

With your skills, Don, you ought to do great. I wish you well. Now if you could hire that guy from down under building that great little '32 roadster as your fabrication guy, you could be the kat's meow in the rodding world.

[zzford]

Don, that's great news. I wish you all the luck in the world. Live is a series of changes, some good, some not so good. I believe though, that in the long run, things will work out just fine.

[reborn55]

GOOD LUCK---keep us posted  

[oiler]

Good luck Don I wish it was me
Jeff

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Don,

You'll do great. Sorry about all the other "stuff", but your attitude will carry you through. All the best.

Probably see ya at Bonneville come August.

Charlie

[Crafty]

sounds like an adventure, good luck don!

[phat46]

Best of luck Don, you sure have the right attitude for it! I'm retiring in 23 days, need any help?      

[Okiedokie]

Sounds like fate to me Don. My experience in my 63 years has been that good things are waiting to happen once you let go of the bad. Future looks bright from here. Joe

[UGLY OLDS]

Run with it Don...Sounds good....Best of luck.....



Bob....

[38HAULR]

Good luck Don.     Showing  some spirit, "when yah take a kicking,lick yah wounds, and come back fighting".  Too many just give up and go under,throw the energy into rebuilding a life. With a positive plan you should do ok......Frank.