Questions RE future of hobby

[LEEVON]

A friend owns a true restoration shop. The majority of his work is auction cars and the Corvette crowd, or cars in excess of $50-75,000 value and up to $150,000+. Most of his cars come in as a shell on a rotisserie or just sheet metal on a frame. They go back out with killer paint, panels aligned, etc. but final assembly is rarely done in house. They do a very small amount of insurance work to fill in some schedule gaps. His waiting list is 3-5 YEARS.

He picks his clients, takes money up front, turns work FAST and doesn't cut corners. His shop rate is somewhere around $100/hr and they regularly do single jobs in excess of $40k. With all of that said, he makes a living. Not a killing, but an honest living. There is no money in dis-assembly, re-assembly, parts chasing, etc. If he were to do only work that guys like us could afford, he wouldn't make it. I can do my own prep, spiff him a few hundred for materials and use of the booth and lay some paint myself, but even then I risk getting in the way of a working business.

An idea that my Dad and I have kicked around for years, which I think came from his growing up on military bases, is hobby shop rental. I know there is a new one somewhere on the Kansas side of KC where you can get use of a sand blasting room and equipment, dis-assembly areas, paint areas, and general mechanic areas for different rates and I think it's membership based. Killer idea, but my guess is the business model doesn't bring home much bacon, however I'd like to see it work!