A smokin good post by GeorgeH.
While I am very far away from a TV car guy, my story and advice could hold some value to you. Again, I have to say, what a smokin good post by GeorgeH. Read that again!
While I have no fame, fortune or big stable of rare cars, what I was doing and did back in the day was constantly tinker. Still do it today @ 51.
I tinkered all the time. Changing cams out just to see how it reacts. It had a lot of intake manifolds to try out with that cam. And many carbs to... again, try out with tha cam. I collected a wide verity of parts. The club and locals started to take notice.
Around my house, I ended up becoming the fix it guy. Neighborhood cars got done during the day, hot rods at night.
More time rolls by and I'm working on local hot rodders cars. Then some race cars. They would send there (know nothing but wanna go fast or at least sound bad ***) friends over and next thing I know... I'm in biz. Charge them fairly, never bullshit them, take care of them well. They'll come back to have you do more work. They'll tell there friends. You'll get busy!
If you want to stay on the hot rod & custom work side of things, you make that effort. And you also do this with your own car at every show and the race tracks.
I never ever advertised in a news paper, TV or other such means, but yet the came! Word of mouth is a strong thing so make sure you do it once and right!
Some of my regular customers I'd do little favors. Free oil change. Fix a small item, get a light working, tighten an exhaust clamp, free. Just tell'em you did it.
When I was wrenching, I kept it simple and actually turned down work when I knew it was a bit more than my driveway or myself could handle. I also would tell customers straight forward that I was unsure of a particular thing and told them, "If I don't fix it, then you don't pay."
Never a had a customer come back due to a screw up. I made good money. Made a lot of contacts. Got discounts at the auto parts stores, built a couple of cars to show case mod's and go fast. It was a real good time of life.
