14.1 Better Custom Used Cars

Description: Rebuild used cars using custom parts (machined, 3D printed) and selling then. Find used on Craigslist. Could be electric conversions, hybrid conversions or just mechanical improvements and/or tasteful body improvements. Buy up cool looking cars that have unreliable engines and standard transmissions. Install electric crate engines and sell them with long (10 year) warranties. Could couple with an existing garage/mechanic for this.

Mechanics keep record of what they did to upgrade certain models. Focus on need, multi passenger vehicles (families), pick up trucks, small commuters. Focus on cars that just lost warrantee, add value to "worthless" cars that are too old or common. If repainting/rims needed, be creative and add value/style. Could do many of the same model. Discontinued or rare brands can be bought for cheap (Daewoo, Merkur, Alfa Romeo). Can their parts be machined easily? Can custom body panels be made easily?

The big draw has to be looks initially. The car lot has to have attractive versions of cars that no other dealership has. Customization is for looks and reliability only, performance upgrades are a luxury. The reliability upgrades need to be easily explained to customers with solid warrantees. The cars have to sell themselves, no used car salesman stereotypes.

Electronic simplifications may be a great niche, upgrading and simplifying systems that never needed to be complex in the first place.

Pros adds style and reliability to cars that may have been un-sellable and avoided as problematic.

Cons this might be very complex and costly. People don’t trust custom cars reliability selling these maytake time to build trust. What I think is attractive is subjective, it may not be what other people want. Not everyone trusts/wants an electric car. Some cars may have mechanical issues that aren’t engine related (body, brakes, tranny) so electric doesn’t solve the issues. May need a machine shop and very skilled mechanics to do this properly.

14.2 Drone window washers

Description: Drone window washers, doesn’t have to be flying could be some kind of tethered glass gripping robot. This would be a drone attached to a water line on the roof. Could be a team of drones/robots with a pilot remotely operating them.

Pros less danger for workers, less cost when scaled and tech reliable. Can be used anywhere

Cons putting guys out of work, others into work. Tech may cost a lot to perfect. Is it cost competitive to a guy on a swing stage? Possibly crashes, breaking windows or falling onto someone in the street.

14.3 Rolling Scrapyard

Description: Moving scrapyard- move your scrap yard machinery across provinces/states buying and taking the junk vehicles. Set up shop on rental industrial land (or farmland) until the area is "finished" or not profitable anymore. Make a parts online warehouse (or sell through Ebay) that can ship using couriers from where you're working. Hire local young people to tear apart the cars. Sell the metals. One manager finds and buys, monitors employees Become the amazon of common car parts or use online sellers to sell parts. Catalogue parts in the winter months

Combine with rail to ship parts/scrap back to a coast

Focus on a niche first like motorcycles, muscle cars, diesels etc for the online presence and go from there.

You could stock metals near a coastal port and only sell when the price is worth it. This requires holding costs but could pay off.

Municipalities, islands, isolated communities could contract you to remove their vehicles as they don’t have a yard.

Pros serving areas that don’t have junkyards makes you a monopoly. Transporting metals could give you a better price in a different place (coast iron cost vs inland, US vs Canada). You can now sell parts that otherwise would’ve been left in place or hard to sell.

Cons margins may be too low, actively getting wrecks takes money. People who have junk vehicles may be hoarders and give high price to sell. What do you do in winter? Shipping from rural places could eat the profit up.

14.4 Share-a-Junker

Description: Car share using unwanted, used cars. You could buy up a fleet of underpriced cars for cheap, use only them. Examples are older hybrids, pt cruisers, minivans, old Mercedes cars, F150s. This way mechanics have a parts storage and get used to fixing them.

Proprietary tech has to be as good or better than existing car shares. Customer service has to be better than existing. Could you do this app-less? More like a car rental agency with old cars. Likely best in cities or tourist areas as a low cost or adventure option.

Pros the vehicles are unique, you could corner the low cost niche

Cons would you be competitive with existing car shares? They don’t pay for repairs (as much). Insurance costs higher for junk cars? Break-down service would be needed, could eat into profits.

14.5 Redneck WRC

Description: Off-road racing using cars that have low spending limits per car $5000. Wet the track with sprinklers so no dust. Cars could be supplied by the track, pay to race class. It focuses on the winter months, having heated beer tents for fans. Tracks need to have multiple turns possibly jumps to keep interesting.

Could cut a trail through the woods, use junk tires/hay bales, garbage for barriers. Cut and sell the wood, make treetop viewing areas for fans to watch the races from safe vantage. Need trails to get to different areas of the track. Have heaters and bars in them. Video record and live stream for cash online. Have to find a way to keep the road surface from obscuring view (WRC issue) by limiting dust (water truck) and ice (dirt).

Start with basic track, see if you can build interest in it locally before having cash prizes and admission. Annual event at first.

Pros exciting, people miss this kind of fun for fans, drivers and teams. Real sub-culture here. Less chance of spectator death with raised platforms.

Cons initial cost and insurance, small racetracks are closing in US and run by volunteers. Often started in 50s,60s, 70s starting now difficult. there may be no money in this or hard to get to money making stage. People are against this kind of fun in 2020+ expecting big cash outlay from teams in order to actually race

14.6 Modular Box Hotel

Description: Moveable hostel built using shipping containers for the oil patch or other industry town areas. Take containers and add insulation, beds, windows, doors, ventilation, toilets, sinks to each one. They have to remain structurally strong enough to be loaded onto trucks and moved without breaking everything inside. Beds and tables need to be bolted in place. Electrical, heating, water, septic can be closed off and bolted/unbolted together

There would be room units (sleeping), hallway units, reception unit, maintenance unit, mechanical/electrical units.

You can add or remove “rooms” as demand changes, reducing heating/electrical/water costs. Or take the whole hotel away if needed. This way you can adjust to demands such as oil patch workers, mining towns etc.

Could be used for man-camps for resource or big construction projects, rehab centers, jails, temporary housing for homeless folk.

Pros can meet demands accurately, cheap to build and set up, much faster than building property. Oil/gas/mining workers don’t care much about the place they live. Can rent property instead of buying. Multiple uses/markets. Man camps aren’t designed to be moved or reduced in size. These can be used again after the mine closes, oil is used up, ect.

Cons competition from man-camp builders, can they compete on price? Service level? Insurance and licensing, would this be an issue? How much to rent property for this? You don’t get the property investment (if it increases) that you would if you buy.

14.7 Electric Fitness

Description: A gym where you are actually doing something productive. Machines that create power, treadmill and stair climber that take the energy into electricity. There are companies that do this already.

busting up concrete with sledgehammers, resistance machines that capture your strain and turn it into electricity.

Busting concrete would be most likely useful thing that still keeps you in shape. Need gloves, safety galsses, waivers, etc. possibly tearing apart wood objects, pulling nails out of things, cutting firewood. Similar to rage rooms with an environmental bend to them.

If they made enough power could you reduce their gym rate? They could work off their gym fees by making electricity/smashing up construction waste.

Pros unique, better than average gym idea, environmental angle may bring people in. you could pay people/reduce membership fee

Cons ethical angle isn’t enough if it costs more, pricing has to work for this.

14.8 Save my Used Car

Description: a components/sensors that can be added to cars/trucks to catch major failures before they happen. Some examples are; Transmission temperature sensor/guage, Filter that detects metal shavings in engine/transmission, Compression sensor, Timing chain wear sensor, Head gasket sensor, Brake wear sensor.

Basically sensors that warn you of a major expensive failure before it happens. Market this to actual owners of specific used cars. Match the likely specific part failure based on data from mechanics and owners to actual owners of that car. Example: If Nissan Jukes’ timing chains break at about 150,000km, reach out to Juke owners explaining a timing chain sensor. If possible make them easy enough that a backyard mechanic can install them.

The sensors can talk to an app that gives you alerts of signs of possible failures.

Used car dealerships may use this as an upsell or to supplement a warranty. Private sellers of used cars can use this to negotiate a better price.

Pros: People buy/drive/keep used cars like to get the maximum value out of each vehicle. Mechanic shops are getting more expensive, this helps reduce costs of ownership.

Cons: the sensors have to be very accurate otherwise this will trigger expensive repairs without need. Used car drivers can be price sensitive and/or DIY mechanics, therefore not buy this product. People could hack this product, selling a bad car as one that shows no imminent repairs.

14.9 Car Farm Camping

Description: Transform the bodies of interestingly shaped vehicles (60s large sedans, old school busses, old cube vans) into sleep-able “tents” to be put on camping spots. The gutted vehicles would contain a bed, lockable door, some storage areas, a diesel heater and no sharp edges or rust. For smaller vehicles you’ll need two on one campsite, one for sleeping, one storage. A central vehicle will be a lockable storage container for food with no sleeping quarters.

This can be used anywhere there are campsites, set up on multi day hikes, rented out for private events or sold outright.

These will be social media worthy, possibly start a new trend in camping.

Pros: Unique look and idea, creates its own niche. This preserves the beauty of old vehicles that will otherwise likely be scrapped instead of restored in most cases. A heated “tent” enables winter camping.

Cons: This may never catch on/become a fad especially if the execution isn’t seamless from the beginning.