i was refering to databases outside the business function stuff.
you woudl need to have around a tone of assembly, parts, cross reference, specifications, color chips, blah blah blah....you get teh idea.
at minimum you woudl need access to a stagering amount of info, if not have a good portion of it on hand at all times. some of these things are very easy to get, the old mopar guys have part numbers and records for everything, the model a and t ford crowd has been researched to death, and teh pontiac historical society has a ton of useful info available. the trick is when you get into the less common vehicles(copo/special production) and have to find info on how to repair or reproduce a part that may have been a one off or only ever appeared as a prototype.
having someone on the staff that is very good at and like to do research woudl be a huge asset. the records of the research done on every individual car(if a resto to verify num's matching and stuff) as well as general info would need to be carefully documenteed and organized.
if you get a chance to visit any good resto shop you will see books all over the place becuase accurate information is the key to perfect restos.
later
tim
ps quickbooks is prolly the easiest acounting/time/product management program in history. highly recomend it if you woudl rather spend your time playing with the cars instead of the books
