The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Your experience with shops and their rates

Trailered my truck to a shop in January and they began work on it last week. They texted me an invoice today for the work done so far and I thought I’d run it by you guys.


Installed all new brake lines, wheel cylinders, master cylinder, and brake shoes. (Customer supplied)

Removed motor and power washed under the hood.

14 hours @ $125 = $1,750

Yet to be done: Install new 12 circuit wiring harness and reinstall replacement 235 motor.

They told me that it was difficult getting parts for cars ahead of me and that was the reason for the delay in getting to work on my truck.

Comments??

Did they pull the front clip to remove the engine? If so not a bad price, That hourly rate is below what they charge here in California. Most shops are pushing $200 per hour and some specialty shops are even more.

Here's something that may be useful. Part of a Tech Tip by Randy Baumann: A Beginner's Guide to Building a Street Rod or Restoration Project.

DO THE WORK YOURSELF, OR HAVE IT PROFESSIONALLY DONE?

The question of whether to do the work yourself or to have the work done by a professional shop is always a big one. For many hobbyists, the fun is in performing work themselves. For others, the time/skill factor determines this issue. Chances are, however, that even the most skilled hobbyist will "farm out" some aspects of a project that require specialized skills and/or equipment.

If you choose to have a professional shop do the work, do some research before committing to the work. Have a written understanding as to what is work to be done and the costs involved.

When working on a project of this type, there will always be some items that will be unforeseen by both parties. When this situation arises, both parties should agree on how it should be handled.

It's hard to believe that I used to charge $15.00 labor to do a tuneup- - - -that included changing the spark plugs, points and condenser, doing a compression test, adjusting the valves, and setting the ignition timing- - - -plus adjusting the carburetor idle mixture and speed! A little over an hour's work!
Jerry

Seems reasonable if they did the job correctly. The brake lines can be a challenge.

If they're doing a top quality job, the cost will be soon forgotten when you're behind the wheel.

$125/hr is low compared to shops here in Atlanta. $140 -$200+ is the norm.

Most of my stuff is one off anyway. I can't make a crankshaft or grind camshafts or bore engine blocks. I did buy a PM 12" X 36" lathe and a Grizzly mill a few years back. I have a MIG, TIG and plasma cutter. I have a RF tube bender with all the dies. I got tired of paying someone $200 for a spacer and waiting 2 weeks to get it. When I bit the bullet and spent $7K on my medium sized lathe it changed everything. My water pump pulley took me probably 10 hours to make with the spacer and adapter. It started it's life as a reverse rotation Ford pulley. I got the measurements off the Gates website, made a test piece and boom it was done. $20 to to have it hard anodized. I really don't see how anyone could make one any quicker. I really enjoy making stuff especially when it's just my time. I can make it much nicer. Nobody makes an oil filter delete for a 292 that I could find. It has 3 bolts instead of the 2 bolts on a SBC. A little time and a $20 drop of 6061 and it's done. Things like this start at $1K. JMHO. Sorry so many pictures. I get carried away.

Wow! The Ol' Bugatti wire through the nuts treatment!

... and B-52s

Drilling those bolts was the hardest part. I'm a big fan of stainless steel ARP bolts. They don't make a drilled 12 point bolt the size I needed. I put them in my rotary vice, spotted them with a tiny end mill and drilled in from both sides until they met. I bought twelve 1/16" cobalt drill bits and have 3 left. I trashed 1 bolt with an irretrievable broken drill bit. The secret is getting the chips out before they catch and break the bit. The deeper you go the harder it gets. That's why I drilled from both sides. The cool twisty safety wire pliers make it easy to make a uniform tie.

I'm fitting NASCAR connecting rod bolts to stovebolt connecting rods by installing 3/8-24 Heli-coils in the rods. The reason I'm using the 12 point bolts is to gain extra camshaft clearance on the stroker crankshafts I'm making. The Heli-coil gives approximately twice the thread engagement for the high strength bolts, over a conventional rod bolt and nut setup. I'll be cross-drilling those bolts for safety wire, using a 1/16" solid carbide drill bit, very high spindle speed, and .032"diameter aircraft safety wire.
Jerry

I’ll try to bring my thread back on topic…..

Fast55, they only removed the hood, radiator and support. Everything is more expensive in California….gasoline, food, and 1,200 sq ft houses for $1.2M. so I expect my hourly rate to be less expensive than yours out there.

Otto, I hope I forget what I’m shelling out for all this work. Otherwise I’ll be reminded of it every time I get behind the wheel! 🤨

Thanks!

I’m curious how many hours it should take to remove the old wiring harness and install the new Speedway 12-circuit harness?

I put in the 22-circuit harness and it took me about 8 hours. I am just a random dude, not a shop. On the other hand, I have rewired 6-8 vehicles now so I didn't come into it blind.

Fibonachu, I was hoping it wouldn’t take more than 8 hours, and would expect the professionals at the shop to be more efficient than you. I may call Speedway and ask customer service what they think is an average time to install their harness.

Thanks for your input

Keep in mind that they may rewire vehicles as part of their services, but that does not mean they are much faster at it. The reason is all vehicles are different and a harness has to be routed a certain way through and around obstacles. If all they rewired were 51 Chevy 1/2 ton trucks they would be fast by the 5th one and screaming fast by the 10th. The real world does not work like that. The time Speedway estimates may be for the 5th or 10th time it gets done. I do RV repair and when installing tow packages on the customers towed vehicles, BlueOx will tell me it should take 4 hours. Sure, for the 5th time in a row of that same vehicle maybe. I just did my original stock harness and it was about 6 1/2 to 7 hours. Removing the old, installing new, securing as needed and testing. I am not sure how that compares to the speedway 12 circuit. If you don't trust these people, and it sounds like you are on the fence, call around and get some other estimates. Be careful how you pose the questions and give any background info, many business owners know each other and talk frequently.

When I ran a general auto repair shop in California back in the 1970s, I would get to deal with "comparison shoppers" frequently. Some of them were notorious for telling me that "Joe XXXX says he will do the job for $XXXX.XX!" My reply was usually "OK- - - -it sounds like you need to do business with him! I have plenty of people standing in line, waiting to pay me to fix the jobs he's screwed up already!"
Jerry

Asking simple questions doesn’t equate to distrust. I’m just curious, that’s all. I’ve never swapped an engine or installed a simple harness so I’d like to know the level of difficulty. I didn’t think there was any harm in that. They did tell me that they had worked on several of the old AD trucks and said they were very familiar with them, so I felt comfortable giving them my business. Asking here how long average shade tree mechanics take to do certain jobs on the old trucks should give me a ballpark idea of what I should expect from a custom car shop with professional mechanics.

Chuck, I suspect you'll forget what it cost as you enjoy tooling through Texas Hill Country on a cool sunny April morning, arm draped over the open window sill while admiring the Blue Bonnets and returning all the waves and thumbs ups. I've been there and done that, it's Nice.

RonR