How Many Hours Labor Is This Job?
- Thread starter acoddo
- Start date
smh,
, wrench more beer then
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I do everything myself, only because I don't trust anyone to touch my cars.
Everything I learned was from my dad and uncle...then when the internet came along it was like having someone to instantly ask questions of. Not everyone chooses to, or is able to work on their own car and I have no problem with that. I do encourage people who want to learn about their cars to hang around and be the wrench passer when someone is working on their ride. Sometimes mechanics have hot sisters that hang out in the garage.....
Everything I learned was from my dad and uncle...then when the internet came along it was like having someone to instantly ask questions of. Not everyone chooses to, or is able to work on their own car and I have no problem with that. I do encourage people who want to learn about their cars to hang around and be the wrench passer when someone is working on their ride. Sometimes mechanics have hot sisters that hang out in the garage.....
- Mar 7, 2002
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Good, it's over-rated. Long hours, lots of sweating, getting paid crap at most shops/dealerships, owing the equivalent to a decent car to some guy on a box truck... God, why do I love working on cars for a living?
Wait... why did I take that 4.6 in that Sequoia apart a few nights back? What the hell is this lift doing in my office? What are all these shiny things in these metal boxes on wheels? Wait... who am I?
Amen to that. I have a guy I trust for welding, a guy I trust to handle the insides of automatic transmissions, and a guy I trust with paint... I trust nobody with the rest but me. If I had the room for the equipment and time to learn the rest, I'd do them myself too. You wouldn't believe how many transmission shops I had to go through to find a good one, might have been cheaper to go to school and learn to rebuild the damned things myself and then buy all the tools I don't have.
First off, close is a relative term... agree?OP why is the buddy price close to fair shop rate?
Second... guys that own (small business) engine/machine shops have a lot of "friends". They already work long hours, and most times when you see a closed sign in the window of the shop it's just to keep the "friends" out so they can work without interruption. At some point these engine builders realize that when they are giving out these great "friend" rates, they are actually not making that money, actually they are loosing money that they would otherwise be making. So, if your regular shop rate is $100/h and you are going to charge your buddy $60/h... you are not actually making $60/h, in reality you are loosing $40/h. See, your utilities have not changed, nor has your insurances business loan payments, mortgage etc etc... so, all you are doing by giving a "friend" rate is taking money away from yourself. You know what else happens, they end up not wanting to work on that project because it's literally costing them money, and now they are by human nature apt to rush through it...
Smart (small) business owners don't have "friend" rates. They have customers, and some of those customers are friends, who appreciate the quality of work and don't ask for "friend" rates.
So what your saying is your acquaintance is giving you an acquaintance rate at the shop you happened to choose. Noted.
still a decent rate for work.
A friend rate is like me building a 1.6l turbo engine for a damn Honda.... for free (BTW I hate to admit it but those little engines are well
ing engineered.) Well not for free per say there was alot of coaxing with beer and bar-b-q 
still a decent rate for work.A friend rate is like me building a 1.6l turbo engine for a damn Honda.... for free (BTW I hate to admit it but those little engines are well
ing engineered.) Well not for free per say there was alot of coaxing with beer and bar-b-q Close is close enough. I was just asking for clarification. Like mentioned above I have built stuff for free for friends just because we all are broke and can't pay to play.
I was more interested if it was a mechanic friend with shop giving the "family/ friend" rate of I still have to charge sometihng to keep the lights on or backyard warrior making a decent profit.
No harm no foul, just curious.
Here's what I have to add.
First off, I think the price is decent if the guy knows what he's doing.
Second, I find it refreshing when people know their limits.
You should never take a on a project that you don't have the skills, desire, location, motivation, time etc..
Rarely does anything come out good when you don't want to do it.
Some people's time is also worth more than the money it costs to pay to have it done.
Not everyone wants to work on their car, if that was the case performance shops wouldn't exist.
Speaking of performance shops, with a buddy owning one for 25+ years, I've seen so much homeowner F'ed up projects that you start to wonder if anyone should work on their own car.
I think a misconception is that since the foxbody is mainly an enthusiasts car that everyone turns their own wrenches, it's just not reality.
There is no shortage of people out there that do their own work (in any trade, not just automotive) that would be doing the world a favor if they just didn't touch anything.
First off, I think the price is decent if the guy knows what he's doing.
Second, I find it refreshing when people know their limits.
You should never take a on a project that you don't have the skills, desire, location, motivation, time etc..
Rarely does anything come out good when you don't want to do it.
Some people's time is also worth more than the money it costs to pay to have it done.
Not everyone wants to work on their car, if that was the case performance shops wouldn't exist.
Speaking of performance shops, with a buddy owning one for 25+ years, I've seen so much homeowner F'ed up projects that you start to wonder if anyone should work on their own car.
I think a misconception is that since the foxbody is mainly an enthusiasts car that everyone turns their own wrenches, it's just not reality.
There is no shortage of people out there that do their own work (in any trade, not just automotive) that would be doing the world a favor if they just didn't touch anything.
- Mar 2, 2015
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I had a rule at my shop....and had it on the wall. " If you are my friend you will pay me more because you know my quality and I'm your friend ".
People always wanted a deal...and I told them my regular price was a deal. The more money people spent the more of a deal they got. I'd always do little free ( bulbs, wiper blades, valve stem caps ) things for my regular customers...but never budged on my price for the actual job.
I also charged extra if you wanted to watch and even more if you wanted to help. Lol
That was in the shop...buy if I was at your house I'd help you until I felt like I was doing all the work....then I'd go on a beer run....and never come back.
People always wanted a deal...and I told them my regular price was a deal. The more money people spent the more of a deal they got. I'd always do little free ( bulbs, wiper blades, valve stem caps ) things for my regular customers...but never budged on my price for the actual job.
I also charged extra if you wanted to watch and even more if you wanted to help. Lol
That was in the shop...buy if I was at your house I'd help you until I felt like I was doing all the work....then I'd go on a beer run....and never come back.
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