Took in a side job because I just love torturing myself. 79 New Yorker. Came in for brakes. Replaced every single brake line in the car, front to back. Rotted to death. Not one good line in the car. Replaced the master, wheel cylinders, shoes, calipers, pads, rotors, flex hoses cleaned and repacked the bearings. There was literally not one good part thst was usable. The lines were a major pain in the rear to install. The RF line goes across the firewall so alot of the firewall had to be taken apart to sneak the line in. Car came in running on a gas can. Customer took the tank out to have it cleaned out. Put a fuel pump in, Replaced all the rubberized, new filter, reinstalled the tank, repaired the leaking return line. Everything I touch falls apart. Had to remove the heater hoses from the firewall. Naturally they're petrified. Replaced some dried up vacuum hose, new battery terminals, made a new ground wire. Bunch of little odds and ends. Repaired the exhaust leak on the right side manifold. The tube for the AIR tube was not connected. Why? The bolt was snapped in the manifold. I was able to grab it with my old school vice grips and walk it out. Replaced the tube with a new bolt. Nice and quiet And just realized the damn rear view mirror just fell off the windshield! Runs and drives now but this thing runs like a bag of excrement. I think the last time it was tuned up, Duran Duran was on the radio. So what would you charge this guy? My friend who runs a shop gave me his estimate. What say you?
As professional tradesman , though not a mechanic,I would like to comment. I think I’ll wait a few minutes.
I have about 100 or so in parts. The customer bought the stainless line kit and the majority of the parts
I was going to say 750-850. Your in New York so add an extra "0" Really charge what you think is fair. I figured you spent about 2 days working on it so 40-45 an hr. That's my opinion anyway.
Im thinking like 1200 in labor. If he brought it to a shop, they would of charged him every bit of 1800
I would charge hourly and be fair about it. 120 bucks an hour is crazy at your 10 hour estimate. I used to charge 25 bucks an hour when I was doing side work back in college. That might be cheap by today's standards
No disrespect but $25 per hour does not even cover a “side job tradesmens” overhead. Tools, shop supplies, garage support and decades of experience.
This was nearly 20 years ago and I was hustling brake jobs and the like out of my parent's garage. The auto shop I worked at was charging 55 an hour. Hence why I said it was probably cheap today.. 120 an hour is more than what the dealerships charge around here.
As a side job he's there to save some money otherwise he'd go to a shop. I say $800. Nothing wrong with making that money in 10 hours, many don't make that in a week.
