Hot Rods What is an honest shop rate?

The problem with many small/one man builders is they don't have flexibility. They get several projects going and others get backed up. One of the problems is that a someone brings a low dollar build in and there isn't a lot of cash to be made. While working on this project, Joe Big Bucks shows up and wants a major revamp of a car he owns. He also wants it completed in time to show up at some event. Guess where the low budget shop puts its priority? Lot of projects have been pulled from one shop to another due to trying to go with a low buck one man shop trying to stay in business. Also, if his business folds and your car is in his shop, it may be difficult to get the car and all its parts back. Its somewhat of a ****shoot ...........

 

Everything costs more with time. Capitalism, baby. I remember when I had a sailboat in SoCal in the mid 80s, boatyard labor for routine maintenance items was $40+ an hour. I'd guess automotive shops were somewhere in that range back then. Coming from living on the east coast, I thought it was outrageous. Needless to say I quickly began doing my own maintenance. It's the same with cars today; with today's prices I do absolutely as much of the maintenance on my roadster as possible. This doesn't address the original posters question in any way; just triggered a memory that I thought I'd throw in. Carry on...

 

I just quit my job 4 weeks ago after being there 37 or 38 yrs. The shop is now closed as we were a 2 man shop and a manager/owner.

After I quit the other guy quite the next week so no one left but the owner and doors were closed after 50 yrs. We never had to advertise all were thru referrals and reputation. We haven't had a slow day in the last 7 yrs, booked out 2 weeks (we wouldn't book past that) and frame work sitting around for a good month of labor.

We did anything from little 4-wheelers to semi's and motor coaches, alignments to frame straightening. Custom work too, suspension and frame, dirt track, 1/4 mile, street, hot rod etc.. We still had all the tooling for straightening and bending model A axles for both camber and caster, old original tooling and all 3 of us knew how to use it and had more times than I can count.

Had numerous commercial accounts etc. Anyway our labor rate was 87.50 an hour on regular vehicles and 96.50 I believe on heavy equipment.

The number of people that have stopped me in stores, etc asking if it's true our shop had closed has been astronomical and saying they were upset because we always lived up to our reputation and they had no where else to go... a sad end to an era.....


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I don’t mind paying for skilled work. In my area the going rate is between $110 -$120 for general mechanic work. What gets me is the astronomical mark up on parts. Knowing I can get the part on line or at the local parts store for “X” and the shop marks that up 210% -250% is a complete rip off. I understand that shops need to make money but not like this.

 

There's one local mechanic that's my go-to alignment guy and the place I bring stuff that I can't fix myself, he's $115 or $125 an hour in small town Wisconsin. That's gotta be brutal on some apartment dweller who has no tools.

I know a couple of good body guys but they're booked so far out, it would be literal years in a best case scenario to have a car painted, so I'm really trying to get better doing everything myself.

That's how it feels, and for a weedeater, you're probably right. But I was in Home Depot the other day and I walked past a new snowblower, just a walk-behind nothing-special and it was $2300. My hometown is where Ariens products are made, and my shop is near a Simplicity dealer, and some of the big home mowers are $5K+ for new ones. The pro units, like a golf course would have, can be north of $20K. I remind myself of those things when I'm cutting gr*** with a push mower I made out of 3 that came off the curb.

 

Wow, with prices like this, its no wonder that the hotrod world is shrinking. How can anyone afford to have work done? I guess this will be good for the build it yourself crowd.

 

The number of millionaires keeps increasing. There are a lot of ways in this country to make a lot of money....not many of them involve the guy making the money, doing manual work.

 

With the quality of parts these days shops have to cover their *** so that when in a week a customer comes back and says the starter they just had installed is no longer working they are not replacing it for free. I had to return 2 different alternators last year that died almost immediately after installation on my DD. If I was a shop who is paying for my labour to replace those defective parts?

 

You're either forgetting or unaware of the time spent searching, ordering and the paperwork involved in that one part. If you are the hands-on owner of the shop, that time is taken away from production. If you have someone else doing the searching, ordering, receiving and billing for that part, that is money taken away from profit. How long does it take you to sit down at your computer, find the part with the best price and order it? If you're lucky, you may get "free shipping". I can guarantee that shipping on that part isn't free, the vendor has already marked it up to cover the shipping cost and that he has bought in such quan***y that you, as an individual can't come close to buying just one part from the manufacturer. If you run down to the local parts store to get that one part, how long does it take you to travel there, order the part, pay for it and return to wherever your project is? If you are in business to make money, that's costing you time and money.

 

A guy on his own can **** around hours on end with a wrinkled & rusty body or an individual body panel if he happens to have the required skills & equipment, or taking those same components to a skilled shop that would hopefully & respectfully first of all clue the customer in as to whether it might be too far gone & hours spent off the chart. Undoubtedly a skilled shop knowing the in & out arts of the trade can knock it out in fewer hours. Sorta depends on the wallet vs **** around time one has.

 

Local pro-build big Hot Rod shop here in Nor-Cal charged $150 hr last fall. Do not know if same now. In talking to shop foreman $200k builds not that uncommon primarily because of labor. People want lots of specialized work done, which takes time.

 

remember, if the individual or big shop puts out good work they will be busy. don't expect to just drop off your ride on just any day. also, will likely be in shop for a long time, sometimes years.

 

Shop rate=
1. an honest wage for your self
2. has to factor in all of the costs of having the doors of the shop open to take in work. = rent/mortgage, electricity, other utilities. Anything that cannot be itemized out on the bill easily.

 

My shop rate is similar to other trades in my local area. ( I don't work on other peoples vehicles anymore.) I figure that my expertise is as valuable as theirs whether they have higher overhead than I do or not. If I am not charging a similar rate at the HVAC, plumber, electrician, auto mechanic then it doesn't make sense for me to hire them as I can do it cheaper. If I am charging enough for my work, then it would cost me more to take the time off to do those jobs that they are likely quicker at and better equipped.

I have multiple tons of machinery and software to maintain and keep up with and my knowledge and ability is what my customers are paying for. I am a DIY guy, so it took me a long time to realize I was not doing myself any favors by not charging enough. It took a long time to realize that if others are asking me to do it then either they can't or don't want to. If I am not able to stay in business long term, it doesn't do my return customers any good either. My customers are mostly commercial and I understand that they need to have enough meat on the bone after paying me to sell their product too, so I can't get too out of hand or they will have to find someone else to make their stuff.

I think in this day and age if you only do what you say you are going to do and do it in a reasonable time you will have as much work as you want no matter the cost.

 

You should replace honest with "current" in your ***le.

In Connecticut, it's around $150 per hour

 

I'd like to know what the guys do for a living that can cover the weekly bills for $100.00's of dollars per hour week in and week out. Those careers are what kids should be guided to.

 

Me too.

My eldest daughter’s boyfriend just graduated from “trade school” and landed a CAN$140K/yr job as a heavy diesel mechanic at a gold mine a few yrs away. Not bad for a 22 yr old.

 

Hope there was no quarter of a million dollar college/trade school bill that needs to be paid off. Best of luck to him. Bob

 

Nice work if you can get it. I’m very happy for him and his new job. However, in the St. Louis metro area, most Journeymen diesel mechanics are making between $30-$40/hr. His wage is undoubtedly from working in a specialized area. It’s becoming darn near impossible to find any decent people who want to be mechanics/transportation technicians anymore. For two years, I was the service manager for our shop and a year and half ago we had two guys quit. That forced me back out into the shop because we don’t have anyone who can do what I do and we can’t find/hire anyone. That being said, I don’t blame young people for not wanting to be mechanics either.
Lastly, Alan hit it squarely on the head about parts mark up. The average customer has no idea what it takes to source parts and somebody has to pay for that effort. Normal mark up around here is in the area of 30%. Someone else mentioned who pays when the new part fails during the warranty period, the parts house will usually cover the part, but fat f$&king chance of them covering labor. We eat the labor which means we didn’t make much on the repair.

 

Haha! It cost him nothing.

 

A millionaire today is the hundred thousandaire of 1970 .

 

To me it depends what type of work you're doing. Around here small shop mechanical is $90-$120. Body work is $45-$80 Plus material cost per hour of $25-$55~ Hour. Fabrication? Electrical? Interior? Hard to say but they are harder skills to come by, compared to someone that can sand or turn a wrench (Depending what you're doing have multiple labor rates). I'd Value that at a higher rate. I like @Mr48chev description. What do you want to make per hour, what is it going to cost to cover that per hour (Taxes, Insurance, Etc.). If you're making 20 but it cost 30 to cover that with the extra cost. How much do you plan on working and what's the average expense per month? How are you billing materials, that might affect how you bill labor. What are local compe***ors at, and what do they offer compared to you? Alot goes into determining a price, and after you figure that add 15-40%. Don't settle on a price to get by. You have to make money, so does the business. The business needs its own amount to set back to account for parts, expenses, whatever may come up.

 

Nobody wants to be a mechanic...
Yeah, because it used to be that they got 50% of flat rate in the 70s.
Now it's maybe 20-30% of that flat rate. Also, the cars have gotten crazy complex and horrid to wrench on. I understand the owner's issues too.
No need to discuss tools and special equipment needed. Even the DIY crowd know about that even on old cars.
I got into the trade and they kept saying there was going to be a shortage of 'techs' for the entire time I was in. It never translated into more demand = more money.
I could probably pull up an inflation index for the past 50 years and wages for the field. No point, because it's the general trend; do more for less.
Anyone who has the brain to be successful repairing new cars is also smart enough to avoid the low pay, long hours and physical beat down of the "career".

 

Rod, ten thumbs up for you! I wholeheartedly agree.

 

I have a pad of these NOS vintage repair order slips.
I now use them as cool packing slips, of stuff that I send out to various people.
But consider, this is how back in the day, these were how labor and parts and other elements of repair , were listed.
Those days are long gone. Even the fine print is informative and interesting.

 

X2…and you better be good at putting money aside for those later years when your body starts sayin’ “I’m done”

 

.. and the inevitable customer who sues.

 

One big point has been missed here if comparing hourly rates. Different shops will fill the charged hours with different levels of quality and quan***y. An honest rate is hard to define unless the shop's abilities are known.
Do your homework and shop around.

 

When I retired I was being paid a little over $50 hr. It was 10 yrs ago. At my age I’ll service my 56 Ford but not my OT pickup or wife’s car. I can afford $100 pr hr repairs or service because I only do them once or twice a year.
I was pretty frugal over my 50 year working career even tho I raced 2 cars when I could on overtime $$$ not sacrificing any family money. I lived in the same home since 1971 and married since 1966. My wife only had jobs when she wanted to.(rarely).
I try to use locals, not chain stores, for everything I can especially auto parts and don’t mind paying a little extra so they can stay in business.
I can actually afford better now in retirement than when I worked and yes it’s tough looking at the numbers. In SoCal it’s tough to have a relatively hard to have a restaurant dinner with one drink each for less than $80 in the same places you remember not long age was $30. It’s the way it is…. I believe the worst will be not being a burden to your children late in life near the end.

 

I do rust repair, get old stuff running after sitting awhile, and general maintenance out of the driveway or client's establishment. Handshake deals on everything from parts procurement to unforseen rust (as always up here) at the beginning. No overhead makes me affordable at $50/hr.