I'm still going back and forth with the guy and he still hasn't paid. We did about 92 hours worth of "fixit" work on this truck. I was beyond nice to the guy on his bill and he still thinks it is too much. He's an old guy in his mid-70s and can't do this kind of work anymore, so he has to pay. That's the bottom line and mine is suffering for it.
In our shop it didn't or doesn't matter who's car it is or what condition the car is in. All customer's cars are (and should be) treated with the same of level consideration and respect regardless of if its a Rabbit or a Rolls. It leaves looking and/or running better than it did when it came.....and if it takes a little electrical tape, a little hardware and 10 minutes to make an owner/previous shops sloppy work better/nicer/safer then it gets done too....without the bone up the ***. -Bigchief.
We run into this alot at my buddies engine shop. He goes well above and beyond on every job he does, doesn't charge enough for the work and still sometimes gets slack about the bill. Communication up front and along the way helps in avoiding sticker shock. If you told the old guy up front its gonna be pricey and called again once reality set in on how tough the oil pan job was really gonna be you most likely could have minimized the issues......then again, there are some customers you'll never make happy even if you paid them to work on thier cars. I feel for ya....
That's true with any sort of repair business. I once took a 289 cylinder head to a machine shop to see if it could be repaired. The shop owner said that as long as it wasn't cracked bady, it could be saved. So I left it, only to have a coronary when I picked up the head and a bill for $600! At the time I could have bought a set of rebuilt, complete heads with valves, guideplates and all for about $400, so it would have been nice to at least geta call before he let it get that far out of hand.
Big Chief, I think my post that you quoted explains itself. I don't know about anybody getiin' boned in the *** but maybe that's why I'm not doing this for a living anymore. Using your ****ogy, I think you would have to agree that you'd be a lot more careful around a nice Rolls Royce than you would on a 20 year old VW rabbit. That's not to say anybody's vehicle was not respected but lets face it, you're just a little extra careful around a high $$$ or nicely painted vehicle. You have to be. In the end, running a shop was just too many hours and not enough $$$. And unfortunately after working all day on "regular" cars I just didn't feel like fooling with my projects. I'm glad to be able to just tinker around with my own stuff now and enjoy just looking at what everybody else got goin.
Some old guy brought in his 20-something Ford pick-up truck to my dads shop and expected to pay 300$ for a show quality paint job, labor, and materials and probably body work. What the ****?!!!! It aint maaco! It's been said...if you can't afford to do it right etc. I painted the firewall and did the prep work myself on my 61 before the 327 got put in. Looks good too in person...
This old guy.....what was he driving? Hmmm, 300 dollar paint jobs. ...has me thinking a bit. Was he driving a NASH, perhaps?
I just realized your name is Earl Sheib. We used to have a "franchise" here called Earl Shieb. They didn't sand or anything, just scuffed it up a bit and painted it (emblems and all in most cases), masked off the gl*** and the chrome and sprayed away. I'm thinking they charged 169.95 or something like that. Maaco supposedly has a $500 "amab***ador" paint job. I'm looking at a $3000 car and I'd agree that 20 feet away would be fine but I'm also thinking about changing the color. I've seen enough of Hot Rod TV to know that just the mudding and sanding would take someone who KNOWS what they are doing (I don't btw) a TON of hours and they have a rotisserie and two guys doing it. I'm thinking to do it right, it might take me the rest of my life (LOL). I'd rather pay more and get a good job. Rob
they're still all over the place, along with one day , maaco and others. they earn their pay at those places when you consider how much your're paying, but those jobs aint my cup of tea skull
Love the idea behind this Post!!! The shop I worked at right out of high school (15 year ago) will try to avoid rust jobs and have been lucky to do a lot of insurance work instead. I once did a conversion van the boss gave the owner a 10 warranty on the work we did, three colour paint job, man was he on us, I also rust proofed it after the painter was done... C
6 full time guys working 8 hour days for 5 days at $80/hour shop rate + materials = 22,000. Or 4 guys busting their ***es for 12 hours a day for 5 days. Either way is way believeable and justified if the job was done. Ever see how many guys are doing body work on overhaulin' probably 30 to get it done in 2 days. Which if you do the math is just about $22,000. Ya, I could see that too. But this painter works alone. He used to have a partner that did most of the bodywork/prep but they split up about a year before. He was out of state friday thru sunday. So, taped, sanded, painted, delivered in 3 days by 1 man. $22k. As for the customer being an idiot, I think unknowing and gullible is probably the best way to describe him. Anyway, the painter's gone now. Not enough idiots out there I guess.
here's Earl himself,sure they would paint your car and throw in painting the taillights,window edges,all the trim,emblems, and whatever else, maby even a little paint on the tires. I know someone who had their car painted there, they painted right over dead bugs on the body. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uCDV8OWRQA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjdHaMeiiQ&NR=1
im doing a 54 ford convertible for a lady in town , very nice car, was originally red wants it repainted red, one of the guys that helps out in the shop is going to do it and the material alone is around 2 grand. I picked up a PINT of viper red base a few weeks ago and it was $100 , its nutz.
I had Fact 'O' Bake paint my 1970 Buick Riviera back in 1981, I did the bodywork and the paint job wasn't half bad for $130, however they totally missed the rear valence below the bumper, no biggie, bought it back and they did it. Now do I think you get what you paid for? Absolutely, I got $130 paint job for $130.
I had done the same thing Nad,,cept it was in '87. I had a '71 Chevelle,,did all the prep work and they shot it too. They threw in several runs for free. It was metallic so it showed for years. What a bargain.
The Jalopy Journal
