How much do you expect to pay, Bodywork & engine conversions?

[TWAG]

How much do you expect to pay, Bodywork & engine conversions?

I?m looking at taking a change in job and going to work for a guy who runs his own body shop. Currently he offers all types of bodywork including, Insurance work, full respray's, general accident and repair work, mot repairs, custom bodywork. He is very experienced and has been in business for over 10 years running his own body shop.

Not sure if any of you have seen this but he is the maker of the ?MINI DESK? , pictured below. Now im looking to start work with him, doing bodywork etc, but ill also be offering engine conversion. To date ive completed 4 2L Corsa's, 3 2L Nova + 1 Nova turbo, 2 1.6 conversions and im in the middle of an Astra v6 conversion at the moment.

What I want to know is what would you expect to pay for these jobs? To give you an idea of his prices, if you wanted a full respray in the original colour you would be looking around ?700. Obviously each job is different and it?s difficult to price a job without seeing it.

To give you an idea on engine converions, I currently charge ?600 labour for your average Corsa/Nova 2L 16V conversion.

I would be grateful if you could let me know what you think, and how much you pay for this kind of work at your local body shop/garage. We want to offer good quality work but at a lower price.

http://www.ministatements.co.uk/images/minidesk.jpg

[stuartp]

the respray is a good price but like you say it deppends on the job in hand, do you seam weld the shells ready for the engines??? this is were prices rise but plenty of people will pay for good quilty work!!

[TWAG]

Yeah i could seam weld the engine bay for that price, and for a small fee i could respray the whole engine bay.

[Welsh Dan]

Yeah i could seam weld the engine bay for that price, and for a small fee i could respray the whole engine bay.

If you were charging me a given amount for labour on that job, I'd assume you'd stitch weld the engine bay and respray it (at least where it's been welded, and i wouldnt really care if you just did the bay black with a rattle can as long as it was done) as they're part of what make it a good job. Obviously if you discover surplus welding that would need doing I'd expect a phone call telling me about the extra fee before the work was done.

My point: Price for 'all in' from the word go.

[TWAG]

Of course it would be resprayed where it had been welded, the litle extra would be if you wanted the entire engine bay stripped and painted.Heres a Pic of the last xe i done.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/twag/DSC07785.jpg

[Welsh Dan]

In that case I misunderstood, my apologies.

[Matt2107]

Would you just be charging ?600 for the labour + parts? (obviously you wouldnt supply the engine)

[craig green]

In my past experience, I informed the body shop of the funds available (?1000) & ststed it was a show car. The bodyshop owner actually came to my house to view & quote for the job.
I also told him how I rate other work & what detail I look for when evaluating paint work.

Suffice to say I ended up paying ?750 which included a new screen & I wasnt happy with the work. mid way I was advised to ditch the pattern wings & get genuine ones (?250 ea). There are pits in the paint from contamination & the finish on the bonnet is awfull. 4 yrs on, the roof has started to bubble in places. They also managed to put a worse finish on areas of the car that were mint (door shuts & sills).

All I am saying is, ask what job is requested/expected & finish the job like it was your own. You will come up against hurdles like poor fitting fibreglass bumpers etc that send labour charges through the roof.

I dont doubt your abilities (no idea tbh) but you seem knowledgable. I hope this new venture will be a good source of enthusiasm for you. I'm sure we'd all love to do that as a job.

Anyone paying for an engine conversion will be doing so because they dont stand a chance completing the work themselves. ?600 for a valver seems fair. Attention to detail & reputation should be your priorities.

[Matt2107]

Lol Craig's just written your mission statement there pal.

The only engine swap I've ever done was a 1.2 direct replacement 5 years ago. If I ever want to do a 2ltr and can't be ****d to try it myself I would probably happily pay ?600 for a conversion.

[dan16v]

mate!, i think it would be nice to have a body shop you could rely on time and time again, imo for a decent job first time around, i wouldnt mind paying more! even more so in our area as we both know!:)