Thanks for the post. I'm sure the owner is going to be very happy with his car and it looks like you've done a great job.
A year or so ago, Alan, myself and some others posted in a thread regarding resto costs and I took exception to your comments that the figures I (and others) quoted were excessive. Your $25k max labour tagline and "revolutionary pricing" were bandied about in a manner that I found a tad arrogant. Several people jumped on the band wagon and commented that other resto shops were quoting $40k or so for this type of work with the insinuation that such an amount was way too high.
Now, after looking back over the entire thread and realizing that the car was "80% dissassembled" when it arrived in your shop and that it would be leaving sans interior and that the engine and various other sub-assy's and components were done by others or by the owner, I would suggest that the total resto cost was well over double the max labor figure and probably much more than that. In fairness, I know you never said what the total costs would be. I also noticed that your re-examination of your services and the noted "expensive lessons" that were learned undoubtably mean that you didn't do so well on your labor cap.
Between unforeseen damage, delay on parts and other providers, accounts payment difficulties, illnesses, weather and owner's expectations, perhaps it is easier to see why most other shops are reticent to give a firm quote and also that the final bill is typically more than $25k for labor.
I'm not trying to rub salt in any wounds or to say I told you so as much as to try to point out the true costs of a restoration to anybody considering it. Nobody benefits from a half completed project and an empty bank account. As you have stated, it would appear that metal work and paint and body are your shop's forte (or it was before the older fella left?) but Alan was right on the money when he said a complete resto with all components included is a 1000 hour job and I was right on the money when I said a business would have difficulties living with $25/hr.
I wish you the best with whatever choices you make regarding your company and it's services and to both you and the car's owner; beautiful car, beautiful job.
respectfully,
Dave
Dave, Just a follow up for clarity's sake.
-"80% disassembled" might have been a "slight" over statement. -$25k was our MAX labor charge. The resto contract on this build was $18k. -The customer did a lot of his own excellent restoration on many parts, as he showed in this thread. -The customer was quoted $75k (if I understood correctly) to do the whole job by another Moparts member.
It is our belief that he saved a lot of money going with us regardless of the other restoration costs.
Still, we learned a lot and will never be responsible to fix other vendors mistakes, inaccuracies or inferior products in the future.
We were not "responsible" on this job but we tried our best and we couldn't fix all of the issues anyway. We did everything we could do to help the customer at no extra charge in order to live up to the reputation we wanted to build. If you ask me, that's pretty Revolutionary!
We still have no problem giving firm quotes for body and paint, engines and suspensions and will continue to do so. All of our jobs are fixed bid.
Everyone says the rest is the easy part so, we're going to leave "the rest" to everyone else (at least until we get better at it).
