Getting the front end rebuilt 64 B Body.
Upper and lower control arm bushings, strut rod bushings and alignment. Everything else does not need replaced.
What would be a fair amount to expect to pay a shop for the job.
Was quoted $1,100.00.
Seems high but not familiar with the process.

Thanks

I think I would look around a little more.
That sounds super high even with the shop supplying all the parts...

It is a decent amount of work but the parts are not all that expensive. That being said, that is expensive. It seems these days EVERYTHING is expensive and sticker shock is common. You can find someone with better labor rates.

well that depends I guess.
shows you are up north. how rusty is the underside of your car?
did the guy see it, or just quote off the phone?

I would not expect to pay more than half that for parts and labor, but if the guy quoted you over the phone and expected a rusty car, that might not be far off, for the work he might have to do to get it apart.

I have taken apart the front end on 3 cars. 2 southern, 1 norther.
the amount of extra work, blue wrench and penetrant oil needed for the norther car was a lot. I replaced parts rather than work on them in a lot of places.
Got new a-arms, new inner, outter and sleeves for the tie rods, etc..
the pitman arm took over 2 hours to get off with a torch.

So if your car isn't rusty, try again with them seeing it.
if the price is the same, move on to another shop.

For that money I would expect a LOT more.

While the a-arms are out install new ball joints
while the LCAs are out install new lower ball joints
also new tie rod ends, pitman arm and idler arm.

Even with that stuff I think the price is still steep.

Price is high. Might be easier and better, to just replace the UCA with an aftermarket UCA,and then rust, bushings, improved alignment, balljoints, etc are all dealt with at once with a bolt on, reversible solution, and still stay under the quoted price.

$200 max for the parts retail, maybe 3 or 4 hours labour plus alignment. $600 should be max full out retail.

Sheldon

that is high but yes as said everything is high these days. More critical than that is the quality of work you'd be getting from a typical flat rate get em in get em out shop but I understand front end work ain't the same as heart surgery. I'd see if I could find a local Mopar head that you feel comfortable trusting, there's gotta be someone up there close by

I had a 1964 Polara (hence the name Polarapete). I bought the socket to unscrew the upper ball joints (still have it) and did it all myself with a PST kit in 1998. I used the press and the glass bead cabinet in the shop across the street from work to R&R bushings and clean parts for paint.
My car had virtually no rust, so that was not an issue. I did the A-Body spindle disc brake swap at the same time. New gas charged shocks was an upgrade. When it was done, I took it to Sears for their alignment special and drove to Reno for "Hot August Nights". No problems, in fact the DB swap stopping power saved us from a nasty accident in Victorville.

Now you can get tubular UCAs and reinforced LCAs from Firm Feel and others that have new bushings and ball joints installed and with that it would make the rebuild worth the big bucks. But, I am cheap.

Going to shop around price sounded high to me.
Thanks

Wow, beautiful car PolaraPete!

Sounds high to me too. I would have guessed between $450 and $600. Is that Moog parts? Watch out for Moog dust boots now. They tend to crack early. Two different cars and dust boots cracked within a year. One car has Raybestos Pitman Arm (HD Police one), and I see now after less than a year it's dust boot cracking. Ugh! Get poly ones if you can find them. I found them for my cars but had to use Cordoba (same ones as on Diplomats but they didn't list them for Diplomat. Go figure).

I went to Moog's site, and clicked on "Contact Us" because I had also heard they were making some stuff overseas. They actually answered quickly, and said if I emailed the part number, they could tell me Country Of Manufacture. I did and they quickly answered. My stuff (tie rods and ball joints) were made in U.S..

Thanks for the compliment, but the body was that way when I bought it. I built the 440, had the PB 727 converted to the one year only '65 type for the open drive shaft. A friend and I narrowed a Dana 60 to fit with 22560R15 T/A Radials in front on 15x7 Americans and in the back we built the Dana to fit 27560R15 on 15x10 Americans. The interior was a complete '69 Mercury Marquis 60/40 Electric Bench with the Mercury skins on the Dodge structure back seat and side panels. We drove it to Reno twice and the only time it had a spare tire was when I sold it in 2010. I miss it sometimes, but it was too nice to cut up to race and the new owner likes it the way it is.

If a Michigan car came into my shop I'd quote $1000 for a front suspension rebuild also!

On a clean car (no rust) a good mechanic can rebuild the front end in a day if he has the right tools. But if the shop doesn't have the correct tools it can be a real [censored] to R&R those bushings. If the parts are rusted up then it can be an extremely frustating job even with the correct FSM tools.