No Good deed goes unpunished.

but also:
Feel the fear and do right anyways.

x2. Jeff, the quality of work you do is as good or better than any shop I've seen and the rate should match accordingly.

I had a bit of a wakeup call when I needed the alignment on the Fury before Sick Summer. It turned into alignment + new lower balljoints, new LCA bushings + finding, restoring and installing a new driver's side LCA to replace the cracked one, and paying for overnight shipping from Canada. That work alone was almost $2000, between parts and their shop rate of $75/hr.

$150 an hour or they can take that garbage elsewhere.. like stated ealier if the owner has any little issue it will be back and you may need to eat that time.. you need to be paid for the headache of doing the work and the potential headache after the work.

Sounds good to me.

Friends we swap labor. Family is for the most part free, just pay for parts.


Anyone else , $$$$$ Depends on the job itself if I really want to do it, or not.

I typically don't do work unless I know the person and charge half the current rate.
Weirdo cars I charge full labor rate.I have one guy who has a Renault Turbo2 and has to trailer it up to NY to be worked on unless I will.

I would not have touched it until the owner and myself had an understanding of the amount of money involved. Hourly rate would have been discussed before it came into my shop. Then payments would have been on a regular schedule (weekly or monthly) as the process moved forward, (work time documented as to start and stop times, need it in writing should it ever have to go to court) and parts cost (including search time, profit margin, taxes, and shipping to my door) would have been covered before the parts were ordered. The 2 or 3 big projects I did were all done this way, and the customer was required to stop in every 2 weeks so everyone knew what was being accomplished, and any changes that might need to be done could be discussed. There were also time limitations and storage procedures outlined, should the work have to be postponed by either party for any reason. This system worked well.

There was a guy in our town that had a reputation of screwing nearly everyone he did business with. I knew him personally. When we started doing business we set up this process. When he wanted to start skipping steps I told him we were done doing business. I was one of very few businesses the guy didn't screw.

Seen way too many guys get burned any other way.

Asking these questions at this point, are pretty late in the game. I hope it works out for you.

I have stopped bringing in cars for side work. I'll do parts jobs. The problem with cars is, even one that looks nice, ALWAYS turns into project creep and has issues with things that were not done well. I don't have time to waste on other people's junk.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Labor rates were loosely discussed when the project was started. The Charger is owned by my Cousin. He has been great to deal with. I told him what to buy, it's ordered, and on my door step in a few days, no questions asked. He's never once pressured me to get the car done. I gave him the bill yesterday, and he was more than happy with the price.

I test drove the car last night, and it still needs a few tweaks. Mainly getting the Edelbrock carb sorted out.

Looks nice Jeff! Want me to send ya a pic of what I am buying?

I saw your post. Send me the picture. Don't send me the car to work on. LOL!

Ok! You're not an a body guy or a small block guy or a fluid couple guy!! Lol!! At least I can drive this one and I will always have fond memories of my 64...