Labor rate for working on Mopars?

I'm curious for those that work on other peoples Mopars, roughly what do you charge them for labor rates? Most of the stuff I work on is my own, my immediate family, or close personal friends. lately I've been working on a 69 Charger. Was a complete running car when it arrived. Original 383 2 Bbl car. Here is a list of the things I've done to it:

R&R 906 heads with 440 Stealth heads.
R&R the original single exhaust, with TTi headers, and exhaust
Rebuilt the front suspension
Installed disk brakes
New master cylinder
Removed oil pan, and transmission pan, cleaned and reinstalled for leaks
Installed electronic ignition
Stripped, cleaned, painted original valve covers
Installed Performer RPM intake
Installed Edelbrock carburetor
Install new starter
Remove interior, install new carpet, reinstall interior
Install new washer bottle

I have a bunch of time into cleaning all the parts, and painting stuff. EVERYTHING was super greasy. Pretty sure the original short block has never been out of the car.

I just want to see if my bill to the customer is in line with others.

Thanks.

Jeff

How many hours do you have in it and what are you charging per hour. I see an easy 35- 40 hours of labor.

I have well over that into it hour/labor wise.

Seems that nowadays, specialty-car shops are at $75-$125/hour depending on the type of work.
When I've had a business deal (vs. helping or working on a buddy's deal, which of course is free) I never had the nerve to charge more than $25/hour.
I didn't charge for research time, just materials and actual labor, with the vehicle in my garage.
That wouldn't be a good business model, nor particularly profitable, but more about someone wanting to pay for my time.
That was a few years ago, and the customer was happy.
I've turned down a couple jobs since - when I had no space - and now with moving, I'm not taking anything on.

Dealerships are $150-175 an hour nowadays. Explain that to your customer and give him a 50% discount...

First off the job is in a specialty category that most auto repair shops don't want to even look at never mind do. I'm sure your client has
shopped around and that led to you. Hopefully he or she understands that they're getting a niche service as most repair shops don't take
the time to de grease and paint parts. It's very hard to give an estimate as you don't know what you'll encounter with a 50 plus year old
car. I would keep track of my hours, both doing actual work as well as time spent ordering parts or researching. Then multiple by the
hourly rate. Can't really get any fairer than that. In the end you have made a 69 charger owner (who already at the top of the food chain)
increase the value of the car. Just my thoughts.

Bennoel

Close friends small job no charge just bring drinks.
Club member with larger project $25 per hour.
Non club member more involved project $50.00 and hour
Thats all for mechanical and restoration work.
Paint and body I charge buy the job client buys all paint and materials. I start at $10,000. and go from there.

I would be charging at least $75 bucks an hour. And that would be about $50 an hour cheaper than most shops in the area that work on restoration type stuff.

i pick and choose what i do for others anymore, and it mostly is for friends and relatives.
if it only involves a few hours, it is zero cost, or a donation.
if it involves a major amount of time, i charge $15.00 per hour.
most of the time, i work for free................[i always say i'm the lowest paid guy on the city payroll. ]

I've been charging $25.00 for years, I should probably raise it to $40.00 or maybe a little more?
I work out of my shop at home (no rent or other over head costs ) building motors only, I try not to work on cars as I don't have enough shop space or desire anymore to work on other peoples cars

I charge whatever my overtime rate is at work. Still way cheaper than any shop.

Seems I'm not out of line with what the customers bill is. I'm not working for free. My time is worth something IMO. Somethings aren't bad to do, but I HATE getting greasy up to my elbows every time I worked on something on this car. It takes a lot of time to clean things up. When I pulled the oil pan, it had so much sludge in the bottom of the pan, the pickup tube was almost blocked off. Who ever rebuilt the heads last time, never took the time to clean all the rocker arms, shafts, and push rods. All covered in gunk. They looked like new, when I installed them. I have 74 hours into this project. For reference, here is what I stated with:

Being a factory A/C car that makes double the time to work on anything than a non-A/C car!

Your labor rate should have been discussed BEFORE the ob started, not afterwards, that is bad business.

I use a sliding scale depending on if the person is a customer or a friend, if they are paying cash or not, and how easy they were to work with.

Honestly, I wouldn't touch a grease-pit like those photos show, until the customer had it steam-cleaned first.
I turned down a deal like that a few years back.
Can't stand that kind of mess, and won't have it on my premises...yeah, I'm fussy.

I don't do work for anyone, too much liability. Years ago I did more and got caught more than once with the "you changed my headlight and then my front wheel fell off, it must have been something you did". Now I will HELP people with repairs on their cars but they know up front THEY will be doing it. Same way with welding, "Can you weld? Yes. There's the welder, have at it".

So, 74 hours at, let's just say $75 an hour, would be.........$5,550. Or somewhere there abouts.

Or are you thinking more like $50 an hour? Then it would be $3,700.

Are you going to tell us what you are actually charging the guy?

Easy 7-10K IMO with parts. Or take it somewhere else. Do keep in mind if it comes back for a problem you may have to eat it

Yea: they always Remember the Last person who did Anything on their car, as the Cause for Any future problems.

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...