Knocking from ventilation system

[Stesaw]

£70?...
Wow, my garage only charge £45 per hour.

My friend has replaced a lot more panels and done a proper respray for that sort of money.

It is the first I have heard of welding in fresh metal, and then covering with fibre-glass.
Unless I am mis-understanding his use of the phrase fibre-glass in this context.

Would have spot welded the panels under the original and then skimmed it with fibreglass no doubt. Its the lazy/ quick way of doing it

[shepster]

£70 is common nowadays, my lad just had a cambelt kit fitted including diesel pump belt on 2003 T4 at a VW main dealer 5 and half hrs labour was quoted.......£1100!

Cambelt kit was £271+vat alone.

[AlBundy]

Thanks all, the outcome of this is that my other half now dislikes the van and wants rid of it as it is too expensive. I am going to try turn it round as we are just now in a position to enjoy it, but unless I can convince her that it's going to be worth it, you might see it advertised here quite soon.

Another difficult question, but having spent £8000 in the last year refitting the electrics, new fridge, new floor, fitting rear seatbelts, new fuel tank, replaced washer pump, and fixing rust spots and holes (there are still a few left, bit of seam rust). Would I be mad to get rid of it?

[AlBundy]

Another update for context, these are pictures of what was fixed for £1200. This was from a specialist bodywork / crash repair place.

E D I T. These are pictures before the repair. Obviously.

[R0B]

Having seen that. £1200 seems not unreasonable to have that lot put right.

[Stesaw]

You won't get your money back from selling it for sure, the markets slumped as the pandemic is over. Syncros are still going for daft money but thats about it.
With bodywork still to be done you aren't gonna get top dollar if you sell.

[AlBundy]

I agree, I was happy with the cost and the work from the bodyshop.

[Aidan]

£45 an hour is cheap now, even for a general garage where the owner owns the building and is well established; there's a real dearth of mechanics, good ones especially, minimum wages for the apprentice/sweeper upper aren't inconsiderable, yes there are apps and the like for book keeping and accounts but if self employed you need pension and life happens money too, if 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 will get cancer in their lifetime then having a real contingency fund and proper health insurance as well as business insurance is essential and it all adds up, otherwise you are just a busy fool. Parts and tools are expensive and/or poor quality and garages need to spend money on diagnostic kit for the newer cars which usually means a good few £ a month to Snap-On or the like to have kit that is less than 3 years old with the data and software upgrades packages, even then it is not as good as the dealer's software.
We are seeing many garages closing their doors and/or cherry picking the work, at the same time people trying not to buy replacement vehicles so keeping old ones going, whilst neglecting them, and expecting repairs to last for ever, be top quality, using genuine parts and costing same as that did 20 years ago. We've lost 3 garages and 2 workshops within 10 miles during/since covid here in sparsely populated mid Wales.