Club 80-90 Forums

Hi, folks.

New to the forum, so hello to all ;-0)

I guess my query is appealing more to the trades, but I’d appreciate anyones input.

long story short…

I agreed to help out my partners friend, who needed a ‘patch’, on her T25 sill, and I’m no automotive expert, but I know what tin worm is and that paint can’t really hide the worm, anyhoo, 1 month later, I’ve completely rebuilt the drivers side of it, between post-to-post, and a wee bit into back and front arches too, sorry to be list boring, but here’s what’s been done (I’ve got pics if this may help)…

Replaced new sill.
Fabricated and/or refurbished both post bottoms that had dissolved.
New top plate to rear jacking point (totally dissolved)
Cut and replated* nigh half of below the drivers seat box-plate, fully welded.
Cut and replated* above front wheel arch that holds seat belt stalk, fully welded.
Rebuilt front subframe outrigger, fully welded.
Fitted/welded newly bought outer sill panel, without folds, so also had to weld in some strip plates to posts in order to keep the sill-panel to form, and water tight.
Cut out and fabricated new mid and top panels (the worm was busy) and stitched in angle strongbacks/stiffeners.
Cut out the last 12 inches of floor-pan due to wormy munch, replaced with plate to the top of sill and 4 additional stiffener gussets between floor plat and sill.
Fabricated and welded new front post bottom panel/plate(?)
Refurbished existing rear panel of front wheel arch.
Refurbished front of rear wheel arch.
Dropped the tank, along with all its pipes and fittings, and drivers side breather tank.
Fabricated and welded new plate-strip to repair the seam of the passenger side bottom and mid panels.
All Structural fully welded, panels tacked and stitched.
Fully painted all works with red led, and that sticky black tar stuff to all exteriors.

A hole heap of other bits and bobs, but the above is the the main guts of it.

Question then, is, what would you reasonably expect to charge, or pay, for this work?

If you’ve endured the boring pain of reading this far, then thank you very much, if you can also be bothered to give any comment then that would be very much appreciated  ;-0)

[E D I T] Ps, price is for labour/skill only.

Cheers, folks.

how many hours x hourly rate + materials + transport costs
mates rates £10/hr, professional at home on the quiet £20/hour, fully self employed with overheads £40/hr or more depending on location - or whatever you are comfortable with/ have agreed / what your partner is comfortable with

I'm not trade so take this with a pinch of salt, but I think it would be sensible to go back over your communications with your friend and just take stock of what you've already discussed in terms of money. I say that only because your original post implies that you have put in quite a bit more time on this than you originally anticipated when your friend originally asked you to just do a simple patch. Hopefully you've kept your friend apparaised of how many hours you're been doing as you've gone along, in which case it should be a fairly straightforward thing to work out based on rates like those suggested by Aidan, but the implication in your post is that this may not be the case, which means that there could be quite a gap in expectations and that she could get quite a shock when you ask her to pay for your actual labour. If that's the case then it's likely that you're going to have to settle on some sort of negotiated figure, in which case knowing how much time you've spent will allow you to determine whether any sum agreed is "bearable".

Thanks for the replies folks.

For sure, the work was never 'planned', as such, it was purely a case of open it up and find out what's in front of us.

I used to be a professional welder, but had absolutely no intention of taking in a project such as this, however once I'd started, I was commited, and if I didn't do it the chances are the van would of been scrapper had it been taken into a garage, or restoration workshop.

I was never going to charge top-whack anyway, but similarly, neither did I envisage 4 solid weeks (which I'll shrink to 3 due to learning curves and thinking time) of extremely hard and high-end skillset graft.

I'm only charging for labour, consumables, travel, premises, etc etc...are all found.

I guess I'm just trying to validate the savings, as compared to realistic prices others would charge, which's what I'm sounding* out.

Cheers.