Looking for an affordable shop in ca to finish my new project. Any suggestions?? Thank you Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Sorry about that, it's a 33 chevy p/u. Currently has a 348 with a t5 that needs to come out. Putting a 277 with a 4 speed in that's ready to go. Still haven't decided wether to rebuild the old 348 and leave it in there. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Man you are talking about an area 750 miles long and 250 miles wide here. Affordable is a bit of wide open space too, Different people with different income levels might have a whole different concept (I know too many differents) on what affordable is. For some guys it comes out to 30 bucks an hour and for some 100 is dirt cheap. The low rate might not mean that the guy doing the work is turning out the same amount of work as the guy charging twice or three times as much though. One thing I would do before I even talked to a shop is pull everything off the truck that I don't intend to reuse. Clean the thing top to bottom and get all of the dirt grease and what rust that comes off easily off. No sense paying someone else to pull that rusty hulk that is supposed to be an engine unless you are totally inept with tools.
What do you consider affordable? that can vary depending on your income level and life style habits. Just remember sometimes those cheap shops are not worth the price if you have to have another shop redo it. Guess I am confused here. Are you looking for someone to do the body work or the mechanical part or both? I'm not sure if you are trying to farm out the whole project or just part of it. Sorry if it is my mind state today and reading your post wrong, but I think we need a little more info. Welcome to the Hamb even though you been here a few years but with only 4 posts I will consider you a newby. Just give us a few more clues please.
You’re worried about money, and you’re gonna pay someone to work on your hobby vehicle? Wrong hobby. Save money and learn to do it all yourself. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Why are you farming it out? Other then the bed (the body work), machine work on the engine and glass it looks like it just basic mechanical work. Running brake lines, wiring, and engine assembly can all be done in a home shop. I have seen far too many project like this go to a "professional" shop get blown apart and never get built.
A (good) affordable shop to finish your project is like looking for a good affordable attorney, they don't exist in my experiences
Not necessarily, or even close. I seen a lot of and personally dealt with more than few botched jobs with way more having been spent on them while still needing serious amounts of corrective work or in some case even complete re-dos just to "save" them, let alone make them anywhere near perfect. Some have even landed on my lap after having "toured" (read: having been butchered by) 2 or 3 so called "professional" shops I wouldn't qualify to work on used wheel barrows, let alone charge $$'s for what-ever-the-f**k they do to or with them. These experiences have ranged from '28 Dodge Sedan or '53 Buick Skylark to '55 Chrysler C-300 or '71 Ferrari 365GTB/4 and beyond... Just yesterday had a (long distance*) phone-conversation about all this with a new/recent client and told him I can (sort of) understand amateurs or hobbyists making a mess of their own cars, but expecting to get paid for doing it to ones owned by others... *He's in N.Y., I'm in SoCal. We've never (yet) met in person, but were referenced to each other by a common acquaintance we both hold in high regard.