II think the world has passed me by. I like to use original 37-40 round back spindles on my personal early Ford projects. I'm doing a 32 roadster chassis and just bought another deuce tudor.. I recently advertised for original spindles and bought 3 nice pairs for an average of 150.00 a pair. Last week I took them and the new kingpin kits to the same machine shop that's done my spindles for over 30 years. I picked them up today. They charged 50.00 a spindle to clean, chase the threads, and install and ream the bushings. Not complaining just curious as I couldn't have done them myself. Am I living to much in the past?
Figure an average $100 hourly labor rate at most shops that doesn’t seem crazy. I could see it taking a half an hour per spindle if you were being picky about it. that being said for $300 I’d borrow a reamer and do it myself. But I know there are times that you either have time or money and having someone do them is the smart move
After the first machine shop honed my new kingpin bushings too far and let them loose and sloppy in 1967, I have always done them myself
Tim: Your probably right, they are very fussy with their work and always do a nice job. I am such a scrooge and do to a degree live in the past to much. I need to loosen up a bit.
I like having the bushings honed on a pin hone,but I clean ,and install the bushings myself.Think I paid 60 bucks a couple years ago just for the fitting.
I paid $120.00 five years ago to have a guy ream and install my spindles to my axle. Happy to do it as I don't have the technology (tooling) and he did a great job
Exactly, one of the first tools I bought in '67 was an early Ford kingpin reamer. Have used it many times and it has long since paid for itself. I just pulled the front axle of my roadster apart after 10k miles on self honed bushings... Very little wear showing and it's going back together as is. Just have to keep them lubed up...
The best way to do it is to buy the tools yourself. I own the blasting cabinet and the press, and my brother owns the kingpin reamer. We have done many spindles together.
Used to have a blast cabinet but when I moved to my small shop had no room and being a nice guy I loaned my reamer to a friend who never returned it and now says he can't find it.
OK. THAT friend should buy you a replacement? Or just go buy one your self, you got to be that tight at 75?
I scored a full set of piloted reamers on ebay recently for 160 bucks, gave me ford, dodge and a handful of others. Im cheap though and dont like paying for other peoples shop time
If you had bought spindles from me, the threads would have already been chased as I have the tool (s) to do it. I sell my spindles chased, blasted clean and rattle can painted so that you can see what you are buying. I am not trying to sell you any, just stating the facts.
My livestock drover used to tell me everyone needs to make a living. Nice sentiment from essentially a middleman. You got necessary work done and a good job to boot. Get an estimate to mow your grass, that should make you feel better.
As far as the price, I’d bet Gary wasn’t charging the same labor cost 30 years ago that he was when he got out of the frame building.
How hard a job is it? I have to do mine. They look new but they sure are sloppy. Reamed/honed too far is my guess.
I regret starting this thread. Wasn't bashing the shop as it's the best machine shop in the area, just asking a simple question. As for what I was charging for chassis. My profit margin never, changed hardly any over the years I built chassis, the parts to build the chassis just kept getting more expensive. I couldn't have survived competing against the P&J's, TCI's and other big companies if it wouldn't have been for the location of my shop, the quality of my products and especially all of my great customers willing to travel to the middle of nowhere. Thanks for the reply's.
Not hard at all if you have the reamer with pilot to R&R the bushings. This dummy managed it when I was 17
I didn't think you were knocking the shop. I see this as another entry in the sticker shock box. Welcome to the 12 dollar happy meal...
For perspective, CNC work is $275/spindle-hour at my shop. CAD work is the same. Manual work is $150/hour. Everything has always been expensive.
As an amateur, it would probably take twenty minutes to blast a pair clean, a half hour to accurately press in the bushings, and another half hour to ream them. Maybe more. So, an hour and a half per pair.
Dam, my $100 per pair was bargain. Should have just kept my mouth shut. Imagine what it would cost in Gimpy's shop. Maybe it's time for a grumpy old scrooge like me to take up knitting?
I think it is a topic that bothers most of us. Just trying to illustrate that the dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to, and what used to be a necessity- bushings in an axle- is now maybe a specialty/ nostalgic activity. It is usually easier to justify the things you need to get done, than the ones you would like to get done, but you get more joy from the latter.
another example of pricey machine shop work this thing I’m showing is a clamp to pick stuff up with a forklift “ gives the product a hug” think appliance’s, tires etc . Anyways the platentens are aluminum with vulcanized rubber on them , the bottoms get damaged as that were most of the clamping happens and they get damaged on the skids and rubbing on the floor etc . the only company that re did the vulcanizing around me went tits up . so I got the bright idea to flip the platents put the worn part on top and the good side to the bottom . had to drill 6 holes in each one , took it to my machine shop and it was $675 for 12 holes . done perfectly , lined up and bolted on like factory . 3 different drill bits Rubber holes chamfered Done on his radial arm drill press . dropped them off on the morning , picked them up at the end of the day . if I had to do it , one of my guys would have burned a day doing it , would not of turned out as nice and I would have lost his time he could have been billing on something else . Sometimes doing things ourselves costs is money . I think you got a deal , you know you got a deal . And it’s the time saved that beats everything else . Not bashing you @krylon32 just making others aware that time is money or time wasted , that could be used doing something else .
Well I've seen needlepoint seat designs is high-zoot 30s cars, but never knitting. Maybe you'd be a trend setter...
I borrowed a reamer and did my own, however, it would probably be double the labor cost here, IF you could find a shop willing to take on a small ($300) job ($100 job for one pair). You probably got a labor break too, because you had 3 pairs done. Either the shop is not busy, you're a long time customer or they squeezed it in as filler work and had the least qualified machinist ("shop helper") do the work. Sure you can buy the reamer and do the work yourself, but you can rest assured they probably used a Sunnen machine and they're spot on. The time you would have spent to save $300 may have seen you knock out $1000 worth of fab work for yourself on your car. At your age and state of the game, you should be taking the luxury of farming out a few things. The sticker shock factor of parts & labor costs has long made rebuilding small parts such as wheel and master cylinders more expensive than replacing them. The factor is now even placing larger, more expensive parts such as your spindles into that category; You paid typical price of $150 for the spindles, plus $100 in machine work, add bushing kit, your labor to clean, chase threads, drop them off/pick them up. In comparison, forged steel spindles, bushed/reamed from Socal are $250. Sure they're not Henry, and still need steering arms, but pricewise it's close to a wash if someone else is paying $150 for spindles, $150 in shop labor buying bushings.
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