Did a search and all I came up with was what to pay an employee What are the shops in your area charging, for custom fab work, body, mechanical and paint work. Strictly a hot rod/custom shop not yer run of the mill repair shop. Thanx for any info
I charge $40hr, most all work is custom and long term. They generally get 12hr days, 6-7 1/2 days per week and never charge greater than 40hrs. Where i do better is the oddjob that just shows up, like right now i am fabbing a 3X1bbl intake for a jeep 258" motor. Short-term stuff like this i charge more i base it at $400 perday
shop rates around here are 85 .00 an hour explains why i cant afford to get my exhaust finished ........
my rate is $55 hr. Typically most in Colorado are $75-85ph with the exception of the company i used to work for charged $125ph....yes insane! my weekly metal work blog www.themetalsurgeon.com
Wow, you can tell I live in CT, all those rates seem insanely cheap to me for fab work. Most repair shops are around $90 an hour here.
I work from my own property, so overhead is lower. I also have a pension.. However, I charge $40hr for paint and body and $50 hr for fabrication/welding and mechanical.
Around here (So Cal) most GOOD shops charge anywhere from $65.00 an hour to $125.00 Even many of the car dealers are at $100-125 hr.
Why I'M NOT SURPRISED Connecticut has the highest shop rate in the land !! More typical bad news from the Corruption state, wow something new. Over here in SouthEastern, CT the going labor rate is $85 or more an hour, before you add in taxes, materials and disposal fees.
Jeez $75 equals £50 an hour x 40 equals £2000 a week, which is a months salary and at the moment we are looking at £ 7.00 a gallon of fuel which is$10.50 you guys have it good......
the guy i worked for was charging 40 a hour and he still had a hard time giving the customer the bill most times he would deduct cause he felt it was just to damn much. he still made money and paid me out of it
A friend of mine charges 35.00 an hour but only does complete cars never without work and cars lined up for the next 3 years.
Paint and body work is about $40.00 per hour around here. Still costs $10,000 plus for bare metal to painted car.
From what I have seen in the Wichita area, it ranges from $40.00 to $75.00 per hour in full time shops. Most add paint and material cost in addition to labor.
Altho many shops around the country are a lot higher,we in the midwest are not working for movie stars and millionaires very often so the rates here are traditionally less.... I am currently at 40.00 per hr on any work except chopped tops....I bid those at a set and definite price for my customers,so they know what they are looking at as a total.... and BTW we are doing just as good work in these lower priced shops as the ones that cost more,some people just seem to want to pay more. I usually raise my shop rates on about an every 5 year basis...
Here in Alabama cost of living and property values/taxes are much lower than most areas. Shop rates vary from $40-$60 in private shops, dealers higher. I on the other hand being retired military charge $25 hr. I used to make a lot more money working for major dealers (approx 3k per week) Doing paintless dent repai and airbrush touch-up, but got so tired of the hassles. I only work on hotrods or musclecars because i like it! One car at a time until completion and I probably bill for half my hours. Guess I should move back to northern Calif-----nah, maybe not LOL.
Remember that's the shop rate, not what someone is taking home as a wage - it has to cover overhead, employee salaries, insurance, taxes, and a million other things before the shop owner can even think about making a profit. To the original question - I had an off topic car restored last year; the shop rate in SE Minnesota was $55/hour and I felt that was a pretty good value. However, the numbers will be all over the place depending on where you live.
My Shop charges 85$ an hour weather we are doing body and paint work, installing a motor and trans, trouble shooting a taillight out or w/e. I think thats a pretty reasonable price and wev never had a customer say anything about thinking the price was unfair. we are also a Restoration/custom shop only, no honda civics with bumper covers off in teh back being painted or mini vans having side windows put it. worst we get is the occasional porsche racecar from our buddys at speedwerks that need something painted fast.
60 dollars on the very low end, and Ive seen some prices around 100 a hour, depending on the size, detail and metal
My shop rate in NJ is $85.00 per hour for weld fab & repair building engines is more We do almost everything street cars hot rods race cars it's a 5000sq foot shop and the overhead to run it is about $21,000 per mounth and just to heat the place in the winter is $60-$80 per day so i got to bust my balls to keep it all going. Now i know why it took me six years to finish my funny car Back to work hell its only 11:30
Dealers are $79.00 to $85.00, independents $60.00 to $80.00, I get $40.00 for all but a few old customers that I let them have parts at cost and $25.00 ph. we are talking 75 -90 year old regulars I have had for years.
depending on attitude im 45 an hr for metal work, wiring, mechanical, and i do set prices on body and paint
You guys that charge on the lower side;do you have proper insurance and a shop ? To no one in particular but in the past here there's been shop fires and often no or inadequate insurance. I'm an electrical contractor and my rate,usually a price for the whole job,varies depending on danger and or complexity. I would think a shop doing all phases of automotive work would have a variable labor rate???
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