johnthesparky
Posted a lot
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Club RR Member Number: 6
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This was the NAUGHTY CORNERjohnthesparky
@johnthesparky
Club Retro Rides Member 6
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Good luck from me too And I was going to say, get them to do the bushes etc and bolt the shocks in yourself...... but if the old ones are too big, do you really want the old ones putting back and pulling the new bushes out of shape. So came to conclusion to get them to do it if you can afford it. The bonding comes from lying at the kerb in the rain looking at the underside of the car (and ideally getting a bit of rust/gunk in your eye) so you can just pop out and do this once you’ve got the car back, albeit slightly less comfortably once it’s lowered  |
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If you get the contract (good luck with your business) then get the lot done by the garage. It should not be that expensive for labour, couple of days work tops.
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Okay, so meeting #1 "carstuff" is now complete.
I have their list of parts needed and a quote for doing the work. Just out of pure curiosity... if you were going to a decent, reputable garage that works on classics, prestige cars and all sorts of interesting stuff, and therefore isn't a back street grease pit, what would you guess the labour costs would be to replace all of this and to set up the car...
2x front shock absorbers
2x front springs
- 2x Front suspension top ball joints
- 2x front anti roll bar bushes
- 2x front anti roll-bar links
- 4x front top suspension arm bushes
- 4x front lower suspension arm bushes
4x rear trail arm bushes
1x rear wheel bearing
+
replace noisy rear wheel bearing
Adjust/grease front bearings
adjust/correct tracking
balance corners/wheels
Curious to know thoughts. I'm not shocked by the quote and it is weighted at my request towards a highest potential figure.
It is uncomfortably high for my current financial circumstances though.
If I proceed, I am going to forego the rear axle work for now and do that at a later date. So I think there are a few ways I can legitimately shave the quote down.
In terms of the parts I already have a smattering of suspension bushes and the top ball joints in my parts bunker.
But for the labour cost for all of it... what feels about right to you lot?
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Last Edit: Jun 4, 2018 8:52:32 GMT by Deleted
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8-10 hrs?
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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I'm not sure I'd want to leave a rumbling bearing to its own devices for long.
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I'm not sure I'd want to leave a rumbling bearing to its own devices for long. No me neither George, but the car is light use, and I need to break up any costs to prevent the sleeping beast of my wife's disapproval from being roused. The trouble with an old clunker like this is that there is at any given time ten things that really need fixing, and I can't afford to do them all at once. At this point the annoying front end is the focus of my obsession. It's the final thing on my original snag list that needs to be tackled. The rear axle is another matter. I also get some tramping on hard acceleration from a standstill so there's more work needs doing back there. For now, I want to get the front sorted, and if that means I have to stop using the car until I can regenerate money to then do the back axle stuff equally properly, so be it. At least I will have addressed the front finally! It's not ideal but it's what I can afford. I had said to them to avoid project creep and to focus on the front only, but they did also make some suggestions about the rear axle which is good to know but not part of this particular money splurge. If I have to... I will shove some wads of cotton wool soaked in petrol into the rear bearing just to make sure it catches fire properly so I know when it's really time to consider doing it.  |
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Surely the garage missed one huge and vital item, unless its been well and truly fixed by now?
sump plug??
Also i seem to remember (without going back through thread to check) you not being pleased with previous professional work you had done and vowed to do any more necessary work yourself?
Labour, don't know, a guess at £500.
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So 8-10 hours. Let's say the hourly rate is £80.
£800+VAT = £960
Any other thoughts before I reveal the quote?
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I'm guessing its higher than that then, shows the last time I paid to have work done on my cars!
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Although you do say to go worse case scenario so allowing for bushes that won't budge, bearings that are frozen onto stub axle etc, then maybe a few extra hours for the heat spanner etc?
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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Surely the garage missed one huge and vital item, unless its been well and truly fixed by now? sump plug?? Ahahahahha.... I actually made a specific point of telling them NOT TO TOUCH THE SUMP PLUG, NO MATTER HOW BAD IT LOOKS, JUST LEAVE IT. Thankfully they didn't try to be helpful and to do it properly for me while it was up on the ramps.  Also i seem to remember (without going back through thread to check) you not being pleased with previous professional work you had done and vowed to do any more necessary work yourself? Yes, absolutely correct. Save yourself the trouble of trawling back through all of this pulp! I have vowed, many times, never to go back to a garage. However, I've picked a very decent garage with a very good reputation for this, and I'm willing to pay more for that to avoid having the car up on jack stands outside my hosue for weeks if I end up working flat out on this new contract we may have possibly just won from our first client. I'm still on the fence though and if we don't get this contract... or we get battered down on costs at this afternoon's meeting, then I may need to put my big boy pants on and start sorting this out myself. Labour, don't know, a guess at £500. Okay... so that's what I *hoped* it would be quoted at. =.....( |
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Last Edit: Jun 4, 2018 9:54:28 GMT by Deleted
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Although you do say to go worse case scenario so allowing for bushes that won't budge, bearings that are frozen onto stub axle etc, then maybe a few extra hours for the heat spanner etc? Indeed. The rear axle bearing is apparently a b*tch of a thing, and I think there are going to be more things back there once it's all stripped out.... new seals and whatnot. I think my best plan of action may be that I get them to do the front set up nice, and then I work on coaxing the rear wheel bearing/s out myself in the street, which is probably going to take up as much, or possibly more, man hours and desperate grunting than the front stuff will. If they have the car in a bay taking up space for that it's going to cost me. If I coax the rears myself over time it wont cost me anything and I'm really only focussed on one thing rather than trying to juggle a whole bunch of stuff upfront and still needing to get it all set up properly once I'm done. |
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Okay well, the labour cost estimate for the work, including replacing the rear wheel bearing is....
*drum roll*
£1236.00
Which is a lot of money for a car such as this. I am fairly certain the rear wheel bearing will test that figure in reality as well.
But... I do have to consider the alternative is that I try to do it on a public street, with the car sat at a stupid angle, and it will have to take third place in my priorities list behind work and family, and it rains a lot, and I have a very limited set of tools so will need to buy stuff to do this, and I can't leave stuff out - I have to pack away all my tools and parts and bring them back inside (out of the family's way) each time I have to stop working for any reason.
It's really not easy working like this.
*dilemma*
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I was close then - whats my prize lol.
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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I was close then - whats my prize lol. First prize is that you get to do the work for free. Second prize is watching you do it. I think I won second. |
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I'd certainly help if you were closer. We should have some sort of local support group on here. In the past few months I have found out that 2 regulars on here live very close to me. I would certainly ask if I needed help as I would expect them to. (Although Archbish seems to not need any help to create awesomeness!)
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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I'd certainly help if you were closer. We should have some sort of local support group on here. I have one here. I get two or three guys watching just when I wash it. I reckon they are thinking, "The man who lives here must be very rich if he can afford a White Guy to work on his car." They all think I'm odd. You either never lift the bonnet or you send it to a garage who will then charge you for doing exactly the same thing! 😁 |
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That's really decent of you SmokeEm but I wouldn't ever expect anyone else to share the burden of my cheap-a*s car. I do agree it would be great if there was a kind of mutual support manpower exchange where people could help each other out via mutual help... but in my case I think it would require a secure space for at least a week (maybe two) to get this sorted in spare time. even with mutliple people chipping in So it's probably not feasible anyway.
My options are:
1. Pay good money and feel justified in expecting a decent result.
2. Pay cheap money and only have myself to blame if it all goes wrong (< this is what has happened to me in the past hence my vow not to use garages again)
3. Do it myself and accept the restrictions of this approach.
For now though, I'm just going to let it all percolate and focus on closing a deal this afternoon that might make the costs less painful.
= )
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I have one here. I get two or three guys watching just when I wash it. The other thing I have to factor in about working outside my house is the four elderly blokes who shuffle past every day and engage me in friendly chat for at least an hour. I don't have the heart to cut them short but man they are a serious impediment to roadside progress. Especially the bloke who has to tell me, every single time, his entire list of every vehicle he's owned since 1938... a list that he still can't get right despite the fact we've been through it at least 100 times now. I actually correct him to try and get us through it a bit more swiftly... Him: "Then I had, errr, ooooh.... what was it, a ... a... it was a Triumph Dolomite, errrr, oh no, wait.... it wasn't a Triumph.... oh yes a Honda Dolomite and ... or..." "Wasn't it a Toyota Corrolla after the Talbot Tagora?" "Yes! That's it... yes! A Peugeot Tagora... well done, yes that was a decent car the Peugeot Carimba, I had two of them and then I part exchanged that for a, now let me think, after the Renault Marimba I had a.... oooh now errrr, it was a... .... tip of my tongue" "Rover 216?" "YES! Thats it! the 216! It had a 1600 engine in it. Proper car that. Automatic steering.... ventilation .... radio... Oooh yes, a lovely car the Ronda Prelude.... it had velour seats, or was that the Kia..." * Drowns self in a small cup of EP90 * |
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Last Edit: Jun 4, 2018 11:43:56 GMT by Deleted
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"of course, as a young man I had... now you wont know about these because you're too young, but it was a... ahh, it was, erm, hang on.... it was called, erm... a.... Chorlton... Healey... Bog-eyed sprout. That was it. Smashing little sports car that. It had these round headlights on the front"
"A Frog-eye Sprite?"
"Yes! yes.... no, no... it had a 14 in the title... a Chorlton... Healey... oh now... a something 14. Hang on... I'll get it in a minute. There was an R in the name somewhere..."
"Renault 14?"
"YES! that was it. Lovely little sportster that one was. I used to take my girlfriends up the Little Chef in that. It fell off a ferry in the end. Beautiful cars those old Citroens were"
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Last Edit: Jun 4, 2018 11:42:38 GMT by Deleted
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