fbekholden.com

The bill for all this work????

Love those pics and detail. Shame it's coming to an end.

We just need a pic of Benny at the wheel grinning from ear to ear...

Stewart

STANLEY wrote:The bill for all this work????

If ya have to ask , ya cant afford it

I spent $18k in parts and God alone knows how many hours on my ute and its nowhere near as tidy as that wagon , a bloke over here was quoted $93k to do a similar job on an FC wagon from Farrace , job included strip down , panel and paint , mechanical overhaul of motor and box , rechrome and repair and polish stainless and reassemble.

Blacky wrote:

STANLEY wrote:The bill for all this work????

If ya have to ask , ya cant afford it

I spent $18k in parts and God alone knows how many hours on my ute and its nowhere near as tidy as that wagon , a bloke over here was quoted $93k to do a similar job on an FC wagon from Farrace , job included strip down , panel and paint , mechanical overhaul of motor and box , rechrome and repair and polish stainless and reassemble.

Blacky
Thanks for posting that answer. I didnt want to go there.
When I tell people what a job really costs they think 75% or more goes into your pocket!
At the money Quoted on the FC, It would cover everything and possibly a small margin at the end if lucky. Wish I could get that sort of money
Like you did, people should keep all the costs and a book on their time spent doing their car. Then put a labour rate on the hours. It frightens them big time.

There is better and easier money doing little rust repairs, and knocking dints out and squirting a bit of paint over the repairs of everyday drivers than doing really nice work!
And a whole lot less stress and agravation.

Another quality job near completion.....all I need to see is it with the Hubcaps & skirts on.

If you need to know the price of a build like this get a quote, (but not from Paul...he's retiring from it due to medical hassles..& not from carrying loads of cash to the bank.... THAT'S FOR SURE!! )

Scotty

Everyone I know that has done a job like that for a customer has ended up working for about $15 an hour - you just cant charge for all the work you do or the customer simply couldnt afford it - no wonder its so hard to find someone to do a job of this magnitude.

Blacky wrote:Everyone I know that has done a job like that for a customer has ended up working for about $15 an hour - you just cant charge for all the work you do or the customer simply couldnt afford it - no wonder its so hard to find someone to do a job of this magnitude.

I removed my reply because most people here would my tone offencive, because i dont use smilies???
And in the end it wont matter in the long run

It's a shame to see Smooth having to retire, but what a top effort to finish on

I'm just going to chug along with my FB doing simple jobs bit-by-bit with the bolt off / bolt back on stuff, and I guess I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best when it comes to the panel and paint cos that's going to be the killer and not something I'd ever think of doing myself again (been there, done that, failed miserably).

Not going to keep a record of the costs though. Too scary already a grand and a half just on tyres - no seriously, check out the cost of 5 Goodrich whitewalls. My last EK ute cost less than that, and that was a whole car

[quote="MeFB"]It's a shame to see Smooth having to retire,

I am not retireing, wish I could. Am having to stop doing work where physical strength and prolonged effort is required.
Like most everyone else I need to eat and pay the bills, hopefully for quite a few more years.
Now I just need to find something I can do and get paid for

Smooth customs wrote:I removed my reply because most people here would my tone offencive, because i dont use smilies???
And in the end it wont matter in the long run

I saw it before you removed it and can only say "guilty as charged your honour", but I tried to run a business after I was made redundant once. Spent 18 months working for about $5.00 an hour and had to shut up shop when my severance pay ran out. In the end a lot of people got great timber patios built and I ended up just about broke (they were bloody good patios though).

On the subject of the cost I was merely inquisitive, not wanting to see the invoice total.
I often do the same sort of work to motorcycles & merely comparing them.
All motorcycle work requires that amount of detail because everything is on show, no bonnets or bits hidden underneath.

Blacky, $93k quote. Yep, I couldnt afford to spend that on a car or really justify it.

STANLEY wrote:On the subject of the cost I was merely inquisitive, not wanting to see the invoice total.
I often do the same sort of work to motorcycles & merely comparing them.
All motorcycle work requires that amount of detail because everything is on show, no bonnets or bits hidden underneath.

Blacky, $93k quote. Yep, I couldnt afford to spend that on a car or really justify it.

I have mates with bike buisnesses, and they have no hesitation charging what it costs and get paid. You guys should see what a Bike shops gets for a resto paint job, and there is at times as few as ten major pieces in the job.

STANLEY wrote:All motorcycle work requires that amount of detail because everything is on show, no bonnets or bits hidden underneath.

I hear what you're saying and have to agree, but one of the things that I've noticed about the photo's of the work Smooth has been doing on Benny's wagon is that he's paying the same attention to the hidden bits as he is to the shiny bits. Maybe this is one of the things that separate a craftsmen from a tradesmen (that, and the size of their wallets).

That is exactly why I was asking.

Most panel beating/painting jobs have nowhere near the detail of workmanship involved, most bike resto's do.
I get shocked at some of the bills I hand out but then look at the result & most times its well justified.

I guess its easier not to ask.

STANLEY wrote:I guess its easier not to ask.

Sorry Stanley, didn't mean to slap you down at all, just agreeing with you that Smooth's work is the same level of detail that you'd put into a bike (which is a rare thing).