Thinking about a repair biz

Wrenching has never given me much joy but I'll jump on the chance to paint anything. I've fixed a few fiberglass fairings in the past, and last week I fixed a Battery box cover on a Kenworth (tire blew up). The cover had chunks missing and the latch was just hanging. The next morning they thought I had bought a new one. I spent almost 4 hours on it that evening but since the new one was $400 it was worth the time.

Okay, my questions are:

How do you figure what to charge?

Not sure about hourly rates. Just starting out, I'd have to make a rough guess as to how long a repair would take. I don't want to gouge anybody but I don't want to slave for them either.

What about charging a percentage of a new?

I mean if someone brings me a part that cost $250 new , if I could do it in under 4 hours I'd charge 1/2 of new. Or something like that. I won't have any overhead so I figure somewhere around $30/hr will keep me in beer money.

Should I quote paint separately from repairs? Let the customer paint if he wants to. I wouldn’t have to go out and buy paint. No clean up either. (Just painting would be fun but no skulls, flames or demon women.)

So has anyone done this?

Just by starting out on your own?

Can you get fast enough to actually make money? My problem is I'm a perfectionist.

Any advice welcome.


I already picked up some practice projects for friends, A barn find Buell front fender that I eyed in my buddy's trash (he doesn’t think it can be fixed) and a Concourse pannier cover for another friend. Poor bastard, just got it home last week and dropped it the driveway. Deep scratches and cracks. I think it’s ABS. Need to learn that too….goes without saying.

 

good idea, just read randys drop post-new customers every day.

 

That's a tough one. If you are just doing this for beer money, you might be OK. If you are trying to suppliment your income as a home run business, I think you will find that no one will want to pay you anywhere near the money a regualr business would charge. In addition to that, if you are the type that is concious about the end result, you will likely loose your shirt.

I did some custom woodworking out of may garage for a few years. Still do if I am approached. Unfortunately I was super concious about the quality of my work, that I figured I was working for about $1.25 an hour. So I do very little of that these days. Mostly for myself and family so I make no money at all. Matter of fact, I usually loose money even if the family is supposed to be buying the materials.

First thing I do is tell someone that they can now get furniture from a store that is made with the same wuality materials these days for less than what I can get away with charging. CAD systems the factories use, and their overhead based on the quantity of materials they buy, makes it impossible for me to compete. About the only people who wanted my product was someone who wanted to bragg that their piece of furniture was hand made. Big fucking deal.

Assuming that you decide to proceed with this, I would be inclined to stick with doing a complete job. That is build, repair or whatever and paint. Send it off without the finish on, leaves the door open to if the customer buggers up the paint, he can blame it on the unfunished product. I personally just would not go there.

For starters, I would tell my potential customers that you worl for "$X.00 per hour and materials and supples were extra. Then give a generous time estimate to complete the task. They will love you when it comes back less than what you quote them if that is the case.

Good luck.

 

My car mechanic seems to do pretty well, a one man show with a car lift and fancy tools-fixs all kinds of cars, if the repairs are good and a bit lower than a big shop, you will have a new job

 

Sorry it is a tough gig

 

gigemVFR just posted his drop on "...how many time!"

Light Scratches and a respray- $250. Looks like money can be made, doing something you like.

 

I did drop it but was several years ago. Just to give you an idea, the guy I used here in Texas charges half the cost of a new panel/fairing/cover etc for repaint. He looked up new Honda fairing and cost was $400 or so (he conveniently had picked a higher price seller than normal to show me). He wound up painting and new clearcoat for $200. I had to buy another foot peg and another part which totaled my $250. He is actually the guy that the Honda dealer gave me that does all their warranty and other work. I am picky about paint matching but he did excellent job. I made him show me some of his other work before leaving mine. He wet sanded clear and buffed and actually it does look better than factory job. He also had the equipment and nice paint booth so he was a professional and not someone doing it on the side. I saw a BMW bike he was changing the color of entire bike for guy and job looked flawless too. Not sure what he was charging but this guy definitely was not the cheapest. Then again, I was willing to pay more because I wanted it to be perfect. Point being, if you can paint it to look top notch, you can probably charge top notch. Hope this helps a little.

 

Thanks

Sounds like you got a good deal.

 

Problem out here getting a liter of paint mixed will cost about $90

 

I've been running a small shop out of my house for the last 24 years I charge $40/hr and the customer pays for the parts/paint/supplies that are needed to do the job. When I do a paint repair I pick up a pint of the paint (around $40) and already have the reducer and hardener as I buy them in the large size and then charge them for the amount I use. If I'm doing clear then that's another cost ($45 a quart). So if you did a job that took 4 hrs and cost of paint and supplies it would be around $200-$250.

If the customer want's to be cheap then you can go with the Dupla-Color paint shop pro ready mix system (basic colors and clear)

 

Hey thanks MPH!

 

I've been watching clearcoat sanding on youtube. I guess they do this to remove orange peel. My question is, why are they ending up with orange peel in the first place?

Just to show it's not a total pipe dream, I had to paint the headlight bucket and fork ears when I restored my RD. You can not buy "Brandy Red Metallic". There is no paint code. Paint stores can't scan it because because there's not enough flat surface on the bodywork.

Once I figured out the base was gold metallic (websites were saying silver) I mixed an Auto Air Colors Candy Red with three other transparents in different ratios. It's almost spot on. Tank was not painted.

Right well chuffed I was...





Oh yeah, followed by a 2pak clear.

 

Yes, the sanding and buffing was to get rid of orange peel. The finish on the side the guy painted was like glass. The factory side had slight orange peel or uneveness to the finish.

 

What causes orange peel anyways? Is it pait not thinned enough, or too thin? Holding the spray gun to far away, too close? ALso, I had a car done many years ago and one fender had what looked like cracks in the paint. Looked kinda like shattered tempered glass. What was that all about? I would have taken it bakc but I wanted to distance myself from that shop. One of their mechanics was banging my first wife.

Come to think of it, I still owe him a fine bottle of scotch.

 

The newer automotive paints and coatings require some schooling or a shitload of RTFM. Orange peel is caused mostly by not knowing how to spray and mix the materials.

The fender crackling was IMO caused by the paint drying too fast over a poorly prepped substrate. Paint shrinks as it cures or dries (tons of variables) . Poorly prepped substrates can be many things. Unsanded, waxed or in the case of raw woods like ebony and real teak resistant to paint or paint finishes of most kinds.

I had no idea that Canadians even had sex....

 

Some wives have more than their husbands think.

Thanks for your input BB. I suspected you would chime in on the paint.

 

Some dudes like to say they have more than they have.. Most dudes IMO...

Just in auto paint there are three and even four level of schools starting with your basic fender bender repaint and the upper end of restoration of rides like Ferraris and Rolls-Royce and who could forget Bond's DB4?

 

Auto painting is an art I would have liked to learn if I were younger. I have tried sprayers with air compressors on some of the furnature I have built with dismal failure.

 

Orange peal come from many different things. Temp, humidity, speed of reducer drying, how the gun is set up, air pressure and other stuff. I Find I get less of almost no orange peal on a cool humid day with a medium reducer then on a hot dry day with a slow reducer. What's basically happening on a hot dry day is the paint is drying as it's leaving the gun and can't flow out to a smooth finish. If you watch any car building programs on TV even they will color sand the clear to get it glass smooth.

 

Got my first project. Even I could see it wouldn't be a money maker but since it's for a friend I still might get some beer money.

'96 Buell S-1 Lightning.



2 hours in, paint removed, stay # glassed