I've been following the thread started by Mark Lepore about pricing
regarding the repair. Having over thirteen years behind me in the auto
repair industry, I would say that the repair prices I saw quoted seemed a
little high also. BUT, was the prices quoted piecemeal or having the car
done all at once.
The reason I ask is simple, some of the labor described seemed it would
overlap with another operation. An honest mechanic looking for return
business would point out a discount for doing multiple related operations.
I am NOT familiar with the TR6, only the Spitfires, but alot of the front
end work seemed to be overkill with a fair amount of overlap (of hours) in
the suggested repairs.
Industry standard five years ago in New England was 35 to 45% markup on
parts ordered by the repair facility, if the facility is not charging
suggested list for the parts(TRF, VB both indicate list as well as YOUR
cost direct). This is an accepted practice for repair shops as they must
extend money/credit for parts in advance of being paid for the service.
Seeing the prices Mark listed lead me to believe there was a fair amount of
price gouging there.
Follow the advice given, you buy yourself a project car, you should plan on
doing the work yourself. There is a lot of good advice on this thread. If
you want to farm out some of the work to a repair shop, be prepared to
investigate several repair facilities local for price and competence level.
In this regards, you are now the project manager for your project car.
Last note before I jump off of my soapbox, Some repair facilities may use
owner supplied parts, but they are most likely not to provide a gaurantee
beyond their work. I learned that lesson the hard way. I had a repair
facility install a water pump that I INTENDED on putting in myself, but
never got around to it. On an Audi, the water pump is also the tensioner
for the timing belt. The dumb mechanic left a fastener inside the cover
which ultimately destroyed said NEW water pump and belt. I ended up with
another service shop because the original mechanic would not waranty work
on OWNER SUPPLIED PARTS. The amount of money spent fixing his work was a
hard lesson learned. It would have cost more money in legal costs than the
cost of the second repair.
Advice, have fun with it. Get a little dirty and really learn about your
car. What you learn in repairing it, might get you back on the road someday.
Mark Townsend
76 Spitfire
87 Turbo Quattro
97 Cherokee
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