mobile welding work, small scale?

[SiPMerlin150]

After still not having luck finding work in fabrication/welding shops, I've come to think about phoning round the smaller independant garages that do MOT testing to see if they would want someone such as myself to call upon to do MOT repair welding, under set circumstances, for example:,

I provide the steel to cut and weld, the welding would take place within the garage thats providing me with the work. I'd quote upon seeing the extent of the work being described, keeping in mind when quoting that it will always be worse than what it seems...

I have my own personal protection equipment, steel toe caps, goggles, masks visors etc. I have my own basic set of tools, grinder, cutting disks, hammers wire brushes, clamps, mole grips, powder fire extinguisher etc.

I would have to have the garage location provide me with electrical power for my welders, of course I will have my own extension chords.

I don't know how I would conduct pricing, for example, would a small portion of my profit would go to the garage for supplying me with the work and use of their premises?

For example, car up on ramp and a 5 or 6 inch long sill patch I would charge £50, and say £10 goes to the garage?

I'd have to obviously peel the powercraft sticker from my gasless mig to avoid embarassment but I can weld competently on body steel rather well with the thing.

Would I still have to take out liability insurance even though the vehicle will be on their premises to be repaired? I want to make a small side line to supplement my crappy wage.

 

[rtbcomp]

I'd charge so much per hour, say 30% less than the garage is going to charge their customer. That way if there's more work than anticipated you won't be caught out with a fixed price and the garage can see how much time you've spent on the job.

 

[SiPMerlin150]

I'd charge so much per hour, say 30% less than the garage is going to charge their customer. That way if there's more work than anticipated you won't be caught out with a fixed price and the garage can see how much time you've spent on the job.

Thank you for the tip, I just realised what I had just said on the previous post, Ideally I get paid £42 per day at the place I currently work so If I can make that and more with welding jobs, its well worth doing in my opinion..

How long a job will take to do will come as experience I guess, So I was thinking small jobs were priced higher than bigger jobs. (I can do a 3 inch patch plate cut, shaped and welded in 30 minutes)

What would a sensible rate for me be to charge per hour?

 

[the snooper]

30 mins does that include stripping out seats carpets and trim and refitting ?

 

[brightspark]

30 mins does that include stripping out seats carpets and trim and refitting ?

and also making sure the wiring up door pillars and voids are out of the way

 

[Country Joe]

And don't forget your surge/spike protector - you want it to start afterwards!
CJ

 

[Wozzaaah]

Good luck with this!
I doubt a garage would cover you under their insurance and quite honestly, why would a garage rent you a ramp at just a few £ an hour?
I admire your ingenuity but trust me, you're on a hiding to nothing with this one.

 

[Luke]

I would charge £50, and say £10 goes to the garage?

You're unlikely to be able to dictate the split like that, as you'll in effect be sub contracting to the garage. You charge them a fee, they charge the customer, with a percentage on top. That percentage will be decided by them and to be honest will dictate whether or not they're interested in your services. If they can't make some money, or if the bill presented to the customer is seen as 'too much' then they will look at what you are charging them.

Be careful with fixed price jobs, chasing rust can become a silly game, both in terms of your time/fees, and whether or not the customer will actually want the work done, or be prepared to pay for it.

 

[SiPMerlin150]

30 mins does that include stripping out seats carpets and trim and refitting ?

This was an outer body panel job on the kick panel of the drivers door sill, nothing combustible was on the other side of that panel.

 

[Robotstar5]

Don't forget to factor in the cost of having all your electrical equipment PAT tested.

 

[SiPMerlin150]

I'm needing tips to how to go about this properly, how do you guys who do this kind of work go about it? Any secrets of sucess you would like to share? E.G. insurance types, liability insurance, etc.

 

[the snooper]

you would need liability insurance as you would pose a risk to the employees at the garage also cover incase you burnt out a car and the garage in the process

 

[brightspark]

Don't forget to factor in the cost of having all your electrical equipment PAT tested.

lol get the stickers of ebay. a mate of mine has the same initials and i tested his wifes gear at a hair salon gave him an invoice all he has to do is put it in paintshop pro and alter the year thats what smartasses do if u give em an estimate for insurance work. delete the estimate bit out and submit it as a bill

 

[Wozzaaah]

People who want mobile welders are people who want work done on the cheap. They want you to go to their house, use your equipment, lie on your back under a car etc. and you WILL have to be insured.
A neighbour of mine used to do car repairs from home and had a car catch fire during some welding work. Fire brigade job to put it out and it was totally destroyed.
Any garage doing MOTs will most likely either have it's own welder or will have someone they recommend who does it somewhere else.
You will need a unit or a van and better kit if you want to make a go of this.
At the moment this idea is a very small pie in a very big sky.

 

[Paul.]

And if all that hasen't put you off, get a couple of quotes for liability insurance, be sure to tell them its motor trade related, and be seated when you get the quote.

 

[SiPMerlin150]

Oh Dear! Well I looked at quotes just now with an online company and they couldn't give me an instant quote, they will have to get back to me..

But If its like car insurance, then thats another idea out of the window....seems like you need a large wedge of money to kick start a small 1 man & van business in the first place..

I'll keep pestering local fab shops until they either tell me to go away or I become fed up with calling them..

People wonder why I'm off to Australia in 1 years time.

 

[octo0072000]

someone on here was doing that and as said by wozz all wanted it for cheap,
infact he has just sold up as not enough work
not many people want a good job doing just to get it tested then they will winge at you when it fails the test next year
the car market is depressed to say the least you can buy a banger with some test now for £250

 

[gavuk]

Search for Autocare,he gave up running his own place ,rather than actually subbing into garages ..but very similar ...easier ways to make money

 

[the snooper]

But If its like car insurance, then thats another idea out of the window

no its not like car insurance, its worse probably around the £1200 mark maybe more with the high risk of fire

 

[SiPMerlin150]

Back to the drawing board I guess...

Thank you for all of your suggestions.

How much are those surge protectors for cars by the way?