going rate for car welding re mot failure

[malcolm]

Can we go back a couple posts in this thread just in case it goes wildly off-topic. I accept the feeling behind the last 20 posts but we've got a forum to run here and were talking about the price to get people to weld to MOT standard.

 

[pedrobedro]

Police quotas are rumoured to exist but they can only arrest people who are actually breaking the law for speeding or other offences like no seatbelt or mobile phone use so really it is more of a guideline as to whether they should use their discretion and issue a caution or prosecute an offender. If no one was stopped for offending it would be a waste of police time turning out but the public expect to see something being done, the police are answerable to us and paid with our money after all. They have my support in what they are doing as long as they are not trying to falsify figures to bump up revenue. I used to look at a job then quote a price for it not work on an hourly rate, like £30 to replace a sill or plate a floor but as it was not my main income and I only did jobs occasionally for friends or friends of friends it was not an issue. I never had one back to complain it had failed and I never got rich but it's a hobby first and foremost.

 

[Vdub lover]

I used to work for a garage doing welding work, mot failure etc I charged £25 per hour for my work using the garage equipment/gas etc the boss would then add what ever on top.

I would love to start up on my own doing it but it's not worth the hassle as I now only do "classic" cars which as stated are a bigger pain in the ass then most vehicle as things then to go wrong alot more, IE bolts snap, rust rust and more rust, a small hole gets alot bigger when you clean up the area.

My mate is a tester and when I was last at his garage I saw what they called a repair, they had ran out of gas half way but still welded it up it looked like bird poo and if it was my car I would of gone mad (this also was at a main dealership )

 

[Lacy]

oh right some of my friends are traffic cops they must be telling me pork pies.are you old enough and wise enough to know that traffic police are a money making organisation...its a fact not a deterrent....and the motorist is a very easy target of which highway robbery is now legalised ...nuff said...thanks..

Yep, they're telling you porkies......and if it makes any difference I'm 49 and have been a police officer for 23 years. No quotas.......never have been......traffic officers will penalise those who deserve penalising and remember, none of the fines money goes in their pockets ya know..... £30/hour is good value for decent welding but, as I say, it's more than a police officer gets paid for having to deal with drunken violent smack heads at 3 in the morning.........however your gratitude and thanks are payment enough thanks

 

[slimjim]

Yep, they're telling you porkies......and if it makes any difference I'm 49 and have been a police officer for 23 years. No quotas.......never have been......traffic officers will penalise those who deserve penalising and remember, none of the fines money goes in their pockets ya know..... £30/hour is good value for decent welding but, as I say, it's more than a police officer gets paid for having to deal with drunken violent smack heads at 3 in the morning.........however your gratitude and thanks are payment enough thanks

of course £30 is more than a police officer gets paid, but its far far less than the figure that the police force gets, divided by the number of police officers,

and thats the point, if you charge £30 per hour, around two thirds the figure is taken by overheads in one form or another,

Its a mistake to be to cheap, charge a reasonable rate, do a reasonable job, if you can't get enough work, either change your target customer, if that does'nt work, then you need to change what your doing

 

[Grobes]

Any luck with the escort (i know it was a few years ago, lol).

A neighbour bought an RS turbo MK4 escort about 14 months ago, it was taxed and MOTd with about 9 months on it. I told him to sell it asap as he had paid £1600 at auction and it has been resprayed in areas and nothing special. He advertised it too high and moved away, hoping his family would handle the potential buyers.

It didnt sell and he has just moved back in. Knowing that i have now got my own plant and have welded my own xr3i sills, floor, chassis rails filler cap area, rear arches etc (my reasoning for him to sell asap), he has asked me to 'look at this in the boot'......

Lol, what boot ? Theres a foot long hole over the chassis rail, which itself looks like a big weetabix (the car has sat on a sideways slope for over a year collecting water in this area). Running my hands under the sills i found a three inch long hole without even applying any pressure.

'How much ?' Hmm.... £200, for the car not the work. I reply.


Im guessing as its tank and interior out time and some serious grinding back to good metal, ive tried telling him not to spend anything on the car until he gets a welding outfit round to look at it. With a guarantee of a ticket before he pays out.

I wouldnt touch it anyway, but cant see it taking less than two days with all the hassle involved. Told him to expect £500 for the welding to get through MOT.

Anybody else see it how i do, or am i over reacting ? I stripped mine out completely when i welded mine up and burned all the local underseal off first with the gas. Still the car honked of welding for weeks.

 

[thekiwi73@hotmail.com]

i think anything over 30 pounds an hour is an absolute rip off for anyone to pay . yes they is a north south divide regarding standard of living but come on its not that huge . I've spent most of my adult life welding up vehicles for mot and now i only charge 20 pounds per hour . its still 160 pounds per day for 8 hours work . yes there's ware and tear but it doesn't cost the earth . some garages charge so much because they don't want the job because they don't know how to competently . buy a good second hand mig that takes gas and learn you will love it especially when your saving your self money .

Hi can you let me know where you are I need welding on my 1972 ford I'm in Surrey cheers Scott

 

[PTvor]

'How much ?' Hmm.... £200, for the car not the work. I reply.


Im guessing as its tank and interior out time and some serious grinding back to good metal, ive tried telling him not to spend anything on the car until he gets a welding outfit round to look at it. With a guarantee of a ticket before he pays out.

I wouldnt touch it anyway, but cant see it taking less than two days with all the hassle involved. Told him to expect £500 for the welding to get through MOT.

Anybody else see it how i do, or am i over reacting ? I stripped mine out completely when i welded mine up and burned all the local underseal off first with the gas. Still the car honked of welding for weeks.

My local garage charges £35 an hour and I've asked them about welding and their gear and they said welding was part of their job, not their job. So I took it that welding fairly straightforward things on reasonably modern cars was what they were prepared to do, but welding up a classic was not what they were about, but they might recommend someone.

2x8x35=560, so £500 seems reasonable assuming two days. Not all of that would be welding, there'd be stripping and reinstalling, which he could do in part himself, even so.


Also you have to decide with a project like that whether you are in it for the money, or it's a labour of love. If you are in it for the money and you have to pay other people to do the work you have to be on very certain ground.

I don't think you are over reacting, except that offering £200 for the car was generous.

 

[Chickenjohn]

Hi can you let me know where you are I need welding on my 1972 ford I'm in Surrey cheers Scott

I do restoration work, included high quality welding and fabrication, for £10 an hour. Based in East Kent.

 

[brightspark]

I do restoration work, included high quality welding and fabrication, for £10 an hour. Based in East Kent.

thats a good deal for anyone wanting work done . it all boils down to overheads and wages .someone employing another and renting a garage with rates ect would have to charge 4 times that amount . unless u are working from home or a small lockup

 

[Engineer]

hello all recently put my car 1990 ford xr3i in for pre mot test, it requires some patches on the sills, possible plate around fuse box area,

trying to find costs of how much it to have this work done re welding it seems not many people do this work if so very expensive??

i have no facilities garage/ drive to get my car offroad, i have done some modest mig welding about eight years back, but mainly with 14gauge new material and a proper workshop mig welder.

in local halfords they sell mig welders with small gas bottles etc, or i believe (gasless ) types exist but have no real idea if these would be any use for modest repair of sills etc.

considering welding thin gauge metal is not my forte.

my car due to cost has now been crushed.

on reflection i think i might have been hasty, not sure if mig welders can be hired ??? cheapo from halfords and attemted to do some minor (patching myself)

thank you

Before looking at the costs of repair work, I would suggest removing the battery and checking for corrosion underneath, also jack the car up and check very carefully around the rear chassis rails adjacent to the spring mounts.

Most garages will miss corrosion in these areas, unless it is very bad, and unlike a rotten sill, corrosion in either of these areas can have very serious consequences.

 

[the snooper]

Before looking at the costs of repair work, I would suggest removing the battery and checking for corrosion underneath, also jack the car up and check very carefully around the rear chassis rails adjacent to the spring mounts.

Most garages will miss corrosion in these areas, unless it is very bad, and unlike a rotten sill, corrosion in either of these areas can have very serious consequences.

you really should look at the dates on posts, the post you have quoted is from 2006

 

[slimjim]

I do restoration work, included high quality welding and fabrication, for £10 an hour. Based in East Kent.

How do you manage that,

I mean how do you manage to pay the overheads and get a living only charging £10 a hour

it costs me quite a bit more than that in fixed overhead not including a living wage.

 

[welding mad001]

welding cost

As I live in Northern Ireland I find that some not most will do a fair job but some do a really crap job they have the check to call themselves a welder but they have only tought themselves how to weld. I have seen some who try to use no gas and claim it will be ok with a coat of paint nobody will see it. I have seen some who use to high a power setting and create more work as it is worse than I though then you get the craftmen who take all day making patterns and cutting pieces of metal to creat a jigsaw and then when they have finished they try to weld it all together I find that using a piece of paper to get the rough shape cut it out and weld it on just get on with it and dont waste time. I have four welders sitting here two arc one mig one tig for stainless or aliuminum work and dont look for work at all word of mouth is my policy if I can't do it I tell you so I don't rob people just make a fair living if any body has a car with serious problems I offer a swap policy if they can;t afford to pay what I seem the right price I would offer to take a part exchange on the price ie swap for something that I may be able to sell on or use myself at a later date while I dont agree with the price some garages charge you have to agree with them when several people just dont pay or will sort you out at the weekend we all get them but when doe's the weekend come tommorow or when as tommorow nevers comes

 

[s410man]

As I live in Northern Ireland I find that some not most will do a fair job but some do a really crap job they have the check to call themselves a welder but they have only tought themselves how to weld. I have seen some who try to use no gas and claim it will be ok with a coat of paint nobody will see it. I have seen some who use to high a power setting and create more work as it is worse than I though then you get the craftmen who take all day making patterns and cutting pieces of metal to creat a jigsaw and then when they have finished they try to weld it all together I find that using a piece of paper to get the rough shape cut it out and weld it on just get on with it and dont waste time. I have four welders sitting here two arc one mig one tig for stainless or aliuminum work and dont look for work at all word of mouth is my policy if I can't do it I tell you so I don't rob people just make a fair living if any body has a car with serious problems I offer a swap policy if they can;t afford to pay what I seem the right price I would offer to take a part exchange on the price ie swap for something that I may be able to sell on or use myself at a later date while I dont agree with the price some garages charge you have to agree with them when several people just dont pay or will sort you out at the weekend we all get them but when doe's the weekend come tommorow or when as tommorow nevers comes

look at the dates of posts before you reply

the original post was years ago and the last post 6 months ago

 

[rambo]

My dads a retired mechanic.
He always used to say;
"not only are they paying for my hours labour, they are also paying for 40+ years of experience".
Never under sell yourself.

 

[s410man]

How do you manage that,

I mean how do you manage to pay the overheads and get a living only charging £10 a hour

it costs me quite a bit more than that in fixed overhead not including a living wage.

i work out how much each thing is costing per hour

eg 10 p per hour gas and wire

10p cutting dics

even these samll think can add up to a few £ a hour

the heating bill may be a few £ a hour on its own

£10 a hour does seem extremely low to make a living on

 

[Bristolbulldog]

Hi, I'm new here, sorry to reopen this thread.

I taught myself to weld some 8 years ago, and a family friend who has a t3 camper needs siginificant work. It's going to take me best part of 4>5 solid weekends. I'm a good mig welder especially on dredded rotten out vehicles.

I'm charging him direct for all materials. And want to figure an hourly or daily rate for labour. Is £15 an hour ok or £10 as I'm charging him all my direct costs anyway? I think £20 to people I don't know, 15 for people I do. His bill will likely top £1000 all in, including all materials, new wings, 2.5mm plate where possible, 10>15 year rust prevention (oil rig primer, followed by Seam sealer, schutz, and box sections done in vapour release).(obviously not wax oil). This is uninsured, no business etc.

 

[Feanor]

What a good thread, darkly nostalgic in fact, and I echo what most of the vehicle welders have said about making sure to charge a decent rate.

One sympathises with customers who have to fork out what seems a large sum of money for what may seem a small(ish) percentage of their vehicle but unfortunately being sympathetic doesn't pay the bills or put food on the table.

I did it all in the late 80s through to the early 90s, with vehicle repairs. Fords, especially Mk 4 and 5 Cortinas (shudder), British Leylands and worst of all, the East European cars that began to make a regular show in the MOT failure stakes. It NEVER paid enough for the work, pain and injury involved. About the only saving grace I can say about several years of MOT repair welding is that it taught me a whole lot the hard way ............ and about the best thing it taught me is ........... stay away from car welding, by which I mean everyday cars that had failed an MOT.

On your back welding upside down with oxy-acet. Sometimes the blowtorch a mere inch or two from your face with you in a constricted position. If you do move quickly because of a backfire or exploding and dripping underseal all you achieve is to split your head on the gearbox casting or some other protrusion. Always worrying about fuel lines, as well as the tank. And the wiring. And the brake pipes - highly flammable is brake fluid.

You had to also pay someone else just to sit and watch, armed with a Fairy Liquid bottle of water, plenty of damp (but not dripping) rags and an extinguisher as a final resort. You have to let some small fires burn though because damping them immediately chilled the weld area and prolonged the job. We actually became very skillful at controlled little fires, which is just madness really.

How many fairly serious burns did I suffer, mainly to the hands? Burnt scalp in a thousand tiny places. I've had backfire particles up the nose and in the ears. I once had a backfire welding a sill whilst sat cross-legged and despite being used to it I did on this occasion jump a little ............ and jabbed the red hot end of a 1.6mm gas-welding rod straight into my thigh, down to the bone. Loads of bits in the eyes of course, mainly loose rust, most of them teased out with the blunted and sanded end of a matchstick because going to A & E involved a massive loss of time and money. Another good skill you develop - DIY eye surgeon. I've done about six A & E visits with bits in the eye that won't come out via DIY, about 100 DIY jobs with a mirror and backlight.

We can laugh about it now, but steadily over years it almost ruined me. I remember when I got the workshop aged just 24 and there was suddenly a raft of MOT failure work that came along. Because it was work and I was enthusiastic I used to take it on board and because I never charged enough, even more came along. A slightly older friend who was a brilliant engineer and had some experience of car bodywork repair warned me against it but of course I knew better. "I would only take on car welding repair work regularly if it paid £1000 per week" he said, which was an astronomical wage back in 1988 and for a 20 something. I dismissed this as over-the-top exaggeration. Five years later I realised how correct he was. It's very time-consuming and skillful work and aside from the dangers and pains, there is, as noted, the continuous overheads in running a commercial outfit.

Thirty quid an hour is very reasonable for anyone who has overheads to pay, and this not including employees wages.

Ah yes ......... Cortinas - sills inner and outer, inner wings, under the battery tray and onto the bulkhead (right where the fusebox was too), floorpans, chassis. Capris - sills, inner wings and always seemingly the chassis where it curved up over the rear axle. Escorts - everywhere, especially inner sills and floorpans. Minis - A panels, entire boot floor, subframes, floorpans, everywhere else. Transits - chassis everywhere, round the headlamps. The list is endless. We once got a Sherpa in for welding repairs and the owner (or previous) had actually cement-rendered the inner wings to patch holes. Lol, except it's not funny.

I won't do it anymore now. There's better work, stood up at a bench, with clean steel and immensely better safety conditions. Besides I'm too old now for all that on your back on cold and damp floors.

Classics on the other hand - very much worth it if you get paid right. You feel better helping to keep such a vehicle alive and morale can be everything in some jobs. Besides, the very steel itself is better quality and the weld pools are often a joy to manipulate. The difference between a classic 1960s Jaguar and a late 80s Yugo is never more apparent than when you have the very steel in a melt and can observe how it behaves.

 

[Wedg1e]

Hey Feanor, my dad used to repair cars in the late 70's- mid 80's and I was the one who got to sit on fire watch - unpaid I might add - inside a myriad of festering old wrecks usually owned by tired old ICI employees who couldn't afford anything better. Ironically most of those wrecks would now be called 'classics' and would fetch silly money in any condition (the highlights were probably the Jensen 541R, Pontiac something and my dad's own Merc 300D 'Adenauer').
We'd scrape as much of the bitumen coating off but you never got all of it and an hour in that choking smoke was pretty grim: I am susceptible to chest infections now, some times of year I have a permanent cough and it's not impossible that the welding was the start of it.
My old fella also used to spray cellulose with just a paper mask - I'd go and stand in the garage to sniff the fumes but he'd chase me. Solvent abuse long before the glue-sniffers thought of it, I guess
Nowadays welding cars is something I hardly ever do, unless it's TVRs, which are of course GRP but have tube chassis with farcical corrosion protection. At least Lotus saw the light in the early 80's and started galvanising their chassis'. I had an '83 Esprit for a while and the chassis was gorgeous, can't say the same for my '87 TVR though...