I know first hand the labor involved in polishing to a high lustre the plenum and runners. I want to know what this might be worth on a commercial marketing basis.

How much would you pay to have:

1. Your Plenum Polished?
2. Your Plenum Extension?
3. Your Runners?


Please tell me separately....... and:

4. A good combo price for all three at once?

This would include powder coating the grooves in the color of choice.

Thanks for any ideas and help.

 

I would pay like 200 to have it all done. 50 or so for each individual piece.

 

Samples of Work:

Just Finished Desert86Roc's Plenum and Extension:



And his SLP Runners done a while back:



And here are mine:

 

Holy **** that looks awesome! Someday I'll pull mine apart and do them.

 

That looks awesome . I always liked the look of the TPI intake and
runners, but they look really good when they are polished like that.
I was just wondering how the upkeep is, being in the engine bay
and all. On the topic of the value of this service. As can be seen
from the pictures you included the quality of your work is impeccable.
I would say $50-75 per item, $75 especially if you will be powder
coating the grooves and include the supplies required to do it.
Then you could do all 3 for like $175-200 which would factor to
about a 15-25% savings over doing them separately. I know how
time consuming it is to polish to a high luster and I'm sure some
people would consider these prices a deal, as long as you have
a good turn around time.

 

I use just carnabu wax. Maintenance is pretty minimal. When you polish to a smooth finish.... it naturally resist chemicals and grunge just cuz' it's slick.

Much more resistive than the porous cast.

 

just wanted to bump this up to the top to see some other opinions on prices.

 

1) 70
2) 30
3) 50
Beyond that level I would just buy a dremel and do it myself, then also do the alt, brake booster, etc.....
I usually do things myself because I really enjoy working on my car especially when it's for dress up and preservation work.

 

I've checked Street & Performance, they polish the plenum for $85 and the runners are $90 each. Give them a call and ask about chroming, they told me $425 for everything www.hotrodlane.cc

 

gota love mikes work.... I dont have the time or paitents to polish stuff. I prefer Powdercoating thing.. But polish is awesome looking.

Samples of a few pieces of my work

www.cecoatings.com/coatedparts

 

Mikes work is by far the best I have ever seen. Even commercialy done stuff isn't that good. I would say for him like $100+ for plenum, runners $150ish and extension like $30. he does VERY good work. now I would never pay edelbrock there $100 to polish a manifold, they do a crappy job at polishing I think.

 

87TransAm ..... I'm sending out this kick back check right away........LOL.

Seriously I really appreciate the compliments.

And the input from everyone. It's interesting to see the various prices on each item but add them together and they seem to add up to the same and what I had in mind.

The plenum is a bear. I do a couple of extra steps, like take the two little eyelets on top off and remove all casting lines and knocks.

Not anything to do with demand or market value but purely BASED ON THE HOURS involved..... here is what I had in mind.

Plenum - 150 (free porting if desired)
Runners - 80 (pair)
Extension - 30

Combo 250 w/free shipping back and free porting of plenum (if desired). Customer supplies aluminum extension or add 25 bucks.

SLP Runners - 150 (these are an absolute dog)

Stock Alternator - 80

All work to include bead blasting to start clean. On the plenum this would include the inside as well. On the plenum and extension this would include beading the grooves and then powder coating the grooves (several color options) for long lasting durability.

Turn around time would be about 1 week on a combo job.

NOW

I'm just THINKING about starting this service and wanted some opinions from my third gen buds. This is extremely tedious, dirty work and I'm at that "balance" line of if you can't make a few bucks then it's not worth it.

I may be overly picky but based on the hours invested and the rates above I figure it equates to about 6.25 an hour.

Thanks again......... more input is welcome.

 

From the pics, I must say the work is way better than commercially done stuff as well. I have seen some stuff I would not dare put on my car cause its just not up to par. As far as chroming, I have seen some pieces that aren't polished enough before they are chromed and they look bad. Thats why we polished mine ourselves. People have asked if we would polish stuff for them and I would want a crap load to do it. I agree with the above prices. You get what you pay for. Polishing is not easy. And it costs to get the right tools and compounds.

 

Id have to Agree they are a Dog. The ones I powdercoated where sanded down 1st. The coated.

Price wise for SLP runners ---- Your 1st born child. LOL. J/K