i have allready bought everypart for my suspension and front steering, i was quoted 25 hours for installation at $35.00 an hour for labor does that sound about right?

They showed me the hours of each thing in the book and it looked right

we're talking about all moog parts and all of steve spohns suspension mods except subframes because i allready had those installed

parts include:
=balljoints
=front and rear wheel bearings
=front ca bushings
=struts, shocks and springs
=panhard
=rear ca's and relo brackets
=torque arm
=swaybar bushings and endlinks
=all moog steering parts

any input would be appreciated thanks


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89 iroc 5.7 can't go fast enough. 14.1

 

No, that's way way way high. You just fell victim to the "book" trick.

Think about how the books work... To replace front CA bushings, you drive the car into the shop, raise the rack, take a bunch of stuff apart including the tie rods, ball joints, sway bar end links, etc. You compress the springs and change the bushings and put the car back together again, and align it. Boom, book says 2 hours a side plus an alignment. OK, CA bushings are good now, so you want to replace the ball joints. The book says you drive the car in, put it on the rack, take a bunch of stuff apart including tie rods, ball joints, end links, etc. Swap BJs. Put the car back together again. Align it. Boom, another 2 hours a side, plus an hour to align it. OK, now you want to change the sway bar end links. ..... That's where 20 hours came from.

But if you did the BJs while you were doing the CA bushings, it would have been ½ hour apiece max. The struts that cost $100 labor to swap are about 5 minutes extra when the CAs are already getting swapped. The labor for sway bar end links is free because all the mech does is pick up new ones instead of old ones when he puts the car back together. They only align it once. See where you're getting sodomized?

The right price should be somewhere in the $300-400 neighborhood at $60 an hour. $35 is too cheap: if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Better yet, "rent" the tools at AutoZone or wherever, and do it yourself for free. Who wants a bunch of monkeys fornicating in your wallet.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

i'm doing this whole deal myself....
lets see....$159 for PST front end rebuild
$40 for centerlink...
$40 for inner tie rods..
$40 for idler arm..
$20 for tie rod and ball joint seperators...
$50 for spring compressor...
prices are only by memory
total..$350 parts + time...

piece of mind..doing it yourself....priceless

no this is not a mastercard commercial!
do it yourself and know
I've never done this befor and now I'd do it on any car...forget paying someone...simple

[This message has been edited by Camaroman (edited June 30, 2001).]

 

Autozone... that is where i rented mine from.

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Black 90 IROC, L98, A4, 323 gear. SuperRamed 406 in the works!

[This message has been edited by MikeH (edited June 30, 2001).]

 

Plus, you'll get experience and satisfaction from doing it yourself. Is that of any value to you?

Then there's always the knowledge that the job was done right (provided you know what you're doing), or at least you knew what exactly was done. You can probably tell I do not trust mechanics (no offense to any mechanics) - I've just had/seen too many people get burned. No one will treat a car (or anything else for that matter) as well as the owner.

Of course you'd need the time and basic knowledge (we've all started learning sometime).

 

The only thing you won't be able to do yourself is getting the control arm bushings and ball joints pushed in , and a computerized alignment. Take the control arms to a shop to get them done, probably the place you plan on getting your alignment when the car is done. If you have a Haynes or Chilton's manual, read through it to familiarize yourself with what is involved. All you really need is some good hand tools, a can of rust penetrant, a floor jack or two, some jackstands and a pickle fork. Plan on a couple hours for dissassembly of everything, if you have a friend to hand you tools it might go faster. The satisfaction of doing it yourself will build your confidence as these guys are saying. After you finish, you'll wonder why you ever even thought of taking it in as an option.

 

FYI...Autozone will loan you a tool to R/R the balljionts and bushings. I used it on my car.

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Black 90 IROC, L98, A4, 323 gear. SuperRamed 406 in the works!

 

ok heres the deal, I said that the shop estimated it at 25hours at $35 an hour, I lied because I feel stupid, I actually had the work done and my car was there for like 2 weeks, then they called me and told me that the total for everything plus allignment was $1,100.00 just for labor!!!!!!{man i was furious}. Before i had them work on the car I asked the guy to give me a ballpark, I asked if it would be like 1,000 and he said no it shouldn't be that much so then i said 6 or 7 hundred and he said somewhere around there. I got the car with $800.00 cash and i told him i would give him the rest later and he let me take my car, well I don't think they worked on it for like 30 hours what do you think?? How long would it take to do everything, I talked to one of the guys today and told him that i didn't beleive him and he admitted that they never shouldv'e let me take the car without all the money, I was feeling bad about it today so I thought I would ask you guys can you tell me what you think Please? thanks guys I really need your feedback tonight!

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89 iroc 5.7 can't go fast enough. 14.1

 

just to clear it up i was feeling bad about not paying them the rest of the money, $310.00. I figured that I paid them for 20 hours of work once i subtracted the $50.00 for shop supplies {bs} and minus the $50.00 for the allignment

$800.00 that i paid them minus $100.00 then
$700.00 devided by $35.00 for labor equals 20 hours that i so far have paid them for there work is 20 hours fair? thanks

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89 iroc 5.7 can't go fast enough. 14.1

 

Dude,
In Florida, they have to tell you if your actual price is going to exceed $50 or 10%. I believe that the shop may be requried to post this by law inside the loby. If they quoted you $875, they can't legally charge you more than $875 + $87.50 without contacting you first. At least this is how I understand it.

 

ok thanks for the reply, i appretiate

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89 iroc 5.7 can't go fast enough. 14.1

 

can anyone tell me about how long it takes to replace front end parts, bushings everywhere and all the rear end mods?

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89 iroc 5.7 can't go fast enough. 14.1