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Restoration work ... cost per hour? [ish]

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timbn2

timbn2

Jedi Hopeful
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For those who have farmed out some of thier restoration work, or looked into it... what ballpark prices did you get, per hour or otherwise.
I have an expereinced Healey restorer in my area who seems very knowledgable. Granted, I do realize that a truley knowledgable healey guy is hard to come by, but i would like to kow where he stands price wise compared to other "knowledgable healey guys" elsewhere, however few they may be.

thanks
 
My instinct tells me, if you are contemplating a restoration you probably don't want to hear the figures other will give you. Suffice it to say that you can probably buy an already restored vehicle for less than it will cost you to have it done.
 
Expect to pay $40. plus per hour to someone whose knowledgable and in my case was also a machinist. How that equates to the U.S. dollar I'll leave up to you! Anmd if someone tells you it's far cheaper to buy one that's already been restored ............listen to them!

DT
 
Restorers usually won't get pinned down to a time either. Even if you paid $5 an hour but the guy takes 20 times as long well...

My first "restorer" did such a bad job I wound up paying a 2nd time. I should have gone with the 2nd guy at 1 1/2 times as much and it would have been 3 times cheaper.

Bruce
 
Well everybody has to earn a living, and these days everything is expensive.
I would say around $50/hr would be what any independant professional or tradesperson would expect. That equates to $100K per year for 50 weeks/40 hrs per week (2000 hrs annually). $100K is a reasonable annual salary for a guy with a couple of kids living in a major metro area. Then there is all the overhead...shop, utilities, equipment, materials, hired help, insurance, etc. So it goes up from there. Like I said, nothing is cheap anymore. Maybe buy one already restored.
 
In the SF Bay Area, assuming you can find a qualified Healey restorer, expect to pay $75-85/hr shop rate. Less expensive geog. areas perhaps cheaper, but not a lot.

Very few restorers do everything in house. Most farm out body and paint. Many farm out engine machining and tranny rebuilds, almost everyone send out guages. Whenever another vendor is involved, costs often escalate. I cannot image how anyone could have a ground-up nut and bolt restoration done on a Big Healey these days for less than $100k. Like I said, YMMV.
Cheers.
Randy
'66 BJ8
 
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