What are the shop rates?? $$$$

[motorheadmike]

What will be your fixed operating costs? Insurance for Business and Liability, Business License, Cost of Utilities, Tools and Equipment, Taxes...Once you have calculated out what it costs to turn on the lights in the morning then you can decide how much you want to pay yourself.

North of the border here so the exchange may come into play. Shop I use by work does a bunch of Hot Rod stuff. He always seems to have 3-4 ongoing projects.
He charges $95 \ hr on the newer stuff at the "book" rate ( apprentice work he calls it ). Then its $110 on the older stuffs \ hot rods. Or alternatively $125\hr plus you buy lunch for the shop if you want to help 🙂
Its just so much more time consuming trying to undo some of the sh*t cobbled together on the older cars that you cant charge book rate, and you spend more time calling around looking for out of production parts or making newer stuff work on older cars.

These guys pretty much nailed it. I'd add a 10% "aggravation" premium for having to deal with customer BS. This is why I stopped doing side job repairs on Turbo Buicks - exotic car needs, Kraft dinner budget.

I'd add your consumables to the list of things to consider. Either you are building that in to the invoice (along with materials), or you are rough guessing what it takes to keep the shelves stocked.

 

[Texas82GP]

Robert,

Good luck with the venture. As others have said, you definitely have the talent to be successful. I've often wanted to do the same thing and go into business for myself working on old cars. It would be hard for me to be less particular on a customer car than I am on the cars me, my Dad and my brother are building and I'm not sure you can make money overkilling stuff. Finding the balance is the key I guess. Around here, I would say the going rate on labor is $100/hour + parts/materials but I'm not sure how many custom shops charge by the hour.

Best,

 

[HAFROD]

Finally got to talk to the building owners. They do NOT allow automotive related business to go in there. Didn't ask why just hung up the phone. It was $500 a month. Dangit

 

[1evilregal]

probably due to insurance regs..... keep at it, I know you'll put in as much detail into finding a location and starting it up, as you do to your vehicles. I know a couple years ago, some of the regular shops out here were charging $125 an hour, with certain jobs being a flat-ish price...

 

[Ribbedroof]

Finally got to talk to the building owners. They do NOT allow automotive related business to go in there. Didn't ask why just hung up the phone. It was $500 a month. Dangit

Sorry to hear that.

This is no reflection on you, but auto businesses tend to leave a lot of problematic disposal issues behind when they fold/move out/skip town. This would be my guess on why.

I would say anything less than very close to $100/hr is going to be tough to keep afloat. Fixed costs can be a killer as they accrue whether there is work in house or not.....but you already know this.

FWIW, local Chevrolet dealer is $132.50/hr, independent around the corner (that know what they are doing) is $95/hr and they stay pretty busy.

I have a friend that does old car stuff at $50/hr, but he is collecting Social Security, so it's really more of a hobby / place to go during the day than a regular job that he depends on for income.

 

[ck80]

I have a place I've been going to for years, that my fiancee's family has been going to for decades, that works on a lot of older cars/trucks in addition to newer stuff. (Talking mechanical work)

They've been chargin me $50/hr, but I heard from someone recently they were going up to $60...

Now as far as insurance work goes, we recently had something hit and the discounted rate one some estimates for the insurance shop were $44/hr body and $65/hr frame for metro atlanta area