Welding car - at mates rates?

Maddie

Hi,

This is not exactly an "is this quote fair", but I thought someone might be able to help anyway.

A family friend has just spent the best part of 2 days welding my car - one patch on the wheel arch for which he had to remove the petrol tank etc, and two small bits on the door pillars.

I want to give him a fair payment as he has brought all his welding stuff with him from Skegness to Sheffield (he was coming over anyway), and has been incredibly helpful.

He has said he initially was going to ask for a couple of beers as payment, but since it turned into a bigger job has said make it £50.

I think this is far too low. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Maddy

G'Meister

Maddie wrote: »

Hi,

This is not exactly an "is this quote fair", but I thought someone might be able to help anyway.

A family friend has just spent the best part of 2 days welding my car - one patch on the wheel arch for which he had to remove the petrol tank etc, and two small bits on the door pillars.

I want to give him a fair payment as he has brought all his welding stuff with him from Skegness to Sheffield (he was coming over anyway), and has been incredibly helpful.

He has said he initially was going to ask for a couple of beers as payment, but since it turned into a bigger job has said make it £50.

I think this is far too low. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Maddy

£50 for a couple of days work I'd quite agree sounds too low, but maybe in the future you'd be in the position to return the gesture?
Otherwise, maybe find out what it would've cost you from a local garage, and come up with a figure with some basis in that...

Hitch

Yes, far too low imo. If thats all he wanted, give him a very generous tip if hes done a decent job on it.
Most people i know that bother to weld cars charge £10 an hour for cash if its an easy job.

adlee

Wow that is cheap for a lot of work. I know from welding up panels on my classic, its not just the welding, but preparation, and as you say, removing stuff like petrol tanks, which can take a day of fiddling about on their own.

Trade prices vary, I know somebody (blonde girl, they saw her coming) who was ripped off by a garage, who charged £180 to weld a little 2" strip in her spare wheel recess, which technically didn't need doing. What you're describing would cost about £250 minimum, simply because mechanics would charge an hourly rate of at least £15 per hour for 16 hours (actually hourly rate has probably gone up a bit since i last looked into these things).

Obviously mates rates would be less, but I might be inclined to slip £100 min. Of course, this depends on whether he has really helped you out, i.e. done a decent weld, or whether he's a bit of a bodger, i.e. not properly cleaned metal prior to weld, and not properly cleaned the slag / oxides off afterwards, and simply painted over with cheapy old underseal, rather than using a decent rust-preventative paint like Hammerite (which is quite expensive). Sadly even some of the "pros" don't do much better than a bodge, like maybe a good weld, but only underseal covering it. [Underseal has a habit of trapping water - bare metal should always be properly painted first].

Hope this helps, sorry if slightly garrulous

Maddie

Thanks for the replies.

We've decided to give him £100, which I think is still a bargain, but won't make me feel cheeky. Apparently £50 is his standard daily rate

I trust that he will have done a good job.

I had to look garrulous up!

Cheers, and if you need a good cheap welder up north, let me know!

Maddy