I am about to complete a body work job, my first. Yes, I have read the other posts on this forum with more or less the same question. I will try and include a couple of photos of the work. The materials have all been paid for by the customer, I have no shop overhead, so basically I am asking about labor costs. I live in Hawaii on the island of Maui. The areas with primer were completely rusted out so first cleanup the area, anti-rust coat, bondo, filler, putty, sanding after each step, and now primer... finishing base coat to follow. No idea what to charge, the only thing I know is that bodywork here is super expensive.

Below are the two areas I worked on. It will need a final sand and then base coat

It's not really correct to price your work compared to what a reputable auto body shop would charge - their repair and paint procedure would be completely different.

Is this really for a customer or is it a friend/family member who gave you the go ahead to experiment on their truck?

chris wrote:It's not really correct to price your work compared to what a reputable auto body shop would charge - their repair and paint procedure would be completely different.

Is this really for a customer or is it a friend/family member who gave you the go ahead to experiment on their truck?

I do freelance mechanical work along with other types of skills... This is really a customer. I am looking for a quote so as to to get a ballpark figure and then reduce it as what you comment is correct.

Well, normally a shop would cut all the rust out then weld in patch panels (they make plenty of versions for those Dodge trucks). Grind down the welds, filler, primer - both feathered out, not a hard tape line. Then for the color especially that dark silver/grey you'd do a couple of spray-out cards to make sure you have a blendable color, and adjust the recipe accordingly.

You'd try to keep the blend small and down low, that's why you put the time into getting the color match as close as possible. You would also most likely end up burning in a clear edge at that body line near the base of the window.

You'd also make sure the body drain points are not clogged, or create new ones if needed, and shoot some body cavity sealer into the back of the repair area with a Shutz gun or equivalent, to try to keep the repair from failing down the road. This is an example of what we've used:

http://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/collision-re ... -wax-plus/

We've done these before and I've seen plenty come out of 'real' shops. Both sides of the truck, it would be around $2500 for that job here in NY.

World of difference from that process and what you've got going on there...I really can't even guess as to what the adjustment would be.

Thanks for the reply. Here are the original photos as I found the vehicle

http://www.la-colmena.org/body2.jpg

http://www.la-colmena.org/body3.jpg

Yup...classic example...so common on Dodge they should add it as a line item on the window sticker.

Probably should have talked about the method of repair, price, and warranty with the customer up front.

Reason I say that is most shops would not have just mudded that in. It would have been replaced with metal as stated above. A mud job that large may not last long. Depends on if you got 100% of the rust cut out, gave the mud something good to stick to, and feathered out far enough.

So they are getting a "budget repair". It may fail a year or two from now (or it may last 10 years). I would keep it on the cheap side, but don't under cut yourself. Estimate the amount of time you spent and charge based on your hourly rate for other work. Add materials with a small markup.

BeoBob wrote:Probably should have talked about the method of repair, price, and warranty with the customer up front.

Reason I say that is most shops would not have just mudded that in. It would have been replaced with metal as stated above. A mud job that large may not last long. Depends on if you got 100% of the rust cut out, gave the mud something good to stick to, and feathered out far enough.

So they are getting a "budget repair". It may fail a year or two from now (or it may last 10 years). I would keep it on the cheap side, but don't under cut yourself. Estimate the amount of time you spent and charge based on your hourly rate for other work. Add materials with a small markup.

thx for your comments. appreciated