Looks like I have a HG issue that I need to have taken care of, however, I'm thinking it's going to be hard for me to part with $1500-$2300 to get it squared away. Is there anyone in the Denver area who is willing to get this fixed for ~$1k?

All my contact info is on my site at http://www.retroroo.com or you can call me 303-641-7947.

Sounds good, I'll likely be contacting you today.

If your HG is blown then you'll need more than the labor of a mechanic, you'll need the machine shop as well. I couldn't imagine doing it all for less than $1500. That's really the lowest I would charge.

I do them for $1000 out the door easily. And possibly a bit less on the SOHC engines. Everyone wins - the owner gets a good deal and I (or Shawn in this case) makes a nice bit of money for a weekend of work.

 

A good mechanic will have machine shops that he uses - and I'm sure Shawn has plenty of resources to tackle the job without the OP needing to find a machine shop for him.

 

GD

I do them for $1000 out the door easily. And possibly a bit less on the SOHC engines. Everyone wins - the owner gets a good deal and I (or Shawn in this case) makes a nice bit of money for a weekend of work.

 

A good mechanic will have machine shops that he uses - and I'm sure Shawn has plenty of resources to tackle the job without the OP needing to find a machine shop for him.

 

GD

 

I guess the price also changes based on region. In the Chicago area it's probably more expensive for labor and machine shop charges than in the more rural areas. Gosh, I once saw a reputable shop in nowhere South Carolina for $50/hr labor.

Yep - I charge less than that for labor. But remember I'm a one-man show working from my home garage. So is Shawn I beleive. I charge around $35 to $40 an hour depending on if it's a subaru/board member/other brand car/etc. Everyone gets a good deal - I wouldn't make that much working for a shop and the customer would pay more as well. Plus it's more personalized and I think I provide a better quality of work than most shops and even the dealer in a lot of cases - often dealer's don't even resurface heads for head gasket jobs, etc . And the fact that the overall cost of the job is lower allows me to replace more old parts than other shops and still have a reasonable price for the customer - that adds value as well. New head gaskets with an old water pump and timiing belt due to the cost of the job being high and the customer not being able to afford those parts is a diservice IMO.

 

I don't live in a Rural area - Portland is not Chicago, but it's still pretty freakin big.

 

GD

Edited November 3, 201015 yr by GeneralDisorder

Yep - I charge less than that for labor. But remember I'm a one-man show working from my home garage. So is Shawn I beleive. I charge around $35 to $40 an hour depending on if it's a subaru/board member/other brand car/etc. Everyone gets a good deal - I wouldn't make that much working for a shop and the customer would pay more as well. Plus it's more personalized and I think I provide a better quality of work than most shops and even the dealer in a lot of cases - often dealer's don't even resurface heads for head gasket jobs, etc .

 

GD

 

At the garage I work at we charge $70/hr (used to be 65, went up over the summer) and the mechanic gets half. So yeah, doing it from home you make a lot more. The downside is, of course, the shop is the one spending money on advertisement and feeding you customers.

I also have the advantage that I set my own hours, and I buy/sell cars on the side in my spare time that I make more per-hour on than the actual labor of working on someone else's car - if I worked a 9 to 5 in a shop I wouldn't have the time or motivation for that. In fact working on other people's cars is sometimes secondary to flipping cars for profit - but it bring me customers that often buy a car from me later or send friends and relatives to me when they need one, etc.

 

GD

I also have the advantage that I set my own hours, and I buy/sell cars on the side in my spare time that I make more per-hour on than the actual labor of working on someone else's car - if I worked a 9 to 5 in a shop I wouldn't have the time or motivation for that. In fact working on other people's cars is sometimes secondary to flipping cars for profit - but it bring me customers that often buy a car from me later or send friends and relatives to me when they need one, etc.

 

GD

 

Do you have a lift or do you just use a jack? I have to admit I love the lift and not working on my back.

I don't have a lift yet - but that's in the works. I'm going to put in a pit and a 24" lift (don't have the height for a full size).

 

Frankly though - the only time I would use it would be for tranny swaps and those are pretty rare on Subaru's.

 

It will come in handy when working on other brands - fortunately I mostly stick with Subaru's as I'm "known" in that community and there are tons of them here.

 

GD

the shop is the one spending money on advertisement and feeding you customers.

 

The best advertising is good word-of-mouth! (And I spent most of my career working in advertising.)

 

As far as customers, "If you build it they will come!" May take awhile but in this age of social media it's happening more and more.

 

Just wish I lived closer to Portland or Denver so I could turn to people like GD and Shawn.

 

All the best, guys.