Customer wants a narrowed housing only......what should I charge?

[Cranky]

Have someone that wants me to narrow a 66-67 B body housing (his) to 'A' body width and says to leave the spring perches where they are since he's telling me that there's room to remove 1" from both sides. I need to check the differences in the perches as there isn't a whole lot of room between the 66-67 bearing houses and the perches. Anyways, if there's room to leave the perches on, how much should I charge to narrow it to 'A' body width?

Been several years since I've narrowed one and well, the commercial shops probably have gone up on prices like everything else has. Not even sure if he knows that the 'A' vs 'B' axles have a different length from the bearing or not but he says he doesn't want to buy wheels with the correct offset since he already has the wheels he wants to use and I'm not too sure I want to 'eddymacate' him on the subject since he already seems to know more than I do. So far he's not telling me if he is going to use aftermarket axles or stock 'A' body axles. He's just wanting me to shortened it 1" per side. Man, really don't care to work for people like this plus I'm pretty busy right now but the extra money never hurts.

 

[Sam69sat]

Tell him you'll do it but he has to pay for the sawzall blades and jb weld.

 

[Cranky]

Tell him you'll do it but he has to pay for the sawzall blades and jb weld.

 

[Cranky]

Tell him you'll do it but he has to pay for the sawzall blades and jb weld.

I actually have a saw that cuts straight and a welding machine but need to learnt how to use them lol

 

[R413]

Get him to tell you a width he wants it to be when done. Then you are covered. The education is up to him.

 

[ruffcut]

I've done a couple, an 8 3/4 and a Dana 60 and I think 500 dollars is not out of the question. That being said, I know what you're sayig not really wanting to work for someone that know more than you. If yous gut feeling is saying not to get involved, then listen to your gut. A problem down the road isn't worth the job, if you know what I mean. Ruffcut

 

[Kern Dog]

Finding an A body 8 3/4” axle has been difficult out here so the low dollar alternative has been using a cut down B housing and aftermarket axles. Some C bodies had axle shafts with enough meat to cut and spline. The shop that I used to charge $300 to narrow a housing and cut and respline two shafts. This has surely gone UP in the past three years. I’ve only dealt with this one guy who runs a mostly one man shop so maybe he was giving me a buddy deal. He has always had prices that seemed cheaper than I expected to pay.

 

[Cranky]

I've done a couple, an 8 3/4 and a Dana 60 and I think 500 dollars is not out of the question. That being said, I know what you're sayig not really wanting to work for someone that know more than you. If yous gut feeling is saying not to get involved, then listen to your gut. A problem down the road isn't worth the job, if you know what I mean. Ruffcut

On man, I've lost count of how many I've shortened but my last one was several years ago. Thought I might ask if anyone has had one done lately.

Finding an A body 8 3/4” axle has been diff out here so the low dollar alternative has been using a cut down B housing and aftermarket axles. Some C bodies had axle shafts with enough meat to cut and spline. The sho I use used to charge $300 to narrow a housing and cut and respline two shafts. This has surely gone UP in the past three years. I’ve only dealt with this one guy who runs a mostly one man shop so maybe he was giving me a buddy deal. He has always had prices that seemed cheaper than I expected to pay.

Man, that sounds cheap. I've done the respline deal before and that was a LOT of years ago (20 years at least) and iirc, just the respline by itself was 250.

 

[Kern Dog]

I figured I was getting a hood deal but wow… maybe I owe that guy a few favors.

 

[#41]

Man, really don't care to work for people like this plus I'm pretty busy right now

For these reasons, ask double. Then it goes away or you do the job... either way you'll see it as a win.

 

[Cranky]

For these reasons, ask double. Then it goes away or you do the job... either way you'll see it as a win.

Well, not sure what double is. I'll be welding on the stock bearing housings after cutting them off and then bevel them and the housing for welding. I still have my lathe for the housings but will have to do the housing stubs with a grinder.

 

[Dave6T4]

In the long run, it would be cheaper to buy the right wheels, and sell what he has.

 

[DeltaV]

$1,800 minimum

 

[toolmanmike]

How long does it take? You should be good for $100/hour. (at least)

 

[Cranky]

$1,800 minimum

 

[Cranky]

How long does it take? You should be good for $100/hour. (at least)

I've never really kept track of the time since over the years, I get interrupted so often and now that I'm much older, I take a LOT of breaks lol. Thinking about shooting him a price of 300. It's just the housing and that's not that hard to do plus I have a bar to slide in and make things align pretty good. Probably take maybe 4 hours if I were to stay hard at it.... but can't do that anymore! If things align well initially, I won't have to spend much time aligning it afterwards.

 

[pnora]

From Mosers web site.

 

[DeltaV]

Like I said above ...$1,800 minimum.

 

[toolmanmike]

I've never really kept track of the time since over the years, I get interrupted so often and now that I'm much older, I take a LOT of breaks lol. Thinking about shooting him a price of 300. It's just the housing and that's not that hard to do plus I have a bar to slide in and make things align pretty good. Probably take maybe 4 hours if I were to stay hard at it.... but can't do that anymore! If things align well initially, I won't have to spend much time aligning it afterwards.

Measure twice, cut once!

 

[bobsgtx]

$85/hr? Wow is that cheap!