auxilary Posted September 1, 2004 Share Posted September 1, 2004 situation: i need exhaust manifold fabbed up and welded. I have most components, but it requires tig welding, cutting, measuring, and towing the car. I need the manifold welded, wastegate v-band clamp welded, etc. i have two options: 1. friend of a Z guy who'd do pretty much anything needed welding on the Z including manifold for $100. manifold, reinforcements, etc. supposedly does decent stuff, has a 40's style aircraft tig welder in his garage at home. basic tools aside from the welder. everything needed for $100 2. friend of a friend, who moonlights on the side. has a big bunker with a snap-on lift, mig, tig, arc welders, plasma cutter, pipe benders,etc. Has been welding for 14 years, does all the body strenghtening on jeep offroader and rock crawlers, kick ass work. but he charges 45/hour, and say everything that needs to be done would take the whole day. which would you pick? possible option 3 is work out a flat rate with guy #2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted September 1, 2004 Share Posted September 1, 2004 All I can say is that I've had several engineers and fabricators do little projects for me, and those people can turn a 1/2 hour job into 16 hours easy. Everything I had done turned out GREAT, but it could have been 1/2 as great and 10 times cheaper if they didn't absolutely obsess on the details and I still would have been happy. I got to the point where I would say "I can buy this piece from here for X dollars. If I bring you this material, can you do this job for less than X?" and wouldn't give them the job unless they committed to it being cheaper. They weren't trying to screw me at all, but fabricators are a different breed, and man they can be ANAL... Since you obviously can't just go buy this header, my advice is set yourself a dollar amount that you think it's worth and then go to the guy who has all the equipment and tell him you think it is worth X and you want him to do it, but you don't want to pay more than X. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxilary Posted September 1, 2004 Author Share Posted September 1, 2004 I've got all the pieces and hardware - it just has to be adjusted for proper fit and put together, so it's not like the welder would have to get any additional materials, but i see your point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike kZ Posted September 1, 2004 Share Posted September 1, 2004 If you have the material, and either have a mig welder or can borrow one, just tack everything together until you are satisfied, and have one of them finish tig weld it for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted September 1, 2004 Share Posted September 1, 2004 Well the other side... I can't recall how many times I've had someone elses shoddy work in here that I need to fix. The customer goes to the cheap source to try to save a few bucks, and ends up getting a garbage job done. Then ends up paying more in repairs in the end, trying to get someone to make chicken soup out of their chicken $hit. If the first guy does good work, then go for it. I'd just look at an example of his work first and make sure you are getting the quality of work that you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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