We got most of the parts required to redo the suspension on our 68. Unfortunately, I am unable to do all the replacing myself. Question about replacing the rear springs and hardware… What would a fair labor price be? Same goes for the front end suspension rebuild… What would fair pricing be? Anybody on here paid someone to do it and remember how much it was? Any responses are welcome, considering we would like to get this knocked out soon. Thanks.
I don’t know the hourly rate for shops in your area so I can only tell you man hours and what an alignment costs.
Rear springs are easy. Three hours X shop rate = ???
Front suspension - assuming new upper and lower A arms, new shocks, new tie rods and ends and adjusters, new strut rod bushings, new idler arm.
About 20 hours. Add another two hours if replacing the springs and spring saddles. Expect higher because new springs usually have to be cut to length, reinstalled, maybe repeat a couple times until ride height is acceptable.
Alignment - I take my car to an alignment shop. They have a flat rate of $100 for front end / four wheel laser alignment. Again prices vary widely.
If you get someone unfamiliar with working on 1960’s automobiles the hours may double or triple and they may ruin the adjusters once before figuring out how to set camber. Recommend that you find someone who has done this previously and is good at it.
Royce,
All that you said, makes perfect sense. Keep in mind we are talking about a 52 year old vehicle. Lots of those nuts and bolts won’t come off easy. Estimate a fair price of what you would pay for the entire suspension to be replaced. $1500, $2000, $2500, etc. What can we realistically expect to pay to have that kind of work done on our 68?
On old cars you can’t really flat rate repairs. Those rear springs can take forever if the bolts in the front spring eyes are rusty. The u bolts over the axle are often rusty and or bunged up and bent. If I had to quote a fixed price I would at least double the hours for a no surprise job. Maybe more if there was a hint that the job would be challenging.
My opinion is that you want to find an honest mechanic and establish an hourly rate that is fair. Remember that you are paying for rent utilities insurance and all other overhead. In addition to 15% self employment tax, and the cost of any benefits that are a part of most people’s compensation.
Given that, there should be no qualms if you want to watch the work being done, and you helping doesn’t earn a discount off the hourly rate, but it might reduce the number of hours.
I’d say less than $4000. More than $2500
If I can get a race car mechanic to do the work for under $2,000, would that be considered a good deal?
Maybe. Building race cars is almost by definition an indication that they aren’t used to old Ford front end parts. Unless they have been racing old Fords. What goes wrong is if he runs into problems, and discovers that he underpriced the job, what happens? The guy is almost certain to cut corners. Just have a plan.
My “mechanic”, as I call him was once referred to as being “anal” by his former boss. If he wasn’t 100% happy with his own work, he wouldn’t let you have your car. I’m glad that he is that way. I’ve had him do my brakes and power steering. He does great work. Unfortunately, he works on the race cars in his spare time. Vettes. He does work on other GM muscle cars, but we got him to work on our 68. The wife was not happy with the shop pre-estimate. I tried to explain to her that it won’t be easy and it’s a lot of hard work. If we want good work, we will have to pay for it. From the responses I have gotten on this thread, I see that I may be getting a bargain. As long as he doesn’t have too much trouble upgrading the car though.
In the many years of doing suspensions, I have found that the time will vary greatly. I have done a set of rear springs in under 1 hour. I have also had some that required cutting the spring, then the steel sleeve, rubber bushing, only to find the bolt & inner steel sleeve are now one. Running a air chisel along the length of the sleeve to loosen it from the bolt. That took a few hours…
I always explain to the customer the issues that may come up. I only charge the actual time…
Never release a cat to the customer unless I feel that the car is safe enough for any loved one to drive anywhere. Including ME!!!
So, I never use “junk” kits for parts, only MOOG brand in the original blue & yellow boxes.
I know for a fact that others will re-box Moog for their own “in house” brand(Moog sells them their seconds). The parts are always “seconds” that did not meet the standards for MOOG first line products. Just take a look at the “CARQUEST” ones…
So, the price will be varied, but somewhere around the 3K is a good reference point.
P.S. I DO NOT work on other brands like Chebby or MOO par. Keeping it safe & simple.
Stay w/ someone who knows the Cats & not someone who’s motto is “it has the same # of wheels!”
It’s funny that you don’t care much for the other car makers. I hear ya. My mechanic is a GM guy and told me that he’s not a real big fan of Ford but likes our cat. He’s an honest and competent mechanic. We got the super kit from P-S-T to install on the car. She’ll probably handle like a dream afterwards. 
I agree on finding someone familiar with this era of vehicles. They can be different then what guys are used to with modern vehicles, however keep in mind a good mechanic will have the skill set to fix just about anything just make sure he is honest and has pride in what he does. I have lost money doing repairs on vehicles just to make it right for the customer.
I would agree on not pricing the job as a flat rate job, it needs to be an hourly rate based on how many hours are invested into the repair. If I was quoting the job I would quote it with an expected hourly time with a pre approval for additional hours as necessary. If I do a job on the side out of my house for cash I charge about 75 per hour. If it’s in the shop it’s substantially more but with more resources the job can take less time to complete.
Too bad your not close to AZ. I could really use some side jobs right about now.
I would prefer to have someone with cat experience locally to do the upgrades but I am unaware of any in the St Louis area. The mechanic that is working on my car takes great pride in his work. That’s why I let him work on my car and only him.