what to pay a welder?

[alabamatacomaguy]

I'm meeting with a guy tomorrow that welds for a living and on his personal time works on jeeps and roll cages for people. He wanted me to throw out what I think it should cost and I'm trying to get a reasonable amount to offer him so I won't come in to low and insult him but also I don't need to overpay I'm bleeding dough trying to get the 40 in better shape. And after getting bent over with the title and tag issues I've got to really watch what I spend on it.

The first thing I'm hoping to get him to fix is the drivers floor pan. After that in the short term both rockers then I'll work towards the back of the tube

He'll have to cut out the old and weld in the new replacement piece. I've pulled everything but the drivers seat inside the tube to help as much as possible but welding is not in my ability right now or the short term future. So I have to get someone else to help me fix the hole before my driver seat falls through completely.

Here's my post from the 40 tech thread, I haven't gotten any replies on what to expect so I figured I would try here as I was researching some of the projects here seemed along the lines of it

I might have found someone great for welding the body panels to my fj.

He is wanting me to tell him what I thought it should cost first just to see and go from there.

Could anyone that's had work done or welded for money help me out.

I'm looking for the labor costs to remove old and weld in new NOT including parts.

I'm trying to figure a ball park cost for welding in a new replacement piece for:

drivers floor pan
Rockers under the doors

I don't want to low ball the guy but I don't want to pay to much. I guess I want to pay him what he deserves and maybe a extra 20-40 for being helpful as a tip haha. I was hoping to see 200-300 to weld in but I don't want to say that to him and insult him. Or find out that it should cost 100-200 for his time or 600-800?. I have no clue

Any quote I've gotten around town from shops that will even tough it is sky high.... I don't want to pay 1200 for a new floor pan to be welded in

Here's some shots of his work. I'm pretty excited about the possibility of him helping me . I still have some money in my budget to buy replacement panels and have him weld them in if he's not to high a cost
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Heck if he works out well enough this could mean metal tech or similar cage in a year or two

Any help or advice from your personal experience would be of great help. Thanks in advance and if this is in the wrong place please move or delete.





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[Fast Eddy]

I had a guy do all the welding for my SOA and outboarding my springs. He was great and I paid him $35/hour.

 

[don key]

shop rate is usually about $100 a hour. $35-$50 a hour depending for how good and how fast. Good, Fast, Cheap,pick two

 

[bugsnbikes]

He works on jeeps.......he must be good.

 

[alabamatacomaguy]

He works on jeeps.......he must be good.

haha, he doesn't specialize in jeeps per say. He had done a jeep floorboard and rockers in almost an identical spot as mine. He welds professionally as well hes just looking for side jobs to have some fun and make some extra moneys. He was very professional and a family man which for me is good as i have never met someone off of craigslist except the guy i bought the 40 from and the welder

We agreed on 800.00 for him to cut and weld in the replacement drivers floor pan, as well as repair some rusted out structure under it, both sides rockers replacement panels, patch the passenger floor hole, patch the drivers side kick vent panel (has a hole just big enough for a finger to go through) hes also going to patch other holes he might find to an extent as long as its nothing major, hes going to repair a half dozen rust pinholes in the bed of the tub. and possibly fix a few holes on the rear of the tubs quarter panels if he doesn't feel hes gone over budget.

800.00 seemed high to me at first but honestly for the quality of work he showed me hes done and for what hes having to deal with i think that price is pretty good for both of us. Im really excited after talking with him and seeing his previous work.
he also seems nice enough to give me some welding pointers if i can make it out there. He was a very nice and professional person. My long term goal is to be able to weld my projects myself but life and work prevent me from doing that right now. I am limited to whatever i can fit in a 10/15 storage unit with no power to work on the 40 for now

If this works out as planned it takes the 40 from junk body status to nice status. My plan is to paint the interior the tan color once done. I want to put sealer inside the new rocker seams Por 15 everything in the tub top and bottom, primer, spray paint that toyota tan color, then clear coat. Then ill have a half blue half tan colored 40 until i get a new hood and front fenders then i figured i would figure out the rest of the paint from there.

 

[alabamatacomaguy]

My goal is to have an interior as nice as this one everything is done. He's estimating a month before he can get to it and then he'll have it a month and I should get it back and then a month of me working around my free time I should have something that looks like this..... Hopefully

I can't remember which build thread I found that in but im using it for what i want to achieve after everything is done


if he does well enough on this job im thinking a metal tech cage is in order
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[alabamatacomaguy]

Here's what he's working with

Any tips I could pass along to him from y'all's experience with these areas. I'm kinda wondering how the trans tunnel will bolt down once he's done. The drivers floorpan is from classic to current and the rockers i plan on getting from real steel... I guess I'll bit the bullet and get inner and outer to make sure it's as big as can be onces he's done


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[Robs76fj40]

I've been a Journeyman Millwright for 18 years and welding is a major part of my job, you seem to have a good handle on the amount of work as well as the quality of work you want, which helps out more than you know! Like has been stated before - you get what you pay for -most times anyway. I do welding on the side as well and $35 an hour does not leave much room to make any money when you consider utility costs, consumables, weld rod/wire, gas, grinding discs etc, that's why I charge $50 an hour. I don't know what the terms of your deal are, but based on your pictures it wouldn't be hard to approach 30-40 hours of labor to repair the damage in a quality manner. Rust is always worse the it appears so 50-60 hours wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility - basing this on your pictures only. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I believe that $800 sounds like a fair deal for both of you. So best of luck!

 

[byrd_hntr]

I'm not a professional. Just a backyard hack so I don't know if my estimate holds much weight. Ive been doing some work on my truck and ball park I've been working on it ~40 hrs. Granted Im slow. And I would say I have about ~20 hr left. This is what I've done so far:

Disassemble the seats, gas tank, heater, and tranny hump.
Clean and scrap as much as I could.
Then I started cutting. I was trying to be conservative and only cut out the rot but the deeper I got the more I found. This included the inner and outer rockers. The front pillar was a lot of work to get the rust cut out and the cuts square and clean so I could weld to it.

So far Ive bought one floor panel from CCOT, and two pieces of 16ga sheet metal. (24x36). So material were cheap. Comparatively.

I still have to fab up my outer rocker and prep and paint so that is where I stand.

Of course Its been snowing all weekend and I don't have a garage to work in so I'm on hold for now. But that the life living in CO.

Here is my tread

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/77-sheet-metal-work.799426/

I hate to say it but I think once you dive in you will find a lot more rust just judging by your pictures. And really a good little mig welder that will burn body panels is cheap. You might consider getting stated with a $200 mig and use the 600 bucks to get more goodies for the cruiser. Good luck.

 

[roadstr6]

I cut my teeth on little British car restorations years ago and at that time I decided to bite the bullet and buy a 120V MIG set up for gas and teach myself to weld. Best decision ever. I have used the snot out of that little welder and it literally paid for itself on the first job. Welding floorboards and patches on a 40 is a great way to learn. If it's not perfect, who cares! You should consider buying a welder and an angle grinder and doing this yourself. You'll likely get it done faster than the other guy and for less money and you'll end up with a welder in your tool arsenal that years from now you will wonder how you ever lived without.

 

[Pete]

I cut my teeth on little British car restorations years ago and at that time I decided to bite the bullet and buy a 120V MIG set up for gas and teach myself to weld. Best decision ever. I have used the snot out of that little welder and it literally paid for itself on the first job. Welding floorboards and patches on a 40 is a great way to learn. If it's not perfect, who cares! You should consider buying a welder and an angle grinder and doing this yourself. You'll likely get it done faster than the other guy and for less money and you'll end up with a welder in your tool arsenal that years from now you will wonder how you ever lived without.

I agree with this 100%! I had a pro-welder buddy weld (MIG) in new metal (that I fabbed) at the roll bar mounts and I learned more watching him for an hour than I did in 10 years trying to teach myself using a wire welder with flux core wire. So I bought a 135 amp Lincoln MIG that runs off household current that I think I gave around $400 for about 5 years ago. Perfect for sheet metal use. Like Dave says, floor boards are an ideal place to learn to MIG. Just take your time and weld in little short bursts a few inches apart, then fill in the blanks. If you try to weld one continuous bead the heat will warp the panels and you'll have a lot more problems burning through. All that said, $800 sounds like a real good price to me.

Pete

 

[alabamatacomaguy]

Once I have a garage a welder and metal tools are on the list of must haves but for now I am very happy with the guy that's doing the work.

Here's some pics of what he's done so far

Both rockers have to be replaced and the driver floor and one of the supports and a small hole on the passenger side floor and a dozen pin holes in the bed will be patched. He's doing great work, I'm not even going to try and rush him he's taking time and doing it right so I'm just putting in more time at my job to be able to fund more cruiser stuff once he's done.


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[ErikinSC]

$35/hr is cheap, $45-60 is more in line with what i pay when I need 'personal' welding. It you goto a brick & mortar shop, expect to pay from $85 - $120 / hr. Now a slower welder might recognize this and charge you less, where a shop is going to knock it out of the park b/c they have the tools AND experience.

If the quality is what you expect - I'd say you got a great deal.

 

[alabamatacomaguy]

It's still at his house while he works on it. He's done one side and working on the other. It's turned into a project he works in as he gets time. I'm in no huge rush as I am at the busiest time of the year for work so I'm not rushing him at the moment but I am ready to get my 40 back.

I don't want to drill holes for the steps now it looks so good. I might look into aftermarket sliders that resemble the classic steps and just mount to the frame.

I've been researching a lot about welding mostly through YouTube but one day I'll get set up for it. Chuckie I think is the name of the welding tips I'm currently watching on there.


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[SouthBostonFJ40]

I paid $30 an hour to get my rockers done. My guy is very good and very fast. When I dropped my truck off, he was already set up so he started working immediately. A very skilled welder will work more quickly and cleanly than a less skilled one, so someone who charges less per hour might end up costing you more because they laid down booger welds that take forever to grind down.