MachineMan
Remove Before Flight
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Business is very slow so I walked around the corner where there are a couple of shops that build hot rods and harleys.
One is a shop that some guy just rented three months ago, I stopped in and gave him a card.
Looking around I saw projects, a harley or two, a Belvedere, a nova with a big engine.
Everything in that shop was "Way" clapped out.
Everything was rusted out, bent, dented, or otherwise whacked out.
I don't criticize peoples stuff, he is having more fun than I am, so big deal.
Turns out he is from the North West, that is why all his stuff is so rusted out, floor pans you could pass a a lunch box through, stuff like that.
He calls me and ask if I can shorten and re-thread a pair of harley fork tubes, I come by to pick em' up and they are really clapped out....
can I polish them up too?
I said I could spin em' and hit with chrome brite, he says cool.
He calls in a day or two and asks hows it going, and if I have an idea of cost.
I tell him my shop rate is $65 hr, (same as 1989), and that I forecast about 2 to 2 1/2 hrs. each.
He says "I can get new ones for $55" , I say "What!", that is impossible!
Then I say you can't even chrome plate these for $55, how on earth could you buy new ones............
"Oh wait I say", "are you talking about some chinese copies?
His answer, "Uh ... yeah"
I say, "you expect me to work for a dollar an hour like they do in china?"
He says, "well it doesn't matter now, just finish em"
He claims he told me that he could get some new for $55, "I told him no way, you didn't"
If he did I would have right away asked if he expected me to work for chinese wages.
So if new ones are $55, a shorten, thread, & polish should be about half of that.
So I suppose in under an hour I was supposed to do 4 to 5 hours work.
* Anyone else here get this chinese knock off baloney thrown in their face in a situation like this? *
These parts finish up at 26 1/2" long, 1.375-18 female thread,.900 deep, in heat treated steel.
Plus the set up,etc.
.
Business is very slow so I walked around the corner where there are a couple of shops that build hot rods and harleys.
One is a shop that some guy just rented three months ago, I stopped in and gave him a card.
Looking around I saw projects, a harley or two, a Belvedere, a nova with a big engine.
Everything in that shop was "Way" clapped out.
Everything was rusted out, bent, dented, or otherwise whacked out.
I don't criticize peoples stuff, he is having more fun than I am, so big deal.
Turns out he is from the North West, that is why all his stuff is so rusted out, floor pans you could pass a a lunch box through, stuff like that.
He calls me and ask if I can shorten and re-thread a pair of harley fork tubes, I come by to pick em' up and they are really clapped out....
can I polish them up too?
I said I could spin em' and hit with chrome brite, he says cool.
He calls in a day or two and asks hows it going, and if I have an idea of cost.
I tell him my shop rate is $65 hr, (same as 1989), and that I forecast about 2 to 2 1/2 hrs. each.
He says "I can get new ones for $55" , I say "What!", that is impossible!
Then I say you can't even chrome plate these for $55, how on earth could you buy new ones............
"Oh wait I say", "are you talking about some chinese copies?
His answer, "Uh ... yeah"
I say, "you expect me to work for a dollar an hour like they do in china?"
He says, "well it doesn't matter now, just finish em"
He claims he told me that he could get some new for $55, "I told him no way, you didn't"
If he did I would have right away asked if he expected me to work for chinese wages.
So if new ones are $55, a shorten, thread, & polish should be about half of that.
So I suppose in under an hour I was supposed to do 4 to 5 hours work.
* Anyone else here get this chinese knock off baloney thrown in their face in a situation like this? *
These parts finish up at 26 1/2" long, 1.375-18 female thread,.900 deep, in heat treated steel.
Plus the set up,etc.
.
