I don't think it's right

[Eric Stone]

Thats way too cheap, I charge $45 per hour compared to what the going rate is around here at $85-$110 per hour.

Dealership general repair rates are around $100/hr here in Texas, if I'm not mistaken.

Hey, what about dog shows? Are they cheating if they didn't build their own dogs?

[Modelmartin]

Hey, what about dog shows? Are they cheating if they didn't build their own dogs?

Good one!

They hire groomers, vets, trainers and handlers!!!

[LDO]

Maybe the OP can organize a car show with owner-built cars only. I wonder how many would show up? Better yet; I wonder why no one has done this in the past? Maybe because no one would show up.

[Ben]

Don't know what the hourly rate is here in Iowa for a good body/paint man, but when I lived in NC, most shops were paying around $35-$45 per hour, & that was several years ago.

At Freightliner as a painter, I was making $24.65 an hour, but they also paid for our insurance, which most bodyshops don't do, thus the higher pay rate, to compensate for the difference. Also most shops expect you to supply as many of your own tools as possible, which makes a difference. Working in my cousin's bodyshop when I was laid off from Freightliner I made $50 an hour, but he worked on a lot of boats, jet skis & such, which required an experienced fiberglass worker. Having gotten my start at a friend's shop many years ago, who specialized in Corvettes, along with the fiberglass parts we used at Freightliner, I had the experience, thus he added an extra $10 an hour above & beyond what most of his employee's made.

I don't know any competent body/paint man that would work for $10-$20 an hour anywhere in a shop, due to painting being considered a skilled trade. A good enough rep in your area, & you can pretty much write your own ticket, within reason.

Our shop labor rate just went to 115.00 per hour at the beginning of this year. (It was 110.00)

We are a full service facility for the very high end motor coaches and travel trailers. Our painter was only making 20.00 per hour and knew he was being (blanked!) He just quit on Thursday and went to an automotive shop. My boss is stupid, he doesn't see the whole picture! He's going to have a fun time finding a competent body man now that can do what the last guy did!

Edited January 16, 2011 by Ben

[slant6]

This has always bothered me. I have one customer in particular that comes to mind, he put his car, that he did no work on, in my stores car show, and took the credit for all the work. I did the sound system and I know for a fact that he paid someone else to do all the mechanical and cosmetic work. I would put a car built by someone else in a car show, but, I would certainly give credit where credit is due.

[Railfreak78]

There has only been ONE time this topic has made me madder than a shaken hornets nest. in 2005 I went to the Seattle Roadster Show ( Kinda like the World of Wheels ). I saw a Corvette in the show that I had just saw on PINKS tv show. The guy acted like he did all the work and on TV the Vette popped the engine and lost so it was given to the guy that had it at the show. I was talking about the show and the owner approched me and mumbled something that I couldn't understand and I told him where to go. He should have given credit and not acted like the whole car was his creation.

[Ben]

That's where my cousin was smart. I didn't get the extra $$$$ because we were related. He paid anybody with fiberglass experience extra. He did a lot of boats, as well as restoration work, so I did a lot of different things there.

A big plus is when I first learned to work fiberglass, the guy I worked for insisted on doing it the right way, by laying it on, instead of using a chopper gun, & taught me how to do it. That made a big difference.

Yep, we do a LOT of glass work. I am currently working on a fifth wheel travel trailer that snagged something with the rear cap and ripped it apart. I'm also rebuilding a 800,000.00 Motor home that was not built correctly and the windshields keep popping out. We had to cut a 10" wide section out across the fiberglass roof so I could go in and fabricate a steel structure to reinforce the front cap. Now we have to glass that all back together! Not fun!

[Darin Bastedo]

Model shows and 1:1 car shaows have nothing in common but the shape of the entries. they are judged entirely differently. in a model contest the primary focus is not the design of the entry but how well the builder made a replica look like the real thing. the plstic seats have to look like leather or cloth, the plastic engine has to look like a painted metal one etc.

1:1 car shows the cars already are the real thing. It's how original or restored they are or how creatively they are modified. In the top ranks of copetition such as the ridler award, their can be as many as 100-200 people involved in the design and building of the car. while both deal with cars the differences are more than the scale.

[Terror]

Any rich car owners wanna rent me to sit next to it.I'm for hire.