How not to get a MGB back on the road

[LynehamHerc]

I doubt that it'd get made now, you'd need a rainbow of actors, actresses, whatever they call trans people who act, etc. etc..

[richardthestag]

careful now! you'll have the wokerati all over your arse

I lobbed an idle comment into a brake flare vid I did on youtube about there being "no non-binary brake fittings! Just male or female" I am braced for the full impact

5k for a pair of sills to be replaced seems a bit on the strong side, 2 days work / side I reckon that would be iro £1600 + vat n bits

[DodgeRover]

They're never that simple, it will be inner and outer sills, castle rails, floors, the wings need to come off too

[LynehamHerc]

I did a lot of looking around and they all came to that or more.
The guy at the local garage that I use, who works a lot on classic cars, reckoned I wouldn't get it any cheaper elsewhere and he has regularly used this guy for over 30 years. He originally thought a max of about 1,500 per side all in until they got it on the ramp.
The wings stayed on but the lower halves were replaced as I felt that the costs would get out of control otherwise, for example I think that the windscreen needs removing to take the front wings off.
I'll see what was done when I get it back, hopefully next week, and then I can start painting it.

[Scruffy Bodger]

I'm assuming they'd have to do quite a bit of structural bracing before even attempting the sill repairs or the doors wouldn't close after they'd cut all the shit out and replaced it with new? 5K still sounds a bit strong to me too tbh.

[Hooli]

Three piece sill, if there is any rot in the floor then the rear spring hangers probably need replacing etc etc I can see how it'd get that high as it'll always be more than just* sills.

[LynehamHerc]

Well sometime in the last two weeks it finally made it back to the local garage, how long ago I don't know as I checked what was happening about it this morning and was told that it was back.
I've also managed to piss the guy off a bit as the parts cost is at least 40% more than the original estimate and they only had to replace 2 parts of the sills. After checking the BMH parts prices the bill seems way too high unless I've missed something, not unknown admittedly, so I've asked for a breakdown of the parts and prices. I'm not exactly flavour of the month at the moment there for this.
On the positive side the firm where it's been for the last 18 months seems to have done a good job. Time will tell.
(I fucking hate relying on other people!)

[CLINT]

I would hate to be at the mercy of garages!

[mercrocker]

I feel for Chadders, though....Not being able to weld myself - a stupid oversight in my time on this Earth, really - I am also at the mercy of others. Had the van welded in the Autumn and ran up a three grand bill. I was up there every week - just do this, do that if you can etc.

£60 an hour over 40 hours comes to £2400 so it doesn't take long to clock it up and then you are trying to quantify the time spent and whether you've had value etc etc. Some of the more structural stuff had to be fabricated too so it isn't just a case of "add parts" on an invoice.

I hadn't used this body shop before - they are T25 specialists and I could see some mega stuff going on in the workshop but I prefer the Merc specialist
approach who bill my 190E services on fractions of an hour and allow me to compare with the timescales issued by MB themselves.

Yeah, I could do some of the work myself but I'd rather be doing other things with my limited time off than lay down swearing at cars.

[CLINT]

Part of the 'fun' aspect of old cars for me though is that I can do it all myself. If I ever get into a situation where I can't do any work myself, I'll be buying a brand new Korean thing, or leasing it.