It is always tricky to price stuff like this but I would be very surprised if more than 10 hours went into doing that. Probably less than 5. These restoration companies have been watching too much telly dreaming up prices. If you have seen the ex Peter Sellers Sheer Rover which is going to auction the seller sent it to a restoration company for a recomission. It turned out this was just a get it going and price up the real cost. The fuckers charged nearly 3 grand and when you look at it all they really did was fit a starter motor a set of plugs and clean a few bits up. I would let him keep the grand just to get the car back. Then name and shame the fucker everywhere. That really is a disgusting way to operate. I never ask for money up front, which maybe I should when ordering expensive parts but certainly not just for labour. Are they a member of any of the trade organisations ? I doubt it but worth a try. Good luck with it Nigel I had something similar 20 years ago having my Jensen body restored. Over a grand with a specialist and nothing really done. We reluctantly paid up and moved on, my dad was all for burning their workshop to the ground but common sense prevailed. They went bust not long after which came as no surprise.
I'm a slow worker, but even I could manage to make a car look like that much disassembled with all of my tea, fag and French lunch breaks. There's a monkey in labour + whatever got in. But if nowt got in...
Unbolting the seat, removing some trim and the rear pieces - I'm no garage bod and I reckon I could do that in 5-8hrs max to make sure I didn't screw anything up.
Seems a bit of a piss take Nigel.....
Good luck sorting this out.
As said - Name n shame for sure.
