Scooterotica

Hi all just looking at an old receipt for an engine build and got charged 12 hours labour to build from bare casing.
seems like alot of time ,plus 1.5 hours dyno time to set it up, plus 2hours porting to match cylinder to casing.
12 hours @ £42.60 =£511.20 +vat
2hours porting @£50.00= £100.00 +vat
1.5 hours dyno @56.52 = £84.78 +vat
total alot of money. Was thinking of having a new engine done but finding it hard to pay £695.98 +vat on labour as seems abit excessive
or is this the norm any thoughts or recommendations on a good but not so expensive engine builder
thanks poppygun

who was the tuner/builder? and was it a good engine?

poppygun wrote:Hi all just looking at an old receipt for an engine build and got charged 12 hours labour to build from bare casing.
seems like alot of time ,plus 1.5 hours dyno time to set it up, plus 2hours porting to match cylinder to casing.
12 hours @ £42.60 =£511.20 +vat
2hours porting @£50.00= £100.00 +vat
1.5 hours dyno @56.52 = £84.78 +vat
total alot of money. Was thinking of having a new engine done but finding it hard to pay £695.98 +vat on labour as seems abit excessive
or is this the norm any thoughts or recommendations on a good but not so expensive engine builder
thanks poppygun

Seems to be about right to me,normally takes me 10 hours or so to do a bare case re-build.

Just a suggestion ,why don't you buy sticky's book and learn to do it yourself its a lot cheaper and when it goes wrong you've only got yourself to blame

Dean

Or two months like me

Glad I built it myself in the end, it was very much a case of two steps forward one step back. But, I have learned so much from it, I may even be able to fix it when it breaks

poppygun wrote:Hi all just looking at an old receipt for an engine build and got charged 12 hours labour to build from bare casing.
seems like alot of time ,plus 1.5 hours dyno time to set it up, plus 2hours porting to match cylinder to casing.
12 hours @ £42.60 =£511.20 +vat
2hours porting @£50.00= £100.00 +vat
1.5 hours dyno @56.52 = £84.78 +vat
total alot of money. Was thinking of having a new engine done but finding it hard to pay £695.98 +vat on labour as seems abit excessive
or is this the norm any thoughts or recommendations on a good but not so expensive engine builder
thanks poppygun

The hours spent doing the job seem correct.

I've had engines that go together very well when all the bits fit right (hardly ever!) and engines that have been an absolute pig and every single component has been problematic. But I put a cap on the job price even if it takes me longer than planned as I think every job has a ceiling price, but I'll see it through regardless for job satisfaction, quality of workmanship and shop reputation.

I can see also how some people could 'build' an engine in less than 10-12 hours if they don't know what they are doing and just bolt stuff together. But when you know how things should fit and take the time to make sure they fit correctly the hours can soon disappear!

Sean and I work on £30 per hour and don't charge VAT so a 10 hour engine build with us is £360 labour as opposed to £500+ with others......but that's why we stay busy all year round.

Yep, sounds about right.
What needs to be remembered also is that if you hand someone a filthy pig of a motor that has to be cleaned and stripped before building, that time isn't free either.

dirtyhandslopez wrote:Yep, sounds about right.
What needs to be remembered also is that if you hand someone a filthy pig of a motor that has to be cleaned and stripped before building, that time isn't free either.

Yes...spot on!

Clean casings in with a box of new bits go together a lot easier than a motor that's in the scooter, which needs to be dropped, stripped and is covered in mud/s**t/oil etc.

Just be thankful that it wasn't a BMW or a Volvo, last I heard their rates were over a ton an hour and that was about 5 years ago.
I once collected a scooter for a mate and read through all the receipts that came with it. One invoice had a charge for a phone call lasting several minutes at the pro rata rate of £45 per hour and that was about 8 years ago.
I enjoy the bit where you kick it over after the rebuild and it actually starts, everything before that is a total nightmare, as Dan says sometimes they fight you at every single step.
It's a good job I don't charge by the hour, the length of time it takes me to build anything.

I think most car main-dealers charge circa £110-£140 per hour.....and they don't have a ceiling price for a job! LOL.

It's odd really....the other day my pal asked me 'how much does one of them mopeds cost then?' and i said a Vespa might be 1000-2500 and an average Lambo might be 1800-5000 depending on spec, model, paint etc....and he was shocked. I reeeled off the cost of a few parts like disc brakes, tubeless rims, cylinder kits and cranks etc and he was again shocked.

But i said hang on....how much did your flash motor car cost? £30k....and how much did you trade it in for 18 months later? Less than £20k ! And how much do you spend on fags? £7 a pack! That's £50 a week and £2500 a year (due to income tax you have to earn about £3250 in order to spend £2500). And how much did you pay for that Jap sports bike 2 years ago? 5 grand! And what's it worth now? 3 grand!

That put it in perspective for him, as i explained that purchase and running costs might seem high, but our little mopeds are actually cheap by comparison! For some reason people expect Vespa and Lambretta scooters to be about as valuable as a Yamaha Passola or a Honda Cub90 and cost 3p a week to run.....but these are classic machines, you try running a Triumph Stag or a TR6, or an old classic etype JAG on the same budget as a Vauxhall Astra!

I think most car main-dealers charge circa £110-£140 per hour.....and they don't have a ceiling price for a job! LOL.

They do have a ceiling price its just that most customers dont know it. Every job has a repair time quoted by the manufacturer but a lot of main dealers do not show how many hours they spent on the job on their invoices. I wonder why?