K Model value

[Mayday53]

ON Wednesday, I pulled my project from the guy I was paying $80/hour due to some fundamental differences in our ability to communicate and timeline for the project. I am now enjoying the grind of doing it myself. I am getting an old Harley builder to help me with the reconstruction, but all the cleaning and prep labor is mine, and I like it. It will make the ride even more appreciated later. I just have a burning passion to drive an old bike I found crippled in a barn. Sure I could buy one and ride it, but it just would not be the same...I will have bugs in my teeth when I ride this one!

Well, what a bad experience and my build costs just "nailed" as the newbie to this restoration process. Here is the jist of it:

The guy working on my bike had ordered a bunch of parts, so he said, and after a couple months he had not produced all of them, to the tune of over $1900 worth the parts. When I picked up my parts he signed a document saying the parts were on back-order, only to find ourt he never ordered them. After pecking over a couple weeks he ordered 2 of the 3 parts (2 weeks after we parted ways and he said they were ordered). He still owed me over $800 for a Joe Hunt Magneto and when I convinced him to meet and refund my money, he handed me a check for $33 saying I had not paid for 6.5 hours of sandblasting on the frame, handlebars, seat, pan, and swing arm, charging me $600 more, on top of the $500 I had paid him earlier for the Powder-coating and sandblasting. So, $1100 to sandblast and PC my frame, handlebars, seat pan and swing arm. I talked to a shop that does his work and they said it was less than $200 to do that work. Also, he added nearly $200 for a small welds on the frame and a small weld on the swing arm, both which he never mentioned before but now they are covered in fresh powder-coat paint so I cannot verify it. Also, he charged me 18 hours of labor for the tear down...a tear down which 6 other builders said would take less than 8 hours to do. So another $800+ out the window as well

I guess my point is...I trust a guy, try to give him business expecting to be treated fairly, and find out in the end he is a crook and I feel foolish because I trusted him...and I am stuck with unexpected costs on a bike I was hoping to restore and break even on just to get it on the road again. Just a damn shame people like him are conducting business...

[hennesse]

Mayday

There are crooks in every kind of business, and motorcycle repair is no exception. When working with a new contractor, I try, whenever possible, to start with minor tasks, and see how well they are performed, and how the final price compares with the estimate - then progress to larger and larger jobs as your confidence builds. In any work of this kind, there will be unknowns and unexpected problems, and the contractor should communicate with you before continuing with work that will appreciably exceed the estimate.

It sounds like your enthusiasm ran away with you...

Consider what using a paid restorer will cost you. Dave C. estimates that it takes him 240 hours to completely restore a Sportster or K, and that requires having all the materials on hand. Call up your local auto repair shop and ask what their hourly labor rate is - it's probably in the range of $100/hour. 240 hours times $100/hr = $24,000. A guy working out of his home garage with no employees (no FICA, FUTA, SUTA, workman's comp. insurance, employer's half of Social Security, Obamacare, etc.) might only charge $50/hr if he's trying to earn a living doing it - so $12,000. A retired guy trying to supplement his fixed income - $25/hr, or $6,000.

That doesn't include any parts, materials, or outsourced specialized labor. That's extra. Now, few people can do as good a job, nor work as efficiently as Dave C., so if you're expecting a 100-point restoration, those labor costs are pretty much the minimum. And, someone like Dave knows these bikes inside and out - and he can spot potential problems on day one. Ks and early Sportsters are fairly rare, so most everyone else is guessing their best, and runs into lots more problems halfway down the road.

Few customers want to pay that kind of money, so often paid restorers have to take some shortcuts to keep the price down, and that means you're not getting the 100-point job. Or if your target was 90-points, you ain't getting that either. Back in the Hot Rod days, there was a saying: "Speed costs money - how fast do you want to go?"

Most of us CAN'T pay that kind of money, so we have to do as much of the job as we can ourselves, and farm out only the things that we're just not able to do.

Now that you have to retrench, start thinking like a General Contractor on a construction project - the GC hires subcontractors to do specific tasks. He picks a sub for each task knowing that that particular sub does good work at reasonable prices. The GC coordinates, does whatever there are no subs for, and is responsible for bringing the job to completion. You're the GC of this K-model construction project. It sounds like you already found a sandblast subcontractor. Now you need to find a reliable welder, painter, engine builder, etc. Finding reliable subs is not an easy task - there are lots of good but overpriced, cheap but lousy, plain incompetent guys out there (and a few crooks as well), but only a few "reliable and reasonable" ones. Your mission is to find out who's who - before you plonk down your money.

Dave

[Mayday53]

I agree and I thought I had found a guy I could trust, just turned out I was wrong. This was my first build, so it was a "relatively" cheap lesson, but it still does not take the sting out of knowing someone basically stole your money. I have bought 6 more bikes to build, trust me, they will be done much more like you described.

Cheers...