Wiring

[ledge]

Hey guys,
I have just got my car back from the Auto electrician and i was blown away by the bill (i will get to that at the end). I just wanted to know how much you guys paid for your electrical work just as a comparison . I had the car fully wired up and i supplied the engine harness that came with the motor (ls1) I also suplied all guages lights etc . There was $1300 worth of extra parts i got through him ( gel battery , relays , alarm etc). My bill $7500:CRY
Paul

[BMK]

Paul

IMy wiring was just over $1500. I supplied all lights, gauges etc. etc.

It was a basic wiring only on a carby motor.

Guess you should talk with some people in the industry including Warrick.



Damn that sounds really high.

I would ask him to detail the account with:

Hours spent on the wiring job

Any addition costs, such as phone calls to suppliers etc.

Any additional parts used.

With parts I would ask for a detailed list of parts including, screw, clips, tape etc.

Lets see...

Say

$500 in bits

30 to 40 hours tops ( really tops) then he wants $175 per hour. Now my contractors get about $60 - 70 per hour tops.

Sounds like $4,000 added by mistake.

Perhaps John Cini may be able to assist here. Aussie Mike also.

Mate don't pay until you talk with these guys....

Do you have the Cobra or is he holding it.

Bernie

[boxhead]

WOW Paul, that does sound like an awful lot.

[David Hodgson]

BUGGER!!



Like Bernie says, quiz him on it.

[BMK]

Paul



I have sent you a PM. Mike and Johns details included.

Good luck

Bernie

[BMK]

Paul

Ring Mike now as I'm taking with him on another issue and mentioned your Post.

He said $2000 tops with what you have supplied. Don't be confused by the engine harness and work involved there.

Mike just told me that the harness for the engine is pulled open and three or four wires used. Fuel pump relays, injectors etc.

There is apparently 15 or 20 wires that are pulled out of the harness when it is cut open according to Mike.

GMH apparently sell an auto engine harness for $340 and the manual harness for $320.... if he had to supply one of those. He may have stuffed it up.

Sounds like he may not have known what he was doing.

You have Mike's number on the PM message. He is happy to talk with you. he is currently on the weay to the registration office with a Gen III powered roadster. So keep calling him if you don't get an answer.

Bernie

[PCC]

Paul,

My construction pricing knowledge gives a rule of thumb that a pure Labour / Materials split is generally 40 / 60, whereas with plant the ratio is closer.

As you say, you have included $1,300 worth of additional materials and assuming your bill includes GST the actual bill for wiring your car equates to $6,200 ($7,500 - $1,300 - $563 (GST))

LABOUR:

Using the rule of thumb assumption the labour component amounts to $2,480.

Electricians rates do vary, but it would be safe to say that $80 per hour is at the top end of what they would be asking.

Based upon the above you would be looking at 31 hours labour or approx 3 to 4 days work.

Does that sound about right with regards to how long the vehicle was being worked on?

MATERIALS:

Ignoring the $1,300 of additional equipment you provided, the materials component equates to $3,720.

This is the area I would be looking at and as Bern says you need to get him to itemise the materials.

Concentrate on the major items and then simply add on 10% for ancillary materials (tape etc etc).

Good luck mate

[ledge]

Hi Guys

The 1300 was for parts that he supplied so take that of the 7500 and the rest is labour as he is not charging me taxes as it is a cash job ( sucked in johnny ) .He has told me that he spent 110 hours on the car ( surely not)

I have rang a few people now and they are all f***in speachless

Paul

[PCC]

Paul,

Advise as an afterthought.

I don't trust ANY tradies until I get to know them and with Cobra's that takes time.

One way of making sure you are not ripped off is to pester them when they are doing any work - I know they hate it, but it enables me to monitor the labour cost and work done. I even ask who and how many will be doing the work.

From a cost point of view I will either visit or call them to verify when the work has been started and keep in touch during the work. This way I know the labour element of the final cost.

Material wise, I always ask for an itemised list partly because I'm curious to what has been used, but secondly to confirm any discrepancies.

My attitude (probably because I'm a Yorkshireman) is that its my money and I ain't giving it away just for the hell of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It takes a while to build up a network of Cobra tradies and you will go through a few clowns, so called experts, and down right idiots before you are happy with the work (as well as the cost) done.

[PCC]

Paul,

At least you now know what his hourly rate was - $56

By my reckoning 110 hrs equates to approx 12 days work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surely - 5 days would be more appropriate (It took my sparky 1 day to totally dismantle my harness including a miriad of other wiring to find various electrical problems).

Therefore the labour component would add upto $2,500 tops and I think that is generous.

Ask him to detail the hours day by day and then confront him on other work he was doing in this period?

Your looking at a potential $3,700 difference and in my books that is worth getting nasty over.

If you get nowhere ask for a proper invoice and report him to the Fair Trade Office.

Stupid question - did you get a quote?

[NASSTY]

Paul,

I can only agree with Peter.
Time to roll up the sleaves and dig in.
In my job we charge by the hour. If we spend too much time doing a job and we feel it's not recoverable/justifiable then it's written off.

This kinda reminds me when I got married. As soon as you mention the big "W" prices seem to skyrocket.

This sparky saw your cobra and might of thought big "C" (instead of big "W").

The fact that's it's a cash job also goes against the price as the tradie is not only not remitting GST but also income tax as well.

I'd also check that everything works well. If he spent 12 days doing the work, clearly, he's incompetent and foolish it he thinks he can charge you for his on the job training.

[pneall]

Paul,

As a comparison Ian at classic revical charged me about $1200 for the harness and another $300 to fit .
He reckons normal price through a auto elec starting from scratch would be max $3000.

Your auto elec definitely has case to answer. Makes it hard when he has your car though.

I hate seeing this sort of thing happen.

Phil

[ledge]

There is one good thing
I HAVE THE CAR
It was in his workshop for almost 6 weeks and i went down there every day to see what progress had been made and most times it was none , Because the car was there for so long it held up the guy that has it now who is doing an alloy intake so that is why the electrician gave me the car before i had paid for it .

Bernie ,
I rang those guys you gave me the numbers for and they were just as blown away as every one here is i will give you a call to thankyou in person later today .
Thanks to you other guys for your coments to as now i am sure im getting bent over .

Paul

[ledge]

HI Guys
Just a quick one to let you know that i confronted him on his bill and we came to an agreement on price that we are both happy with . It is possibly still a fraction high compared to some of the people i have spoken to but a ****load less than his original bill . I am sure that if it went to court than we both would have been very pissed of with each other and he may not have lived up to any waranty issues but since he made me an offer on the bill that was about 500 more than what i was happy to pay and he said he will still be happy to warranty everything than all is well.

Thanks for all your comment

Paul

[Jase]

Just on the subject of wiring, is it difficult to do yourself, or just time consuming? I have some limited background knowledge in electrics which I guess helps, but like I've said so many times, I just want to do as much myself as possible.

[Aussie Mike]

With kits like the Painless loom that Les and I have bought the basics are easy. Getting the engine management working is a bit more of a challenge since you are usually adapting up a loom from another vehicle. That said by the time you come to wire yours up there will be plenty of people who have worked it out on what ever motor you decide on.

Cheers

[Rebel1]

Yep...I confirm what Mike said.

My 12 circuit painless kit cost me about $600.00 I think. on top of that were the cost of the lights, flex conduit, ties, more terminals than provided,some muti plugs and that was about it.

The kit came with a 12 circuit fuse box c/w fuses with indicator & hazard flasher and the horn relay. Also came with an excellent maxi fuse, and a couple of rubber grommets and connector . All wires were terminated at the fuse box and all circuits colour coded. The wires are marked every 300mm or so with where they start and where they finish.

Very easy stuff. Couple of days work and all was working. clean it up and hide the wires a couple of more days.

[750hp]

There are two or three guys that seem to do the majority of the wiring jobs on V8 Supercars. I rang one of them for a quote on my car. At the time, they were quoting around $7000. When I first got the quote, I thought it included them supplying the Motec. Needless to say, I went elsewhere !

[Jase]

Originally posted by Rebel1


clean it up and hide the wires a couple of more days.

Thats exactly why I want to do as much as I can myself. My experiences with mechanics, auto electricians, sprayers etc etc have all been pretty sub standard. They only do the bare minimum. When I had the Mini resprayed they quoted $2500 - which included everything I wanted done. Everything was done, but there was overspray (not a big deal) and when they were trial fitting the roll cage, they scratched the interior - when I questioned them about it, they said "well it was a $2500 spray job"..

When the Mini was in getting the new engine put in, they actually lost all of my locks, window trim and various other, almost impossible to source parts. They then claimed that I had lost them.

I wasn't happy with the way the doors had been refitted - something that I had asked them to do, they said that'd be as good a fit as anyone would get.. I got it home, 60 minutes later, a perfect fit.

I finally picked the car up and it started to rain. Switch the wipers on and suddenly all the lights, wipers and fuel guage stop working. Obviously a fuse, check it and yep, its blown. I traced the problem back to the wipers but sent the car back to them to fix, afterall I had paid them to give me a finished car. They had the car for 2 weeks, asked for $700 and the fuse blew again. I replaced it, didn't touch the wipers till I got home and then checked it out. Now Mini's were a positive earth car originally - I had mine switched to neg. earth. I checked over the wipers from the switch to the motor, found that the numb nuts had the positive and negative earth wires the wrong way around. It took me 15 minutes to solve the problem and fix it, and they wanted $700 for doing NOTHING for the past two weeks! Argued it with them, they denied it, claimed they had changed the alternator - which had been fine, and claimed labour etc etc.. in the end, I had the car, I didn't pay and I simply tell everyone to go elsewhere.

So yeah, if you want something done right, do it yourself.

[BMK]

Jase

When you are ready all of the above guys will be sick of driving their Cobras and will be bored shtless. They will come over and build your Cobra for you - just for something to do..

Bernie