Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Parptoot wrote:If it is fixed price and they get it done without coming asking for more then it seems fair to me.

I read that it is a fixed price, that starts at 2k. IOW, you agree to what you want them to do, they give you a price for that, and then they do it for that price unless they find something really bad and talk you into that too.

How fast you can do a chassis swap isn't a legit way to price one. There's a reasonable expectation that they'll tighten the bolts, reconnect the wires, etc. and have a different person take a look and see all that happened when it's done.

Over here they have (or had) a flat rate book for specific repairs on specific cars. As a teenager doing fairly major surgery on mostly British cars and Japanese motorcycles back in the '70s, I found I could do the work, first time, in 35 to 50 percent of the flat rate schedule. Which means that someone good at it can make a pretty good pound.

For a quality job of just the swap, I don't think 2k is a bad number. I would expect the bonnet clearances to be right, though, regardless of whether that requires fettling. But now that you know it's a potential weak spot, make it part of the deal.

I've just spoken to the men in the know at Spyder. Very helpful, answered all questions.

He said factor in the basics for ?2k and anything else that crops up, we all know something will, just adds to the costs.
In reality and with a sensible head on, he said double it to account for all the other bits to do while you're in there.
Seems right to me, there's no point doing all that to just put old bent, rusted, faulty items back on.

I'm still on track, not scared off just yet