nicksdsm

Problem: I took my 2000 XJ to my favorite mechanic. He told me he put a lift on his XJ so would be able to install my lift. He told me he knows the lift is a pain to install but he would only charge me $150. Well the problem is, it took him 2 1/2 full days to install. He had 4-5 guys helping him the whole time. He told me that he is not going to be able to only charge me the $150 but he has not told me how much yet. How many hrs should it take a shop to install a 3" RC, w/ full leafs?

clayton3854

i had a shop do it and it took them a full 2 days to do it. RC 4.5" lift my mechanic charged me 600 give or take for labor

nicksdsm

Do you know how much your labor was? I think I pay $85/hr.

clayton3854

uhh he told me he was charging me for 10 hours so bout 60 and hour. but hes a family friend so he might have been doing it cheaper for us then the normal rate

nicksdsm

Should a capable shop be able to install the RC lift in the est. 3-4 hours that RC quotes?

clayton3854

that all depends on what shape the underbody of your jeep is in. the est time they give you is for a mint body condition and no rust. if you had alot of rust and striped bolts like i did it will take alot more time and alot more labor to get everything done. my shop told me he expected 200 and when i went to pick it up he told me it was gonna be 600 bc of teh hours it took. lucky he understood i didnt have all that cash at the time and let me pay him off as i got teh money

EndlessMtnFab

Back in the fall of 2002 ... I did a lift kit on a 2000 XJ. 2 years old.


Took me 20 hours of shop time. And was a friend. Didn't want to pay me more than 200 dollars.


He's no longer a friend.



Joe
EndlessMtnFab

nicksdsm

The only problem they incurred was 4 broken rear shock bolts. Other than that, they just fought with putting the front end back together.

clayton3854

dang thats rough. cant take advantage of your friends like that esp when they do you the favor of putting it in for you in the first place. i think most of the estimated times on the websites are no where near the actually time it would take any1 to put on a lift. like i said those times are for mint jeeps with no rust

clayton3854

even so it took them time and labor to do it and if it took that long clearly it wasnt something easy to put back together for whatever reasons

mobilecherokee4

well it took me and a friend 6 hours to put mt 4.5 on and i put my front end back together fine and im not even a mechanic, i just graduated high school!!!! it was my first lift install too!!

nicksdsm

That's why I started this post. I'm looking to pay him what's fair. I don't want to rip him off. He does do a lot of my work and he gives me discounts whenever he can. I just don't want to pay more than what I owe. If he was to charge me for all the guys who helped times then time the bill would like $1000.

clayton3854

yeah i dont think hes gonna be unfair either seems like your in teh same situation i was. he will be reasonable for what he charges you. and mobile cherokee thats great lucky for you. i think it all depend son the jeep and the condition its in how long it will take for the lift to be installed

FlexdXJ

SO he said he'd do it for 150 bucks and then afterwards he wanted more? Tell him to go stick it where the sun don't shine. You don't tell someone a price then say oh, I want more money because its hard! Glad I have friends who can help me throw mine on! All i gotta do is buy them some beer and feed them!

mobilecherokee4

yeah your right clayton3854, i was charged $300 for my first lift to be put on when i was still a newb, and it was there for 2 days so ide say between $200 and $275 thats with a friend discount