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Labor cost to build these bumpers

You stated everything was supplied...

Re-read OP... Get it no welder. At that point I'd spend the $800 bucks on a Lincoln 180.. Or the like. Cheaper.
100% I wouldn't, it's a bay blocker and will take longer to complete due to the stop start nature. How much are you willing to pay in storage fees?
Ok man, I get that but think of it not for you. But the situation that actually occurred. It sat in a guys backyard and was the only thing he had to work on. And that guy is the one that took his time.
 
Ok Honky Lips
As far as I read you never layed out the whole story in one post and definitely not in the op. No one here knows what the agreement was, what was expected, or what the timeline was...... It sounds lile your friend who entered into the agreement was also not aware of what was going on.

It sounds like poor communication may have taught your friend an expensive lesson.


Also have you noticed your constantly disagreeing with most peoples posts and you trying to sway them to your side? Your friend may have got burned but its also possible you guys are out of reality on labor rates and time to complete work.
 
As far as I read you never layed out the whole story in one post and definitely not in the op. No one here knows what the agreement was, what was expected, or what the timeline was...... It sounds lile your friend who entered into the agreement was also not aware of what was going on.

It sounds like poor communication may have taught your friend an expensive lesson.


Also have you noticed you’re constantly disagreeing with most peoples posts and you trying to sway them to your side? Your friend may have got burned but it’s also possible you guys are out of reality on labor rates and time to complete work.
hey, all this was for curiosity. And 99% of the responses are waaaaay cheaper than the guy is trying to charge.

You can buy finished bumpers for these broncos in powder coat 1/4” steel for 2300. And they have a better fit and finish. And before we say “but these are one off” the guy was handed a finished design cardboard prototype. and just needed to cut the prices and weld it up.

I think 2000 is fair myself. Except the back bumper hits the tailgate when you open the tailgate so that’ll need redone. So I’d back off another 500 for that. Just my opinion.

Imho a price should’ve been agreed on day 1. I’ve been burned like this before.
 
Ok man, I get that but think of it not for you. But the situation that actually occurred. It sat in a guys backyard and was the only thing he had to work on. And that guy is the one that took his time.

I do NOT fab for a living. Here's the thing though, if I make less doing fab on the side than my day job why would I even do it? The stuff I have done on the side I log my hours and charge accordingly plus consumables.
 
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IMO- 8 hours each is likely for a nice looking end result. There's plenty of complex angles on each of them. Those aren't typucal CJ/YJ/TJ square bumpers with 45* ends.
Strictly labor at $75/hr on the side. No less than $1000 for me to build from scratch w/o a set of plans and/or templates.
 
Jesus fucking christ. Your buddy handed the guy cardboard, and he returned completed bumpers. Do you not think that there were fitment issues between the 2? Material thickness variations, the 25yo truck being out of square, etc

Who pays the labor for that fitting work?

Yeah, the fab guy billed all his hours and probably was dealing with and is still dealing with a pain in the ass customer.

Your buddy is a dumbass but learned something for his money.

It would have been a whole lot cooler if he bought a welder and learned some shit that way, like everybody else here
 
And. A front winch bumper from scratch, for a guy that calls himself a fabricator should be 10-15 hours, imo. More than that and you're either sand bagging, or still learning, in either case, you shouldn't be billing the customer for your lack of productivity.


Imo. Shop fab labor rate might be $200hr in ca, 150 in Tucson, 250hr in the oil fields and 75 in the wheat fields


Cash, backyard?
Location dependant, person dependant, a young guy wanting to get his skills recognized might be all in at 40hr

Then you've got the guys who don't give a fuck
I wouldn't get off my couch on my day off for less than $70
 
It took me 3 weekends for me to build a rear bumper that I was happy with, there is no way that I would have bought a bumper for what I would have to charge to make one.

Plate bumpers are the perfect project to learn to weld on because you have a lot of feet of weld and you are grinding the front off anyway. It is also hard to make one that looks good but is weak enough to be "dangerous". That was the real mistake here, buying the welder and learning how to use it would have paid for itself on this project alone much less anything else that comes up.
 
And. A front winch bumper from scratch, for a guy that calls himself a fabricator should be 10-15 hours, imo. More than that and you're either sand bagging, or still learning, in either case, you shouldn't be billing the customer for your lack of productivity.


Imo. Shop fab labor rate might be $200hr in ca, 150 in Tucson, 250hr in the oil fields and 75 in the wheat fields


Cash, backyard?
Location dependant, person dependant, a young guy wanting to get his skills recognized might be all in at 40hr

Then you've got the guys who don't give a fuck
I wouldn't get off my couch on my day off for less than $70
This is pretty much where I’m at on the whole deal. Even at 70/hr. And btw the vehicle was left there for him to build the bumpers. That’s 700-1000 for the front. The rear is a piece of cake. Call it 10 hours so 700 and that’s being generous. I could do it in 4-5 hours easy. So we’re at 1700. And I’d say even 2k is a reasonable price. This guys trying to get almost double that.

We all have our own opinions on what backyard Bob can and should charge. These weren’t complex bumpers. Basic shit. So trying to charge super high dollar prices seems like a guy trying to overcharge. Just my opinion and that’s worthless
 
Where is it hitting the tailgate?
Also, who thought that trailer hitch setup was a good idea? Its going to rip up your knees, then it will tear out and let the hitch go where it wants...

Aaron Z
that back bumper was all the “fabricator”. The tailgate lays on the bumper with the receiver hitting first. You can see if you see him in the guy cut a 45 into the hitch to try to make it clear but it wasn’t enough. And if you look up you can see a couple dimples in the tailgate from it hitting. guys claiming these should be a $4000 bumper, yes there are bumpers out there worth that but this shit isn’t even close.
 
Why not just cut off that receiver flush with the bumper and have it pin from the back? That's what I did with my bumper. I made my bumper in my side yard with a 110 Flux core welder and a angle grinder. I think it looks better than that one.
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20200615_141612.jpg
 
MODs please delete this thread. Stop sending me notifications that someone replied. I could have been fabricating instead of watching this rolling dumpster fire.
I want my wasted time back at $200 and hour since I live in CA. So maybe 15 min of wasted time = $50.
How about you give me 5 free years of red skull membership as retribution for my buggy still not running. Irate is a blessing and a curse.
 
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This is pretty much where I’m at on the whole deal. Even at 70/hr. And btw the vehicle was left there for him to build the bumpers. That’s 700-1000 for the front. The rear is a piece of cake. Call it 10 hours so 700 and that’s being generous. I could do it in 4-5 hours easy. So we’re at 1700. And I’d say even 2k is a reasonable price. This guys trying to get almost double that.

We all have our own opinions on what backyard Bob can and should charge. These weren’t complex bumpers. Basic shit. So trying to charge super high dollar prices seems like a guy trying to overcharge. Just my opinion and that’s worthless


You are the god of all fabricators if you could take that rear bumper from cardboard and stack of plate to a finished rear bumper mounted in 4-5 hours "easy".
 
You are the god of all fabricators if you could take that rear bumper from cardboard and stack of plate to a finished rear bumper mounted in 4-5 hours "easy".
I'm thinking 4-5 hours just to cut one bumper worth of the corrugated cad into steel with whatever hobbyist tools. Then several more to clean up the edges. Then you can think about fit checking and then welding.
Yeah, that time would be shaved dramatically with a laser or a water jet, but those are going to be in the "saved 80% of the time, but had to pay 5x the rate for it" ballpark.
Dude should fix the non-fit of the rear bumper unless that was designed into what customer brought him. If it was designed in, customer owns it.
As for pricetag, I'd think $1k for the rear and $1.5k for the front looks reasonable if all materials/consumables are customer supplied. Otherwise, add for them.

My electric bill doubled the month I welded up my Jeep chassis.
 
nope youre on track. long story short, a guy wants 3500 in labor to for those two bumpers. and the tailgate hits the rear bumper when you open it. so itll fuck up the tailgate over the years or need thrown away and rebuilt. i was just trying to get people to steer me to know if i was in the ballpark or not. i think 2k in labor would be good for them if they were perfect. but with the back bumper not clearing the tailgate im not even sure about that. theres pits in the powdercoating where the welds are, and the welds as you can see needed ground down to make it look better. no way thats worth more than 1000 each in labor only with literally everything supplied except the welder and angle grinder.

So make the long story long and fill in all the details.

Did your buddy have an estimate final price or was it open ended by the hour?

Did they agree on an hourly wage?

Did the guy give an estimated time to build these bumpers?

Did you buddy check in with the guy occasionally to see progress and check what the bill was getting to?

Did your buddy give the guy a faulty design that the bumper hit or did the backyard fab guy change the design?

Did the guy powdercoat it or your buddy?

If your buddy powdercoated it, why would he have it powdercoated before it was perfect?

If the guy powdercoated it, did your buddy check it out before going to powdercoating?
 
Is this an 'asking for a friend' situation?
Thought I explained that already a buddy took his bronco to a guy. I don’t know where the confusion is on that but that’s what happened. I’m just interested in hearing other peoples opinions and then arguing with them to get them excited.
Again, is this for a friend or a random person?
See above.

Realistically, I agree with most people on here somewhere in the $2000 range anymore than that and I would’ve wanted a little bit cleaner looking and not be without my rig for three fucking months this shit done. Also, I would want the back bumper did not hit the tailgate when it opened


Here’s what I will to say for myself in my own feelings. If I’m having somebody do side work out of their backyard, I’m looking for a discount versus taking it to a shop because the reason I’m willing to pay more at the shop as they have insurance, if they burn my shit to the ground or it gets stolen while it’s there I have recourse if something goes wrong, etc. I don’t know about you, but my entire life side jobs have been doing it for a discount, not - I’ll do it on the side for more than you can take it to a brick and mortar fabrication shop and have it done.

now if there’s a guy that has all the sweet tools like CNC plasma, etc. that’s a different story but I’m discussing as a situation happened you’re dropping your shit off to some guy with an angle grinder and a welder so he can make some side money to help pay his bills. And once again letting him take all the time he needs I expect some savings versus he this shit should be done in a week or two.

Once again, just my opinion, and I agree that somewhere in $2000 give or take, I expect to pay for those bumpers anything more than that they need to be a little cleaner looking.
 
just because you dont have plasma tables and you cut it with a 4.5" grinder doesnt mean you can charge shop fees and take 10 times as long. if you dont fab for a living or build shit for people stay out of this thread because your opinion is jack shit. and if you do fab, then you should know how long it would take you and be able to offer a price range. which is it?

I would say it's the exact opposite. If the guy doesn't have all the fancy tools, then your buddy should know that it is going to take longer, so costs go up.

I invested money into tools so I can do things faster, making it cheaper for the customer, not more expensive.
 
So make the long story long and fill in all the details.

Did your buddy have an estimate final price or was it open ended by the hour?

Did they agree on an hourly wage?

Did the guy give an estimated time to build these bumpers?

Did you buddy check in with the guy occasionally to see progress and check what the bill was getting to?

Did your buddy give the guy a faulty design that the bumper hit or did the backyard fab guy change the design?

Did the guy powdercoat it or your buddy?

If your buddy powdercoated it, why would he have it powdercoated before it was perfect?

If the guy powdercoated it, did your buddy check it out before going to powdercoating?
Long story long OK. Neither one of them discussed prices, apparently which fuck up number one for both parties.. There was no hourly wage. No time expectation. Nothing just here I’m looking to have bumpers built. Yeah I’ll do that. Drop it off. The timeframe to build them was do it whenever you have time and let me know when it’s done no rush. My buddy did check in with the guy and went over there to help the guy build them holding things up mock fitting grabbing consumables as needed etc.. the back bumper was solely the guy doing the bumper building my buddy only designed the front bumper. My buddy took the bear bumpers to the powder, coder and paint to have them powder coated and on that note, the powder, coder kind of talk shit on the front bumper, saying he wasn’t gonna be proud of the way it turned out because of the little pits in imperfections.

As far as the powder coating for the back bumper would fit he was under the impression it did fit, then came and picked it up to take it to the powder coder. Once again, this wasn’t my circus it just made me curious about going rates and what other people thought of the situation
 
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