[Mikeys69]

I was talking to a local fellow that owns a machine/engine shop here in town, that doesn't have a problem with the customer bring in his own parts. A good example would be a valve spring change.:thumbsup:

But there is another shop here in town that will not work on a project unless he orders the parts.:sad:

Any thoughts on this subject.

 

[trmnatr]

I was talking to a local fellow that owns a machine/engine shop here in town, that doesn't have a problem with the customer bring in his own parts. A good example would be a valve spring change.:thumbsup:

But there is another shop here in town that will not work on a project unless he orders the parts.:sad:

Any thoughts on this subject.

If you take your hamburger or fries to McDonalds do you think they will cook your food ? No

A builder can be reliable if something goes wrong installing your parts even though it was not the builders mess up

With me, if i know them very well its ok. If im helping another builder or they are helping me, its ok there too

 

[aukai]

It may be also about the parts mark up, labor plus parts profit.

 

[trmnatr]

It may be also about the parts mark up, labor plus parts profit.

We cant get rich on parts mark up, trust me there

On a $680 part it may cost the builder $475 plus shipping (for an example of a given part)

 

[Dave]

We cant get rich on parts mark up, trust me there

On a $680 part it may cost the builder $475 plus shipping (for an example of a given part)

You don't call that a decent profit?

 

[Stikman33]

I brought my machine shop all the parts when he was doing the work, but I did all the assembly, he just took care of the block and balanced everything.

-Daniel

 

[6T8 Chevelle]

I have a long time friend here in Phoenix that has his own repair shop. He does everything from oil changes to engine replacement. He does not like customers bringing in their own parts at all. He has a parts supply house that he orders all of his parts from. The reason is he marks up all of the parts used in a repair. He is saying that 'all shops do it' in order to cover employee labor costs, shop supplies and general overhead of operating a shop. The good side to this is if the part fails within its warranty period he will replace the part at no charge and the labor will be no charge as well IF the part is purchased thru his shop.

Now on the other hand say your alternator needs replacing and YOU bring him the part from the AutoZone, Checker, Pep Boys or wherever and he just charges you labor. BUT if this part YOU bring him fails you WILL be charged labor again to replace the failed part. He has done work for me before and I have seen how much he marks parts up. And I have to be honest and say that his markup is a gouge in some situations. But I understand that he owns/operates the shop and he is doing it to make a living driven by the profit motive. So I just grab my ankles whenever I come across something I dont have the time or skill to handle and bring it to him. Take it for what its worth.

 

[bracketchev1221]

I have seen this before. There was a shop where I used to live that had a sign at the counter that said, "If you want to buy parts mail order then have them build your motor." The shop I worked at had only a few people, and he didn't mind if you brought your own parts. It basically saved him the time of having to order them himself.

 

[Busted Knuckles]

Give the guy a chance to make some money - that's part of how he's able to stay in business. Most of these guys aren't living out on Knob Hill and driving new vehicles every year, they're struggling to make it just like we are.

 

[Dean]

Warranty has to come from profit.

 

[bracketchev1221]

I really think at the shop I worked at, he felt that if he was in the office chasing parts then he wasn't in the shop where the real money was made.

 

[Racing]

Unless there is communication before hand the machinist has no input with the parts the customer brings in. Through the machinist experience those parts could be substandard or problematic. Hence, the reluctance to use customers parts.

I've been on both sides. Now that I no long do the machine work I do supply many of my own parts and accept the liability if those parts fail.

 

[how69ss]

A friend of mine sold his machine shop a couple of years ago. He had been building engines for 20 years. He said the business has changed a ton in those years. Now there are so many crate motors and they are so (relatively) cheap that not as many people have older motors rebuilt. In my area, western South Dakota, which includes Rapid City, there are only (I think) three machine shops (and one is a racing shop) that rebuild motors. And Johnson Machine/Napa in RC only sells complete motors that they rebuild. They won't rebuild some Joe's motor off the street even. I was told this was for liability reasons.

My engine builder, in Belle Fourche, SD, is totally the opposite. I bring the parts in, walk around the shop area, I even could have been there and "helped" assemble the engine. When we dyno it, I will help with that too. Small town USA has its benefits!

It's all a business. So if profits are higher by requiring that you buy the parts from them, that's what the business will do. They have figured out that that is more profitable than the few extra clients they may have had by allowing them to bring in their own parts, etc. I would think that the more race/performance type work a shop does the more likely they will let you bring in your own parts. Heck, there ain't no warranty on it anyhoot when you're blasted down the quarter mile or circle track racing.

 

[chevguy65]

I was told by a local guy here that he needs to order the parts to make money.
He got no mark up from brought in parts.

My thinking was that $75.00 an hour labor was profit enough for this guy and went elsewhere.
I would not be like that with all shop owners but this guy was not as reputable as I would have liked and he seemed pretty vague when it came time to estimate time on the things I wanted done.

 

[jefft28]

The guy that is doing my engine right now does not mind that i purchased all the parts and bring them to him, i have helped remove engine and tranny and everything, but from the get go i told him i wanted to be a part of the project not just drop off and pick up, i wanted to learn a few things also. Same went with body man, he did my 90 pick up for me and i helped on that so he knew i would for sure be there for the Chevelle. Needless to say i DO learn something new each day and hopefully when i get a garage be able to do this on my own and save some cash!!

 

[Notalent]

Warranties, parts combinations, profit, etc all falls into this. We have let a few customers supply there own stuff and they thought they could put together a good running engine (parts wise) we tried to guide them, but they wanted there own build. Come dyno day after we finish the build it was way under power....than they start to think your doing something wrong....uhhh no! We warned you. If its something small like them wanting to reuse there carb or distributor we will let them, but thats about as far as we go now adays.

 

[engineguy]

It has been my experience that in many cases the parts brought in by the customer are the wrong parts. High performance machinists are professionals and have the experience and knowledge to provide the necessary parts for an engine build. It is my contention that most machine shops do not place an unreasonable mark-up on the parts they provide for an engine build. It does help pay the overhead and without the profit from parts sales the shop would undoubtedly need to raise the prices on shop labor. So, you're going to pay one way or the other.

 

[70SSOBSESSION]

I have always bought all my own parts and brought them to the machine shop with my block as have all my friends. Never have had a complaint or issue. If the shop gives you crap...run as fast as you can. If they can't make it machining, assemble, dyno then they are hacks and will screw you anyway.

 

[trmnatr]

It has been my experience that in many cases the parts brought in by the customer are the wrong parts. High performance machinists are professionals and have the experience and knowledge to provide the necessary parts for an engine build. It is my contention that most machine shops do not place an unreasonable mark-up on the parts they provide for an engine build. It does help pay the overhead and without the profit from parts sales the shop would undoubtedly need to raise the prices on shop labor. So, you're going to pay one way or the other.

Then it holds you up and costs money with the engine sitting there :thumbsup:

Also, when you buy parts from the builder/machine shop your paying for knowledge

 

[70 SS LS-5]

I never allow people to bring bring me their parts. It just makes the project much more complicated, especially if one of the parts fails.