[PKRWUD]

That's one of the things that sucks about what I do for a living. I know perfectly well that a customers total anticipated expenses for installing that engine they bought are going to be $500 short, plus my labor, yet when I bid the job, I'm "way too expensive". Until they have actually spent more than I bid, and it's still not running. Then they want me to come and fix what ever they screwed up for next to nothing because "they did the hard part". Yeah right. I won't even discuss an engine swap for less than $1000, plus $500 cushion money for the parts they "didn't think about". That's for a friend. It's also non-negotiable. Once I start a job, time is money, and I'm not going to get hung out because of someone elses poor planning. I always refund the change from the cushion money, but it's rarely more than $100. What I really love, and don't get often enough, is a customer who knows what's up because they've been there, and who just turns it over to me. I had a customer a few years ago that was a Radiologist. He was rich enough that he could use $100 bills as toilet paper, if he wanted to. Anyway, he became a doctor in 1974, and with his first sizable paycheck, he went out and bought a brand new Datsun 260Z. he had been living like a beggar for 8 years or more while going through medical school, and to suddenly be able to go buy such an extravagant item made him feel great. His wife wasn't impressed. None the less, year after year, he refused to get rid of it. He had only put 10,000 miles on it by the time it was officially retired 15 years later. She hated it, but he had to keep it, so they compromised and parked it at the top of their long, windy driveway on their hilltop estate. It pretty much became a planter. Anyway, the doc and I knew each other because I was working in x-ray at the time, and he had seen the work I did on my nitrous injected 403. He even commented that it was the first engine he had ever seen that was clean enough to eat off of, and coming from him, that was a big compliment! he told me about his Datsun, and that he had decided that while his wife was away visiting relatives for a few weeks, he wanted to get it back on the road again. Actually, he wanted it to be better than new, and wanted it detailed like my Buick was (at the time). I told him that he would be looking at thousands of dollars, and that it would be much cheaper to buy one already fixed up, but he said that wouldn't do, because that wouldn't be the first car he ever bought. He cut me a check for $5k the first day, and said to just let him know when ever I needed more. He ended up spending $14k on that car, mechanically. I didn't do the paint, he paid someone else for that. I made a fair bit of change, but more importantly, he got what he wanted. When I drove it to the hospital to return to him, he was standing in the parking lot waiting. he was near tears by the time we were finished, and he couldn't stop thanking me.

That was a great job. I made good money, and was able to do the work that I knew needed to be done, without worrying about explaining to the customer how side draft carbs that are rebuilt are not smog legal in California, and that only new carbs will get him his tags (actually I rebuilt his and got it smogged, saving him $2k just on carbs, but you get the idea).

I'm good at estimating costs and time when it comes to other people, but I still screw myself all the time. That 400 in my garage was originally going to be finished last summer!

Take care,
-Chris