Labor Costs in Philly Area

Hey Guys,

I was just curious if anyone in the tri-state region more specifically southern philadelphia area know of any good shops that i could take my truck to to get the lift done.

it seems as though most shops in the area are either 1. refusing to do the work if i already bought the parts(or they charge me more than DOUBLE for the parts) or 2. they seem to be wanting to charge an insane amount in labor.

For example, I asked about having 5100's installed with OME Coils and ive asked 3 different shops and the cheapest estimate ive received so far is $540 + tax for labor.

is this nomal? it seems extremely high to me and unfortunately i don't know a mechanic or anyone that could do it for me.

I am on a tight budget and want to have my truck lifted 2-3" but need to stay UNDER $1000 total including parts and labor and that just doesn't seem possible, the labor is killing me.

 

540 seems pretty reasonable, with the overhead a shop has. Living in a city seems to be more expensive for repair work.

 

it's just weird because the 2 shops who would only do it if i bought the parts from them were trying to charge me ~$600 for the 5100's but then would charge $350-400 for labor and the shops who i brought the parts to were charging at a minimum $540 or more for labor.

 

Try Ren's auto repair and collision. They are in southwest philly off baltimore ave. They charge about $50 for full state/emiisions inspection where it's at least $80 everywhere else. I'm guessing the rest of their labor costs are cheaper?

not sure about how good they are but...you didn't ask for good you asked for cheap? I've only brought in for inspection since they are a few blocks from me. Haven't brought it in for anything else since I do my own work.

What if you go to toytec and buy the whole thing assembled for $140 more? Then it's just a matter of taking a few bolts off and putting a few bolts back on.

 

If you're willing to travel out towards the Phoenixville or Lansdale area, I have a few people I can recommend who I have sent countless customers to... check out @gintyfab on instagram.

 

Worked for several years at a 4WD shop in NJ. The biggest problems with customer supplied parts is when either you’re missing a part, or they’re not the right parts etc. Are you going to pay for the shop to call around and chase parts for you? If the trucks on the lift taken apart your gonna pay $100 + a day for it to sit until the correct or forgotten parts show up. Just something to think about.

 

And $540 does sound reasonable, especially if it includes a front end alignment.

 

@Redmann He lives around there. But not sure if he uses any one around there.

 

I used a guy to install TSB leaf springs with an AAL, billies all around, and the front coils were already assembled. He charged me around 500$. I had the parts before finding a shop. After my experience with the guy, and seeing everyone around me doing the work ourselves on our "taco sundays", I've decided that I won't be getting parts installed by a garage anymore. I get alignments and inspection done by a place, but that's about it. I currently have all new suspension parts and soon we will have a Taco Sunday (possibly 2) to install the parts ourselves with buddys, beers, and BBQ.

 

When are you doing that? I have a dual ARB compressor. Relocate the filters and the coupler in 2 places. Then remove the light bar.

 

No idea. Still have to get all the parts to me. I bought everything, just waiting on mail. I'm also painting some of the parts, but that shouldn't take long.