General Fabrication

also make sure your not putting to tight of a bend on the torch cable when your welding, I’ve pulled too tight of a bend before and had feed issues before. Keeping it as straight as you can helps keep that out of the equation.

 

This has happened to me so many times. I usually do all of my welding on the ground so it’s easy to get it l to a weird spot.

Another pro tip. It’s been a couple years since I have welded. First time back wasn’t great but I got the job done. Did more tonight. The welds looked exactly like I didn’t have gas. Checked the valve. It’s fine won’t open any further. Weld…still messy. Check gas still fully open. Repeat one more time. Check gas, valve closed. I guess last time I used it I tightened the valve a bit too much and then never opened it. So when I checked it wouldn’t open further because it was too tight.

 

I'm about to start the install on my dirt king full long travel kit. didn't want to pay 10k to get it all installed so I decided to teach myself how to weld so I could do it myself. I have tons of experience wrenching on cars so I figure I might add another skill. these welds are the most recent I've done. this is probably the 9 or 10th time welding anything.

 

who quoted you 10k and was that for front & rear?

 

That was from dirt king and a couple of other well know fab shops came in at just under 9k. I have all the parts so it would have included the following installed: spring under kit, frame plate kit, bump stop kit, rear cross bracing, I’m not to sure if that included the front stuff. I know they would do a killer job on it but I’ve already spent about $25k on the full LT setup so yeah

 

Seems a lot but then again people pay for it

 

Knowing if that includes the front kit installed is kind of a big difference in value. I wouldn’t think that’s unreasonable if it did. There’s a lot of fab work involved in doing all of that work in the rear. Especially if you’re going to get their quality of work.

You could of course find a garage fab guy to install for you for less but it’s kind of a gamble. Or weld yourself but that’s a big job for a new welder with 25k in parts.

 

I work at a dealership and our labor rate is over $200/hour now. So $10k is only 50 hours...I have more hours than that working on my buddies rear "bolt on" suspension (we're having issues)

 

I did forget to mention I have a couple of buddies that are seasoned fabricators they are super busy but they did offer there guidance when I start the build

 

I need to up my rates haha. I try to shoot for $85-100/hr when I do fab work for people. But that’s also just me working on the side out of my garage

 

Yeah, everyone’s got a buddy who can do it cheaper. I was more trying to discuss your options and see if the quote you were given was reasonable.

 

I wish my buddies could do it cheaper they are just as expensive lmao.

 

I’m just lucky I’m the buddy so I can do it myself… and being a commercial fisherman and being gone all the time I only have time to work on my own stuff…

 

I fall in this category. By no means a professional fab shop but can get most work done. I’ve also been so busy I’m just trying to get my truck back on the road.

 

Koh countdown. Better hurry up.

 

same, I’m just down to a lot of wiring to sort out before koh.

 

Progress on my shock mounts to replace the coil buckets

 

you gonna run a brace over the top?

 

Yeah, I’m just waiting to get the towers in first

 

Our labor rate is $125/hr. Spring under kit with all options we charge 40 hrs so $5000. A 10k labor quote would include LT front with all options, Spring under with all options. I think as far as fabrication shops go that have shop rent, employees, workmans comp, garage liability insurance etc we are on the lower side of hourly rate while maintaining high caliber work. People don't realize how fast that 40 hours go when your spending 10 of it cutting of leaf spring perches, bump stop mounts, shock mounts etc. We always encourage customers that are capable to tackle their own installs, we spend a lot of time making our parts easy to install for the end user and offer tech support along the way. Larger jobs can be scheduled 2-3 months out at any given time and some people dont want to wait, we do have numerous references in the San Diego area as well for the customers that are on a strict timeline.Heres some more info on our service department

https://dirtkingfabrication.com/blogs/news/dirt-king-fabrication-service-department