Update February 9th, I just realized I missed the rolling bones garage night near Saratoga Springs. 2 hours away, and last year was in California, and this year I blew it. But back to the truck I'm working on, I bought mevotech control arm bushings, they're made in China junk, so I set them aside. And then ordered ACDelco which are made in Mexico and I installed those. I also ordered Moog which is made in India. There was some TRW was on eBay, they were made in China.
Everything is all back together, and loosely bolted on, and I'm wondering how much to charge for this job. I haven't been keeping track of my hours, as I wander around my shop doing 10 different things at any one day.
Here's what I've done:
new upper and lower control arm bushings
new lower ball joint which I had to drill and punch out the rivets
new outer tie rod.
new rotor using the old Timken bearing
new caliper using the old pads
all new dash lamps
used headlite assy
I had to cut the lower rear control arm bushing bolt to remove it as it hits the axle. Now I can put it in the other way and the nut will be against the axle stub, my better design lol.
Tomorrow I'm going to move on to the passenger side and I think that side needs both ball joints and bushings and rotor. So pretty much the same scenario.
A friend of mine looked up some flat rate thing online, and it says the lower ball joints are not serviceable, so much for that.
I'm a totally hole-in-the-wall garage with no lift, so I struggle to do things, but I still do top quality work, or so I think I do, and she'd been to three shops. They sent her away with the upper control arm bolts completely loose, 1 worn thru bushing, very badly worn ball joint etc etc. so she's just getting stiffed or the run-around. They just don't want to work on old stuff anymore I suppose.
I don't have a shop rate as I strictly work on my own vehicles or the odd friend who returns the hours I put in by working for me. I double and triple-check everything that I do, I clean up all bolt threads, lubricate everything and I don't miss a detail. As a matter of fact I also changed her oil and use top quality synthetic and a Mobil 1 filter, the last shop she was at told her synthetic is a waste of money and put on a $2 filter. This rig has over 300,000 miles, and judging by the way I've taking care of it in the last 10 years, it should go another 300,000.
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