Welding dilemma!!

[Allden83]

My imported U.S westy has just come over and in need of a bit of welding nothing major(i thought!!) just the normal places its battery tray, the sill under the sliding door, sill opposite and lower rear wing.... cause its an import and at this time hasn't got an M.O.T i've been looking at getting a mobile welder to do the work..... He has quoted me £35 an hour labour and told me that each sill is gonna take 20 hours to do! and the battery tray around 4/5 hours dependant on condition obviously 45 hours at £35 is Over £1500 and that isn't including the lower rear wing or the panels that he'll be using i'd have to buy them myself. I understand that you pay for what you get but at this current time my westy is my project, i fully intend on spending a lot of my hard earned on it...... but at this moment im just desperate to get it on the road and start enjoying it for the last few weeks of summer before the real work starts over the winter! If anyone can help or has advice it would be hugley appreciated as i'm one unhappy camper at the moment...... I have pics of the effected areas if anyone wants a look but being quite new to this im struggling to upload them....

Many thanks

Ian

 

[Graham L]

Ian

We are in Solihull and would be happy to have a look at the work for you, if you send some pictures to my email address we can have a look for you and let you know likely cost, have both the inner and outer sill gone?

 

[Rusty Lee]

20 hours to do a sill? that sounds way to long to me.ive done sills and it didnt take me 20 hours.

 

[faux]

Don't forget that you can get your van transported for a very reasonable rate. So choose your welder then find a way of getting it to them.

£1500 is incredibly steep by the sounds of it, I had a large amount of welding done and a full respray for less than that only 3 years ago.

 

[ianscooby]

20 hours to do a sill? that sounds way to long to me.ive done sills and it didnt take me 20 hours.

yer but it's taken 9 months to paint :lol: :lol: sorry bud

it does sound a lot of time, as faux says a trailer would be cheap to hire

 

[Rusty Lee]

9 and a half actually ian ha. yeah good point jon transport it cheap at the moment id do that for sure

 

[Allden83]

thanks for the responses guys, i just wanted to know if the price and time scale seemed as ridiculous as i thought... i think ive got round the problem by booking it into a guy that M.O.Ts too so he reckons he can address the welding situation. in response to graham its just the outter part of the sills the inner and underneth of the van is rock solid its more cosmetic than structual the work that needs to be done.

 

[ianscooby]

be careful where the panels come from as you will need to make sure that they fit good or all that time and money will be wasted, It would be worth PMing rusty lee as he has recently spent half his live welding a split together and I know that he is fussy with fit etc so he'll know a good source

 

[Nugsy]

im no expert as i'm doing all the welding myselfon my bus, but i reckon you could get a single outer sill off grind the spots of and get new one in place in about 5-6 hours presuming there is nothing lurking behind you'll need to address
If thats the going rate for welders i reckon ive saved myself about 2.5K, but then again it has taken me 8 months so far :lol:

 

[dandaz]

20 hours , I can do all three sills both sides and maybe both rear arches and battery tray while juggling 3 lemons.. 8)

 

[sparkywig]

20 hours , I can do all three sills both sides and maybe both rear arches and battery tray while juggling 3 lemons.. 8)

...and it'll look OK in the dark as well.... :lol: