I recently had a local guy that I know do about 4 hours of work on my truck (suspension replacement). He doesn't do this for a living, just did it at his house as he had the time/knowhow/tools/ambition. He's pretty laid back about payment, he said "just whatever you think". I want to do right by him, so what should I pay him for his 4 hours of suffering?
New shocks on my old '02 Tacoma. Bolts were rusted to shit. I could have done it but didn't need the aggravation right now. I bought the parts and he installed. I was thinking along the same lines of $50/hr ~ $200 range. He's like 25 and doesn't drink, so I'll just have to keep the PBR for myself.
Anything less than $400 and you're saving. $200 is probably more than he would get at work so thats probably fair.
I had all new suspension done on my old 07 Tacoma, ARB Shocks, springs, leaf springs, struts... similar issues where old parts were super rusted... I bought the parts, local shop installed it. Labor ran me about $800. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Growing up, my dad would bring our mechanic a twelver after getting something fixed but the guy had quit drinking by the time I was like 10. My dad started paying to have a pizza delivered after getting something fixed instead. The guy always remembered and seemed grateful, something I still think about 25 years later. If the guy does right by you, something a little extra is never a bad thing.
Find out if he has an account with snap on et al and give him like a $50 gift certificate he can use on his account.
It wasn't a four-hour project on a 2000 Frontier, but if the bolts were all rusted to hell it would take longer than it took me to do mine. Of course, I'm also assuming that the shocks are similar to an old Frontier.