[NJARC] Charge to repair advice

[Robert Bennett]

Matt -
           I’ll throw in my 2 cents to help. The electrical restoration is usually pretty easy to figure out to price. Since this would include cabinet repair and rest as well as re-stuffing the original caps, this number may get interesting. The trick is going to be how to price for labor. Let’s say the radio has a value of 400 dollars. If you spend (as a guess) 20 hours on the chassis and caps, and another 20 on the cabinet. Now you have 40 hours invested. Do you charge 15 bucks an hour (600 bucks) for a 400 dollar radio. I talk to the owner first before doing the work. Options are best. Maybe explain that you will save a bunch of labor hours by just replacing the caps, rather than restuffing the originals. If the owner wants a really nice finished cabinet, recommend bringing it to a “professional” woodworker and get a quote from them you can forward the owner. By providing as many options as you can will also give you an idea of what the owner has in his bank account. Are the cheapskates like us, or do they have “Jay Leno” money. I hope this helps you out.

Bob Bennett - A.K.A. - “Radiowild” - I’m cheap and proud of it!


On Feb 9, 2016, at 9:22 AM, Matt Reynolds <mattr04 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Just remember
> Reply = Poster
> Reply All = Everyone
> 
> _________________________________________________________
> All,
> 
> A former, retired colleague of mine asked me if I would be willing (or know someone willing) to restore a radio (TrueTone 910B ) for him.  The man is in Texas, and is willing to ship the radio to me to have it fixed.
> 
> The radio is a family heirloom, not just a radio he bought at a flea market, and he wants it to look as close to the way it did when it was built.  The case itself needs a bit of veneer work, but he stated that he just wanted me to take care of the electrical aspect of the job, as well as sourcing some of the missing knobs\pushbuttons if possible. 
> 
> I have restored radios to working electrical order before (to various degrees of success) and believe I can do it, but I've never done it to the level he is requesting (restuffing wax caps and electrolytic cans), etc.
> 
> Normally if this was a simple snip and replace re-cap project I wouldn't be so worried about cost (since it's an old colleague\friend), but since this is more in depth, and since I have very limited free time right now (full time school and work, and have a multitude of projects on my own right now), I need to put a price to my time.
> 
> I know some of you folks do\did the restoration thing on the side, so I thought I'd ask, what do you think is a fair price\value for restoration of a set?
> 
> Based on what I can tell, it looks like it'd be replacing\restuffing 13 or so caps, checking resistors and replacing what's out of tolerance, replacing the line cord, testing about 6 tubes, and probably re-aligning both bands and the if.
> 
> For reference, here's the schematic.
> 
> http://www.nostalgiaair.org/Resources/download.asp?FN=\M0023926.pdf
> 
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Matt
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