It is cheaper, but all you are buying is what somebody else wanted, and then beat up. I would rather pay more and have exactly what I want.
The price of the car is directly related to the level of creativity and craftsmanship that a shop can demonstrate. Look at Rad rides, their labor rate is 55-65 an hour. But they just built the most expensive hot rod yet with the ridler car. But those boys can throw down, if you can dream of it and pay for it they can build it. There are very few shops that charge 100 per hour where you get your monies worth. Steve Moal come to mind as a rare exception, but not to many more. Most of the guys who do really amazing work are in the 55-75 per hour for a full tilt hot rod shop. The labor rate should have to do with the tools that the shop has to speed up the fabrication process.
I had a customer of mine us a local sheetmetal guy to do the chop on his truck. They charged him for a 125 hours @ 40 dollars per hour, to chop a pick up. The quality was good, but they do not have an english wheel or planishing hammer, so the made all the filler pieces with a hammer and dolly.
We chopped a sedan a few months ago and did the whole thing in 85 hours, because we have kick ass tools that speed things up. My labor rate is 55 currently, but we could have done his truck in 85 hours. Which is 4675. He asked me when he was done and I told him we could have done it cheaper because we can get more work done in that same hour.
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