A customer wants to bring in an 89 944 to the shop. It hasn't been running for 7 years. He replaced the fuel pump and it has spark but he doesn't want to go any further.
Since I don't know anything about them (and I want to help this guy out) are there any tips/education you can offer about them?
Timing belt changes are a royal PITA. If the belt broke while running the valves are munched. The brakes like to corrode to a frozen solid state when sitting for that long. The electronics can be a nightmare. However, if he has fuel and spark, it should be pretty easy to get it running.
I've worked on my share of old and busted 944's. If I were to ever buy one, it would be a nice one that has never sat.
How does a shop bill this out? When I worked at a few Firestone stores, when this sort of work walked in, we usually turned it away, because of the structured billing and the tech's not really wanting to work outside the lines (you know, really having to put some thought into coming up with a solution vs. R&R'ing whatever is obviously broken or worn out). Just work out a deal with the customer that how ever many hours it takes is what it's going to cost?
obviously replace the fuel filters, and get fresh gas in it.
do the timing belt and water pump, check the spark plugs.
As long as there is spark the DME relay is still good, I recommend getting one though and putting it in the glove box, if it hasn't gone out yet, it will.
Only use the Porsche Coolant, something about Silica content that is important, I don't remember exactly now, but the coolant is pretty specific.
That is all I remember right now. ( I had a 924S and a 944 in my past)
pres589 wrote: How does a shop bill this out? When I worked at a few Firestone stores, when this sort of work walked in, we usually turned it away, because of the structured billing and the tech's not really wanting to work outside the lines (you know, really having to put some thought into coming up with a solution vs. R&R'ing whatever is obviously broken or worn out). Just work out a deal with the customer that how ever many hours it takes is what it's going to cost?
99% of the stuff that comes in the door is cookie cutter boring cars and I just pull labor times off of AllData. Of course, techs like to shop the top of the tree so many of them don't like to venture into uncharted waters knowing that it might take them longer than the hours they can flag, but we don't let our techs shop. If a car comes in, the next tech gets it. We have way more work than our techs can handle at this point anyway so their paychecks will be fat and sassy regardless of what they work on.
For specialty stuff like this I structure it a bit differently depending on the job. For instance, we have a 64 Ranchero that we're doing a V8 swap and building the engine too. I got together with the tech and we just added up some labor times that were representative of the hours involved and I quoted the customer. I think we quoted him 13 hours to build the shortblock and drop it in.
Stuff like this 944 can be potential nightmares or a complete breeze, so what I do is quote the customer kinda like I quoted Hot Rods. I ask the customer how much they are realistically willing to pay. I get half of it up front and I work until that money is spent. Then I get the rest and finish the job. That kind of quoting requires a lot of trust (which I am good at establishing and not violating) and requires an honest guy turning the wrenches. That kind of pay structure also prevents the customer from getting in over their heads. Too many times I see college kids bring in a 1985 Accord that needs a $600 brake job. They approve the work and we do it, then one of two things happens: A) their friends talk her out of it because they car isn't worth $600 to start with, or B) they spend all their money on books and beer and can't afford to pay the bill and get it back. Then I'm stuck with a mechanic lien car that is worthless.
But as far as quoting and structuring this 944 deal, I'll just pull labor times right off of AllData like any other job.
Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I got used to most of the techs I worked with getting cranky if a car more than 10-15 years old coming in for something major. Or stuff that was non-stock that now wasn't working, like 4cyl to V8 swapped Mustangs and the owner wants working A/C. This was probably made much worse by store managers that only wanted to pay by the book even in situations where that was obviously not fair to the tech. Such as working on an ambulance; the manager would bill like it's just an E-350 Ford van but the tech gets to spend an hour and a half getting all the clipped on equipment off and on the doghouse just to get at the engine. Or limousines that needed A/C work and the manager would bill like it's a Town Car straight from Ford, so the tech gets to stand there watching an evac system pull forever and a day vs. the 1 hour or whatever the book quoted the job taking. So he's basically watching his paycheck shrink while limo companies start flocking because we're the cheapest in town. Which brings in more limos and the techs keep losing money.
I liked working up front at those places, I actually kind of miss it, but if I were to do it again I'd want to make sure the techs were treated better. Busting knuckles for 50 hours in a week should bring home more than $7 / hr average for a decent technician.
Heck, we pay $24/flag. Many of our techs are 70% or better efficiency (which for a shop like ours is pretty good). Its not too uncommon to see them flag 100 hours on a 2-week period. They get paid better than I do :)
We had a few cranky techs, so I'm with you. For the most part we all keep it family-like. They understand that we work hard to make money for them, and they work hard to make money for the business. They don't like doing 74 Beetle engine swaps, but they realize that its money... and they also realize that every once in a while I sell a 14 hour job for them that only takes them 5 hours to do 
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