I added this to my website in light of this situation. And, it seems the over riding problem with guys hiring me to do this is the total unpreparedness on the actual cost of this type of service. The TV shows, magazines do NO justice, service, etc. to the dreamers out there, they actually think they can get a total restoration for 10K! What that number is, is the amount they want to spend, what the reality is that when I get done media blasting it, the true scope of damage(s) is now known. I'm starting to get some grief from the other customer, the Ram W250, as the truck has completed all the repairs, it's assembly time, and, as I told him things would accelerate quickly thus the costs reflect this, he raises hell...I don't get it...all the more reason I did the right thing by putting this on my site:
Effective 1 July 2012 For complete jobs; disassembly, media blasting, bag/tag nuts and bolts, metal repair/replace operations, will require you deposit up-front $5,000.00 dollars. This initial money will cover the media blasting, and the supplies such as self-etch primer, epoxy primer and other associated supplies. $2,000.00 of this money will be held in reserve in a savings account to cover final costs in closing the contract, etc. This money is secured in case of the unfortunate situation(s) where customers chose to take a break from their project for any number of reasons -- and it usually ends up that I become a no-cost storage facility. This is no longer going to be accepted.
After 30 days of non-payment I will charge $25.00 a day storage fee, then, at the 60 day mark the project may be considered abandoned unless arrangements are made.
