Are they raping me??

DissFigured · May 29, 2005

Fire stone qouted:

replacing ball joints and front control arms: $999
Pinion Seal replacement: 110.00
Front Sway bar: 250.00
New bearings: 125.00

I was able to do the bearings myself for about $20 so I suspect the other charges are a bit high as well. How much of this stuff can I do in the drivway w/ a couple ramps and jack stands and normal day to day tools?

How much "should" these things cost?

streetgrande69 · May 29, 2005

DissFigured said:
Fire stone qouted:

replacing ball joints and front control arms: $999
Pinion Seal replacement: 110.00
Front Sway bar: 250.00
New bearings: 125.00

I was able to do the bearings myself for about $20 so I suspect the other charges are a bit high as well. How much of this stuff can I do in the drivway w/ a couple ramps and jack stands and normal day to day tools?

How much "should" these things cost?

i think your raping youself, learn the way or pay them what your quoted. what do you want from us? tell you that that price is good?? its not, i can replace control arms in a few hours ,for cost, in my drive way. so any price to me is high. so my opinion in short, its high.

to get a good feel for prices, just go to google and search. look to places like mustang depot, mustangs plus etc for prices and compare. there are few special tool you'll need, spring compressor is the 1 for sure.

Hack · May 29, 2005

Yes, they are making GOOD money at those rates. I'm with streetgrande69 100%.

68modstang · May 29, 2005

My first impression would be yes they're a little high. That being said how involved are you willing to get. You can get an upgraded 1in. sway bar with bushings for around $150 and will probably cost an hour of time. If i's just bushings you can ge t a set for $20. The ball joints and control arms are much more involved, but plenty of us have done it in our driveways. My only worry is with firestone itself. I recently went their to have my alignment done. First the guy behind the counter says they can't do an alignment on a car that old... then the manager says they can but it'll cost extra. I leave the car there and five hours later they call me to pick up the car and there some problems. They tell me my front end is too worn and it'll need new ball joints, idler arm, bearings and sway bar bushings. Except for the sway bar bushings they had all been replaced 5000 miles earlier. In the end they didn't do the alignment. Just my 2 cents.

66moneypit · May 29, 2005

Do the stuff you are comfortable with and the stuff you aren't....see if you can get someone from a local Mustang club to help you out and take you under their wing. That way you have their experience to draw upon and you get the knowledge yourself. I know you were looking for advice and not sarcasm...

streetgrande69 · May 29, 2005

66moneypit said:
I know you were looking for advice and not sarcasm...

sorry if you took my responce as sarcasm, it really wasn't ment to me for the most part. so here's a dancing banana.

ravenblack67 · May 29, 2005

You can do the sway bar in the driveway with a socket set. The arms are not a driveway job. The prices are high and I would be suspect of any technicians that know how to do the work unless they are vintage car buffs. Find the local mustang club and ask for help.

67efivert · May 29, 2005

where r u at there might be one of us that could easily help u

DarkBuddha · May 29, 2005

If you've gotta pay someone to do it, find a reputable restoration shop to do the work. They'll likely charge less and will probably know what they're doing better.

iskwezm · May 29, 2005

IMO,thats about a days worth of work,maybe two tops,The control arms are nothing more then removing the shock,coil spring,and the two nuts in the engine compartment to remove the upper arm,for that price,buy the whole suspension package and make friend and have them help you.EVERYTHING is driveway stuff to me.

nds03 · May 29, 2005

iskwezm is right. i would say either learn how to do this work yourself or sell your car, or your gonna get ripped everytime something goes wrong with your car. get a coil spring compressor and a manual, and BE CAREFULL

DissFigured · May 30, 2005

hmm
Well, I am not selling the car. I just bought it 2 months ago, and being that it is my first old car, I chalked its behavior up to bad alignment. That is when I took it to Firestone and the dude called back saying I needed all this crap done and gave me that price. Naturally, I looked at local shops and noticed that I can get all of the parts for a fraction of what they are charging.

But I wanted to be realistic about what I can and can't do. I have the haynes repair manual, and I have been quite dissappointed with it. Maybe I got the wrong one, but time after time, it says "This repair should be handled professionally by a shop etc... ", rather than explaining the repair, the parts involved, and how they work.

65ShelbyClone · May 30, 2005

DissFigured said:
I have the haynes repair manual, and I have been quite dissappointed with it. Maybe I got the wrong one, but time after time, it says "This repair should be handled professionally by a shop etc... ", rather than explaining the repair, the parts involved, and how they work.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but.....Haynes manuals are nothing short of crap. What you need is a real factory Ford shop manual. I got one with my '68 and it tells you how to rebuild absolutely every part of the car, even transmissions(unlike Haynes). If you havent had alot of mechainical experience, I would be reluctant to encourage just tearing into the control arm replacement. It really would be good to have someone experienced helping. As for your local Firestone, screw 'em.

PS-put your city and/or state in your info so we know where you are(see under my avatar.

2nd Mustang · May 30, 2005

I agree with most of the posts, unless it's your daily driver, or if like me, time and space dictates what I will work on. I have bought the parts and had shops install them. Hourly labor rates are somewhat fixed, so finding a shop that you can trust is the key. The best service I got was from Winston Tires, now Just Tires. For other stuff, I go to the local hot rod shops and other shops that have been around for decades under the same owner.

reyesjo · May 30, 2005

do it your self.

Take a chance and do it your self, the best way to learn is to do the research and apply it... Here is a URl that might help on some technical questions you have pictures are realy helpfull..... I did the complete suspentions upgrade, including the Granda disk converstion and the Shelby drop and everything else..... Do the research and have fun. Its the only way to learn.

http://desertmustangs.com/Write-ups.htm

DissFigured · May 30, 2005

I am clearly new at this. I got the haynes manual because in the Dallas Mustang Catalog, it lists a lot of auto manuals, and under the haynes one, it says "Excellent Book".

I have found the internet is a pretty good source for information, but some detailed stuff is very tough to find. For example, my car has no parking brake. Just the lever, and a cable running from it. The manuals list all the parts, but I cannot find one graphic set of instructions on how to set it up, and the guy I spoke to at Dallas Mustang said he had all the components, but no idea how to hook it up. Aparently, parts of it hooked to the original transmission, but the previous owner added an FMX to replace the c4 and I think it doesn;t have tyhe same available areas to mount the parking brake components.

Anyway, that is where I am at, I want to do all repairs that I can actually do in my driveway between sun up and sun down (I don't want to leave it in the driveway overnight)

Anyone know of any great repair it your self websites w/ instructions a dummy can read and some pictures? Or what is the best manual. Chiltons?

DissFigured · May 30, 2005

oops, I din;t check the link in the previous post before replying. That site has some great information.

ashford · May 30, 2005

ill try to do a break down for you on this, i have a truck repair shop, labor rate is $52 an hour.

from napa( i did this once)
lower control arm and ball joint assembly $70 roughly

upper ball joint $30 roughly

so $100 per side parts (probably get this stuff cheaper and better quality from p-s-t)
thats 200 parts lets say $50 for an alignment that leaves $750 for labor which equals 14 hours-my ass or they are raping you on parts as well

recently i did four balljoints 2 tie rods wheelbearings cv boots on a chev pickup for a friend of mine and charged him 1/3 shop rate(front wheel bearings were $110 a piece my cost) and charged him $750. and your mustang would be easier to do.

Fredo · May 30, 2005

Buy a shop manual and follow it step by step.

FasterThenU72 · May 30, 2005

exactly, buy a manual for your ride, and borrow/steal/buy the tools to do it right , and get er done, unless of course your a rich guy and can afford such extravagancies......

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