Jeff - This will be the third time we have spoken on this issue. Each time you do not like the answer so you go to a new echo chamber of the internet to make your case and someone in the Durant club contacts me about it. Each time your story gets more colorful too; "take it or leave it", "he's mad" etc etc
We provide an estimate that is based on past builds. The more extreme the builds the broader the estimate range. Since there are few Durants and fewer needing radiators we have fewer data points. Your particular build provides one more data point and the estimate range will broaden. We will also see notes on your build that the tanks were scrap and required additional hours. To be absolutely clear; No one foresaw your build taking 14.42 hours or we would have told you.
You feel mistreated because we neglected to call you to re-estimate after we determined your tanks were scrap or to call you during the build that the job was taking longer than the last Durant took. I feel mistreated too. Everyone feels mistreated now.
The West Coast Chapter Toured their shop a few years ago. I've been back for two Model T radiators. A fan blade broke and ruined the first one they made. The return inlet on the second had to be modified as the cross member it sits on was bent. They reworked it and didn't charge me anything. I have been very satisfied with their work.
Building a radiator is an incredibly labor intensive process. My Star radiator is made up of hundreds of square tubes that need to be stacked together and then soldered. When I replaced mine, I had it done in England. The cost was well north of $3,300.
According to BW, it takes a year of training before someone can be expected to do a radiator on their own. The California labor market is very tight and our environmental regulations are the strictest in the nation.
Where Are You From? North of Golden Gate Bridge
Do You own a car built by Durant? 1925 Star Touring
For the life of me, I just don't understand why the shop didn't say whoa, this is going way over the estimate we provided, we should call the customer and discuss what we found before going any further. Take a few minutes, call the customer and he'll likely agree with your findings and say go ahead and do it. Drop a big cost surprise bomb on him and he's apt to react like a cornered dog. Who wouldn't? You just can't spring a whopping big charge on someone that was expecting it to come in close to the estimate provided.
the problem with lee is he wants people to feel bad for him if you have the radiator in front of you and you have experience in rebuilding them for years and you give a price you should stand by your quote and im not the only person you have done this to. IM not looking for anyone from club to call him just beware of how he does business and if price was a couple hundred over ok but 1000 without calling customer is poor business and you should be called on it