Thread: Prices of materials and supplies

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I had to pick up a fresh tank of MIG gas and a roll of .023 wire yesterday. Surprisingly, the wire was still the same price as the last roll (I use the 'expensive' 2 pound rolls), but the gas - WOW!!! I looked at my past receipts for my 55cu. in. tank. Three years ago it was ~$20. Last year it went to ~$25. The fresh tank this year - $34!!!! Obviously I am not using my welder that much right now, but it almost makes me want to put the flux core whip center back on it and clean up the splatter after welding. Steel - at least that's down a wee bit, but a 48 x 96 inch piece of 16ga is still over a buck a pound locally.

Steel has been down for awhile, makes fabbing parts more fun!! Got 2 sheets of 20 ga. couple of weeks back, with a bit of a discount the bill was $57.00! Welding gas prices just keep going up--my supplier blames compliance with federal rules and regs..

Nothing ever gets cheaper! ....It's a fact of life. :-(

Paint materials are about double what they were 10 years ago.

We still pay about $20 a bottle for gas... I see TONS of people using flux core wire on body work and frames too and can't believe it, i guess ya use what ya have though. Saw one body that was welded with a stick welder! I have a 110V Mig with .023 wire for that, 220v mig with .035 and .045 wire, and a tig for all the various parts that need work done. Flux core is just too messy. you think its expensive to buy the tools and materials and do the work yourself... Try paying someone else! haha. The stripping, narrowing, boxing, welding, fabbing pieces, grinding, straightening, replacing pieces just on my frame i figure i have close to 100 hours (probably more) in it. even at $50 an hour thats $5000 plus materials. you can buy a lot of gas, metal, and wire for that! But ya still can't buy a tube frame for that price. Im curious what anyone has paid someone to take a stock frame and box it, replacing crossmembers, and putting a Mustang 2 suspension on it? Anyone have an experiences where they paid for that or know someone that did?

Don't read anything into what I said above. I still do all my own work with the exception of upholstery. What I'm saying is that the prices of the materials used is starting to hurt a bit more then I believe it should. These prices I stated far exceed the cost of living index (which IMO is a government lie). I should have also stated that we 'ain't seen nothin' yet'. Just wait until the Cap and Trade plus the Health Care increases get added to the cost/price economic spiral.

Sorry if I wandered into a bit of the forbidden subject here of politics, but that WILL be a fact of life and will affect the costs of our car hobby....or businesses in some cases.

I just had my welding bottle ( 40 CF ) filled.. $32.. the .023 wire I got was $7 for the 2lb spool.

Originally Posted by IC2

Don't read anything into what I said above. I still do all my own work with the exception of upholstery. What I'm saying is that the prices of the materials used is starting to hurt a bit more then I believe it should. These prices I stated far exceed the cost of living index (which IMO is a government lie). I should have also stated that we 'ain't seen nothin' yet'. Just wait until the Cap and Trade plus the Health Care increases get added to the cost/price economic spiral.

Sorry if I wandered into a bit of the forbidden subject here of politics, but that WILL be a fact of life and will affect the costs of our car hobby....or businesses in some cases.

I follow you, no worries. With all these new "helpful" programs we will have the costs on our hobbies increased 3 fold, you pay for yours, and 2 more except the other two are handed out for free to someone "underpriveledged"...