I have two hourly rates. When someone want's me to restore a rusted 4 door sedan I charge $90 hr. If it's a car I like my rate is $40 hr. I never get the $90 jobs. The only other shop in the area that does specialty work charges $95 hr. He gets the customers who don't ask "how much?" There's not that many of those jobs around here so he isn't overworked. Most of his work is collision damaged sports cars. I go to him for insurance estimates.

My shop is in my back yard so I don't have much overhead. My mortgage is less than $200 a month with only two years till It's paid off.

I also have a machine shop out there. The shops I work with wan't a quote not an estimate. I figure estimates at $40 hr. Most shops add 20% for a quote but I double the estimated hours for a quote So I'm actually charging $80 hr. for machine work.

If you wan't me to build or restore a car I'm booked till spring but there's nothing on my waiting list. So I'm looking for the next project already. I charge $10 a month storage on cars waiting for work or waiting to be picked up. I don't asdvertise my shop and I even took down the sign so I wouldn't get all the rust repair work on junk cars. Most of those people have a budget of less than $100 and just waste my time.
AL