Originally Posted by Big_Bad_Bill
1. Labor rates seem incredibly high. Our shop is in Fairfax, Virginia, one of the highest cost-of-living areas in the country, and we are at $44 (labor) and $28 (paint materials). $82 and $50 seem insanely high. I'm wondering if that's standard for your area, or if the shop jacked it up for this customer/estimate.
2. 1 hour paint time on the handle and .3 R&I (remove and inspect) for the body man seem reasonable. 1 hour repair on the handle doesn't make sense; the body man is not doing mudding or metal repair, and the paint shop will always sand a part when prepping it for paint, which is all the "repair" the handle needs. My body techs would consider 1.0 repair on that handle to be "gravy", ie, free money. Also, a new handle lists for $67.50 (I think part # is 5RP08PTEAA); charging $82 labor to fix a part that costs $67 to replace is more "gravy" for the shop, especially when there is no actual "repair" being done to the handle.
3. I may be wrong, but from the pictures, I figured the marks on the lift gate could be buffed out. They are charging you to paint the entire lift gate, plus they are charging you for buff/polish (line 13 on the estimate). To me, that is overkill and double-charging. Overkill, as in, even if the marks won't buff out, you don't need to paint the entire liftgate, just do a "spot-blend", ie, only paint the part of the liftgate affected, which would be maybe 1.5 paint time vs. the 3.9 they have on there. And charging for paint time AND buffing is, to me, double-charging. If the marks buff out, the gate doesn't need painted. If they are painting the gate, it shouldn't need buffing. If our shop has to buff a panel we have already painted, it's because the painter messed up and got dust in the paint or has drips on the panel; charging a customer for painting AND buffing the same panel is never done at our shop and would be considered double-charging.
4. Replacing the nameplates is only necessary if the entire gate were to be painted; not needed if the gate were being buffed or spot-blended.
5. Bottom line: this is what my shop would call a "fat" estimate. It would be written for a customer whose business we don't want. I am guessing the body shop might actually just: R&I the handle and paint it, and buff the lift gate, which SHOULD translate to: .3 labor for R&I handle, 1.0 paint labor & 1.0 paint materials to paint handle, 1.0 labor for buffing lift gate. Even at their exorbitant rates, that would be a total estimate of 2.3 x 82 + 1 x 50 = $238.60 + odds & ends, maybe $260-280.
Again, from the pictures, it looks like the marks on the lift gate are buffable, but even if the gate needs painted, painting the whole gate seems excessive; charging for full paint time AND buffing seems dishonest; charging .5 to tint the paint also seems excessive. IF the gate did actually need to be FULLY painted, not just spot-blended, THEN it would be normal to charge for R&I tail lamps, replacing emblems, hazardous waste, and mask vehicle for overspray.
Get that friend-of-friend of your wife's to write an estimate in the $300 dollar range, take it to this guy, and tell him you will pay $300 for the repair, not his fat $1100 estimate.