Welding Axle Tubes
- Thread starter Terminator X
- Start date
i took mine by Strange Engineering in Morton Grove, welding my 8.8's axle tubes and lpw brake kit brackets and straightening axle, $200. i was dealing with mike, great guy. i checked around a couple places and all were about 2 week wait time. attitude performance was trying to charge 200 just to weld, not including straightening if the axle tweaks and 3 weeks wait. give strange a call.
Yes, I do have experience with Joe at CRE, Joe is definately good people...
Joe does a great job at a reasonable price.... matter of fact, I doubt you will find a reputable shop that can beat his prices on most jobs.
they are not the only ones who have a jig. i know of at least 2 people who have their own.
PM SENT!
OK, I dropped my 10 bolt off with Joe @ CRE this morning in DeKalb. We talked for a while and he showed me around his shop. He seems like a real nice guy that has a lot of pride in his work. His quoted price was reasonable and I will post up how it went when I get it back. Thanks again for the referrals and support.
First, I need to thank SCCA Stang and for that matter, all of you for sending me some names and pointing me in the right direction on this as I was in uncharted water for me. After discussing what I needed with a few people, I settled on Joe at CRE in DeKalb.
I got my 10 bolt back today and want to share my experience. Basically my standard is that I have to be treated with respect and my work needs to be done on time (or within a reasonable timeframe) and budget (based on their quote). Afterall, I am the customer and it is my money and my parts.
Joe PM'd me with a price quote for the job and added that he was experienced with the process of welding cast iron to steel and had the proper Jig for my 10 bolt as well as a few other rear ends including 8.8s. We discussed the process, my timeframe and sealed the deal last week.
Joe called me back a few days later with the dreaded,"ah......we have a problem" call. You know, the one that is going to always cost you more money. He advised when he put my 10 bolt in his jig and started measuring things out, my right axle tube was bent significantly. I started to think back and I know my car had the right quarter panel replaced long before I ever got it. It also had repaired right rocker damage and some repaired damage to the rear body panel on the right side. A buddy of mine was driving behind me once and noticed that the right rear wheel looked like it was wobbling. I did some investigation and quickly found that this problem is quite common. Some just leave it and some invest a fair amount of labor to correct it. Joe wasn't going to weld it unless it was straight and I didn't blame him for that because if he did, and I found out later that it was out of spec, I'm pretty sure I would be pointing the finger at him. I decided to have Joe straighten it. So we discussed how much it was going to cost and a revised timeframe.
Joe called me today on schedule saying that he was done. I picked it up this evening and was charged exactly what we had agreed upon. Bottom line. I was treated like a customer should be and got my work done on time and on budget. It sucks that it cost me somewhat more than I had planned but that's hot rodding. My biggest gripe at this point is that I have to paint over all of these pretty welds!!!! The pics do not do Joe's welding skills justice.
I got my 10 bolt back today and want to share my experience. Basically my standard is that I have to be treated with respect and my work needs to be done on time (or within a reasonable timeframe) and budget (based on their quote). Afterall, I am the customer and it is my money and my parts.
Joe PM'd me with a price quote for the job and added that he was experienced with the process of welding cast iron to steel and had the proper Jig for my 10 bolt as well as a few other rear ends including 8.8s. We discussed the process, my timeframe and sealed the deal last week.
Joe called me back a few days later with the dreaded,"ah......we have a problem" call. You know, the one that is going to always cost you more money. He advised when he put my 10 bolt in his jig and started measuring things out, my right axle tube was bent significantly. I started to think back and I know my car had the right quarter panel replaced long before I ever got it. It also had repaired right rocker damage and some repaired damage to the rear body panel on the right side. A buddy of mine was driving behind me once and noticed that the right rear wheel looked like it was wobbling. I did some investigation and quickly found that this problem is quite common. Some just leave it and some invest a fair amount of labor to correct it. Joe wasn't going to weld it unless it was straight and I didn't blame him for that because if he did, and I found out later that it was out of spec, I'm pretty sure I would be pointing the finger at him. I decided to have Joe straighten it. So we discussed how much it was going to cost and a revised timeframe.
Joe called me today on schedule saying that he was done. I picked it up this evening and was charged exactly what we had agreed upon. Bottom line. I was treated like a customer should be and got my work done on time and on budget. It sucks that it cost me somewhat more than I had planned but that's hot rodding. My biggest gripe at this point is that I have to paint over all of these pretty welds!!!! The pics do not do Joe's welding skills justice.
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