Like the judge says about alimony: “Amount is based on need and the ability to pay”. Repairs can be lucrative if you can make it look like it never happened and are efficient. Depending on customers, some are free and others would seem outrageously priced to the guys here. The people who live in $2 mil homes behind gates don’t care what it costs, so $250 for a SUP finbox is OK with them (they don’t even want to know the price). But you must have a balance; you can’t hammer everyone with high prices and it can’t all be free or you’ll just de-value the work. The high prices on some subsidizes the free ones. It’s successful if you can make some profit and everybody’s happy at the end of the day. There’s a big difference in charity and running a business for profit; if you already have enough income and just want to be a nice guy who does favors then it’s a lot different than depending on repairs for your income (or part of it). But you need to cleary identify which one you are because people are either shopping for the lowest possible price or don’t care how much it is. Same with finished boards, shapes, glassing, whatever.
10-4 on that.
…is not all about Money in my small World. As mentioned in the other comment, I do not do repairs because I do not have enough space so the racks (and time) are occupied with new boards.
Also showed a repair that was not fast and that I prefered to not charge.
I do not have that enough profit as you says but is better to spread the “Aloha” than not.
In this small niche of custom surfboards where the surfers can point you and talk whatever with others (I mean not like to buying a big brand where they cannot knock knock on that factory door somewhere in an Asian Country or like that) is better to preserve the bag of clients; so sometimes is better to not have a bad rap from some one and possibly lose a potential customer and do the repair and just that.
In fact, with that repair showed here the other day the same guy decided to order a board for his wife; and not a cheap type of board so pay in the end.
–In an small town like this, I prefer to share or whatever that what I do or know and then when I need something (a tool that I do not have; to have some part done in a lathe; to weld something; to transport big stuff with a truck; to have a hand to help me with something in my house; to ask some questions about a given theme; etc) can be free for me.
I do not have a problem to give something that I do not use for free too.
I have been having good experience with all that.
I clarify that I am not a hippie.
my 2 cents (and getting some more points,haha) is that in my experience, most if not all shapers and glassers would rather shape a board or glass a board than do a ding repair.And once you find a good ding repair person,who does it as a business,you stick with them and pay their price and keep them in business.(same as a good honest mechanic).You already paid hundreds of dollars for the board and no sense bitching about a ding repair cost.I used to do my own,and taught my son how to,and he did it for pocket money for his friends,but if you only occasionally do a repair,the resin is hardened,gotta buy a new can, and it’s not cheap.(unless it’s small and you can use the solareze).
I’m gonna agree with Greg on this one, a decent hourly rate plus materials, with adjustments up and down for attitude and other things. I used to do a lot of dings, and if you can set up several at once, use power tools and get your materials reasonably cheap, it’s a nice little side gig - it let me work at a surf shop into my 40s without having ramen for supper every night.
Adjustments included ‘somebody else started the job’ and failed, show up in a rich guy car or come in with Mom dripping jewelry and an attitude that I was some sort of serf.
On the other hand, working class kids? “Hey, kid, wanna learn?” Might be free. Or at least cheap. That being how I got into it…
doc…
The whole reason I got into building boards in the first place was because there were 4 surfers in my household and the dings were adding up. I never went into selling my work, though - I stick to the friends and family program, and an occasional neighbor freebie. Of course, at “free” they take what they get and i’ll get it done when I get around to it.
Switching over to epoxy really reduced the repair traffic.
I repair poly boards with epoxy resin all the time.
I did a rail gash along the lap on the bottom of an Agua. Cut out a small piece of glass and fill, sand and apply a piece of six ounce about one ft. long. Hotcoat and sand. Spray with rattle can clear. A friend and a good customer. Charged her $30, she gave me $40 and didn’t want the change.
So are shops in need of ding repair guys or are they pretty much a dime a dozen?
Depends on where you are located. In some locales; once a shop finds someone who is consistent and can do a decent job, they stick with him. There is an over abundance of “flakes”. Very much like finding a good mechanic.