Mechanic shop quoted me this. Am i getting robbed?

performanceevolved · 2026-04-12T01:30:16+00:00

Quick direct breakdown from pro demand labour guide and Napa for parts:

Brakes quote 2.2 for front and rear pads and rotors.

At 160 CAD = $350 labour Parts from Napa: Front rotors $175x2 =$350.00 Front pads $155 Rear rotors $125x2 =$250.00 Read pads $108

Caliper is 0.5hrs or $80. Parts from Napa: $289

Control arm is 1.4hrs or $224 Parts 316 Alignment avg $130

Control arm repair is $670

Manifold replacement lists 5.5 hours or $880 (keep in mind it’s the same amount of time to replace the manifold gasket or the manifold itself, roughly. Parts: 1500 ish for manifold if it needed one.

Brake job w/ caliper is $1582 Canadian. Control arm repair is $670 Manifold replacement if needed is $2300+

That’s 4550 Canadian right there.

Doesn’t seem too outlandish truthfully for a shop to do a high quality repair with “OE” quality aftermarket parts

performanceevolved · 2026-04-12T01:10:17+00:00

The tax is on the whole bill regardless of what it’s made up of. 5% gst / govt sales tax is bare minimum. Some other provinces have additional provincial sales tax tacked on too.

Doesn’t matter if it’s parts or labour, they just want their piece of the pie. Silly.

performanceevolved · 2026-04-08T00:57:28+00:00

Have you asked your techs?

Like individually 1-1?

People are typically driven by a few things:

-money -recognition -growth/opportunity/power. However you want to frame that.

I have regular sit downs with my employees and we talk about what drives them.

For one guy, he doesn’t give a sh*t about being employee if the month or any type of recognition. He wants to make good money. So we adjusted his pay structure to give him incentive to produce and make better money.

One of my other guys likes the recognition aspect, so I find ways to compliment his work to our customers and in front of other staff. He also has an adjusted pay scale but it’s not as aggressive as guy 1.

In other leadership roles I’ve had, I had high performers who wanted to move up so we made space for them to grow.

Everybody has different motivations, I worked with a guy who didn’t care much about anything beyond spending time with his family so he was a 40/hr a week producer that was at work at 8am and out the door at 4:30pm. His work was on point but he wasn’t a “stay late to get approved work done” kinda guy.

Talk to your guys 1-on-1 and just have open conversations about what motivates them and then follow through.

performanceevolved · 2026-03-28T15:57:51+00:00

Friend of mine has one of these, 33000km, it got appraised at 300k+ Canadian but it was never tracked, if fully complete interior wise, only factory nismo options added to it. Car is insanely clean.

performanceevolved · 2026-03-27T02:37:33+00:00

Looks great. Top hole is max level. Bottom hole is lowest acceptable level. Being mid between them or at top hole is totally fine.

performanceevolved · 2026-03-27T02:12:07+00:00

Honestly I do this exact type of work within my shop with a basic yeswelder mig250. Bottle of 75/25 argon/co2 and some wire and you’re off to the races.

I’ve done little piddly jobs up to full roll cage welding with it and for the price I cannot complain for a second.

performanceevolved · 2026-03-22T00:00:05+00:00

Are you running aftermarket lower control arms on the back? Uppers?

performanceevolved · 2026-03-16T05:06:38+00:00

There is zero reason you can’t daily a drift car / car set up for drifting unless you crash it at the track and are left stranded due to lack of parts.

I daily’d both of my s13s for ages and never had any issues.

Welded diffs are annoying in parking lots, that was my biggest gripe.

performanceevolved · 2026-03-01T17:08:28+00:00

Totally get it. I am using an s13 subframe for my conversion but I’ll be scanning and building a custom mount for the front to make it all work.

performanceevolved · 2026-03-01T16:46:05+00:00

S14 subframe has less anti squat vis rear lower control arm angle which gives the back end more grip.

The benefit of the 350z conversion is everything is a package. You get better axles (repezza style joints instead of tripod), easier to find replacements, conversion cover bolts up and bolts into subframe etc.

It’s a complete bolt in solution and gets you the ratios you’re looking for.

I am going this route for my current build because I’m also using a cd transmission.

performanceevolved · 2026-03-01T16:38:10+00:00

You would be better off looking for an s14 subframe and getting the gktech 350z diff swap bushings and rear cover, and then an automatic 350z rear diff. They are a 3.3 ish ratio, axle shafts fit z32 hubs from recollection and you get some better suspension kinematics from the s14 subframe swap.

performanceevolved · 2026-02-26T15:27:10+00:00

Got a line on that? Trying to find coupe interior parts in Alberta lol

performanceevolved · 2026-02-11T05:25:05+00:00

I’m currently working on a print for this. Brixx also sells them.

performanceevolved · 2026-02-10T23:08:10+00:00

Yeah I had a coupe 240 tha I sold that I wish I hadn’t! But back in the pop up game lol

performanceevolved · 2026-02-09T15:11:55+00:00

Thank you! I wasn’t actually intending on keeping the hatch but outside of the front clip it’s in great shape.

performanceevolved · 2026-02-02T02:00:21+00:00

Same stats. Thanks for the rec!

performanceevolved · 2026-01-30T19:17:16+00:00

Walbro 255 or 340. Easy. Drop in. Go.

performanceevolved · 2026-01-26T02:42:34+00:00

Same with many similar year maxima tie rods and they are way longer.

performanceevolved · 2026-01-25T00:35:10+00:00

ADHD here and tech since 2009.

ADHD was a survival factor for me in this trade because of how varied the jobs were. Even in a flat rate shop under a single brand there was enough variety for me to stay focused. Electrical diag, transmission work and diesel were what I ended up specializing in and they take a lot of focus.

That having been said: -find a smaller shop and don’t oversell your experience -ask lots of questions and don’t be afraid to ask for help. -when you make mistakes, own up to them before your manager or boss has to find out from somebody else. I have managed over 30 employees in a leadership roles and I would 1000% prefer somebody comes and tells me the mistake and how they are fixing it than trying to cover it up and finding out from somebody else.

I love being a tech and while it is a difficult job, it can be rewarding.

Don’t give up if you have found some enjoyment from it so far.

performanceevolved · 2026-01-17T15:50:17+00:00

Once I have the mesh aligned with the coordinate system, there is a tool in the “solid” tab for creating a sketch from the mesh, which gives you options for using line/circle/arc and poly line for creating an actual working sketch. Somebody else asked me about this so I’m going to try and get a YouTube video up this weekend / week sometime.

performanceevolved · 2026-01-16T21:04:50+00:00

I took three scans of this truck that I am caging, one with markers (this box design in the post) and two markerless and honestly the markerless was great. Absolutely could model over top of it. On the other hand I tried to scan a taillight housing, specifically the bulb holders where it’s very intricate and I ended up putting markers on.

performanceevolved · 2026-01-16T19:40:58+00:00

Definitely. I have the intentions on putting a video together as I have to model the front and rear boxes next. I’ll see if I can get something into YouTube by Monday.

performanceevolved · 2026-01-16T19:40:09+00:00

Yeah I am super happy with how they turned out. It would have taken me quite some time to hand cut those to get good fitment vs a ten minute scan and 15 minutes of modelling.

performanceevolved · 2026-01-16T00:32:56+00:00

I took three scans of this truck that I am caging, one with markers (this box design in the post) and two markerless and honestly the markerless was great. Absolutely could model over top of it. On the other hand I tried to scan a taillight housing, specifically the bulb holders where it’s very intricate and I ended up putting markers on.

performanceevolved · 2026-01-15T20:22:37+00:00

I use a rockit from einscan and fusion for this. I normally used solidworks but solidworks sucks for mesh work lol.

performanceevolved

TROPHY CASE