How many hours to remove and weld in new rear upper spring mounts?

SaharaBound

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Long story short, I found a place that said they will weld in my new rear upper spring mounts for me. It’s $110 an hour, which where I live and that I’m bringing in my own parts seems fair. How many hours do you all think it will take for a shop to remove old spring mounts and weld in the new ones? I just don’t want to get hosed.
 
Just shooting from the hip... I’d say at least two hours per side, once all the shit is out of the way. Takes time to cut out the old material, properly prep the parent metal, and weld in the new parts.
 
For the first time and reusing the factory seats, 2-3 hours per side should be more than enough time. This isn't a difficult job. Freeing up the inboard sides are the hardest. Removing the gas tank helps, though I did not do that on mine.

I can't imagine paying $110/hr for that job, even if they could do it in a couple.
 
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Are there any mobile welding services near you? Perhaps you could disassemble everything and have someone show up and cut and weld. Then you're not paying $100 an hour to disassemble everything
 
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Are there any mobile welding services near you? Perhaps you could disassemble everything and have someone show up and cut and weld. Then you're not paying $100 an hour to disassemble everything
There are a few. I may actually go this route. I finally was able to get the Jeep in the shop and they wanted $1100! Said they would have to take the rear body mounts and lift the tub. I of course said sorry just out of my price range.
 
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There are a few. I may actually go this route. I finally was able to get the Jeep in the shop and they wanted $1100! Said they would have to take the rear body mounts and lift the tub. I of course said sorry just out of my price range.

who was the shop just so I know never to go there? lol
 
who was the shop just so I know never to go there? lol
Haha it was Tanner 4x4. It looks like a good shop and were super friendly. I mean I guess if you wanted nice full welds all the around the replacement coil spring bracket where you my have to remove other stuff that may break when removing (rear body tub mounts) It could possible take the 10-11 hours quoted, but my Jeep has 240k and everything is original and I already have frame patches in the rear control arms, so was just looking for something to get by. They were more on the lines of perfection, which isn’t bad by any means but my Jeep is probably only worth like 5 or 6k haha.
 
Haha it was Tanner 4x4. It looks like a good shop and were super friendly. I mean I guess if you wanted nice full welds all the around the replacement coil spring bracket where you my have to remove other stuff that may break when removing (rear body tub mounts) It could possible take the 10-11 hours quoted, but my Jeep has 240k and everything is original and I already have frame patches in the rear control arms, so was just looking for something to get by. They were more on the lines of perfection, which isn’t bad by any means but my Jeep is probably only worth like 5 or 6k haha.

Maybe the end result would have been perfect, but I haven't heard of anybody lifting the tube to relocate spring mounts. Seems like they invented a way to inflate the quote 'cause they didn't want to do it, or they just don't want to weld overhead.
 
There are a few. I may actually go this route. I finally was able to get the Jeep in the shop and they wanted $1100! Said they would have to take the rear body mounts and lift the tub. I of course said sorry just out of my price range.
I was just about to mention if you want the job to look exactly like factory, the tub has to be lifted up to access the rear tabs, clean the frame and weld them back in correctly. You can do it if you want to hack that rear inside tab off and not weld it back on. If you aren't comfy with that, the tub has to come up.

1100 is a bit high, that is about 500 for that job to do it clean. Axle has to come down, springs have to come out, tub has to go up, and then the actual work can start.
 
Maybe the end result would have been perfect, but I haven't heard of anybody lifting the tube to relocate spring mounts. Seems like they invented a way to inflate the quote 'cause they didn't want to do it, or they just don't want to weld overhead.
Stick your head under there and take a peek. The tub covers the rear inside tab on both sides.

The welding isn't actually overhead. The tops of the tabs are horizontal fillets, the sides are downhill verticals. Literally there is 10 minutes of welding start to finish for both sides.
 
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Maybe the end result would have been perfect, but I haven't heard of anybody lifting the tube to relocate spring mounts. Seems like they invented a way to inflate the quote 'cause they didn't want to do it, or they just don't want to weld overhead.
Almost forgot, the front mount has to come out from under the grill so you can lift the back up. If you don't, you bend the front fenders right over the tires. The only two mounts that have the bolts left in loose so the tub doesn't slide forward are the two right behind the front tires. All the rest come out.
 
I was just about to mention if you want the job to look exactly like factory, the tub has to be lifted up to access the rear tabs, clean the frame and weld them back in correctly. You can do it if you want to hack that rear inside tab off and not weld it back on. If you aren't comfy with that, the tub has to come up.

I would be 100% ok with leaving that tab off. In your experience, what percentage of these jobs get the tub lifted to weld that tab back on? Obviously I haven't done the job but I've never seen that talked about in the plethora of forum posts talking about how quick and easy of a project this is.
 
I would be 100% ok with leaving that tab off. In your experience, what percentage of these jobs get the tub lifted to weld that tab back on? Obviously I haven't done the job but I've never seen that talked about in the plethora of forum posts talking about how quick and easy of a project this is.
The overall percentage is about 90% but only because I have a few early ones that drop the percentage down from several years ago. We are 100% from then and don't do it any other way. You can be okay with it if you do it yourself. If you pay someone, you're not as likely to be okay with hacked work.