79 Spider on Velocity channel's "Fantom Works" tonight

[focodave]

So I am watching the Velocity channel tonight and there is a 79 Spider on Fantom Works, season 2, episode 3!
That was a pleasant surprise.
They started digging into the car and found a cracked cross-member, driver seat track screwed up, and metal bits in the oil pan.
Fortunately, they fixed everything and got her back together for the owner.
Looked pretty good -- cream with tan interior.
Not a single negative comment was said about Fiats on the show. In fact, they said that the Spider is a damn good-looking car!

[RoyBatty]

Watching it now.
All the stuff they found is nothing the rest of us haven't dealt with.

I found the bill for the Spider repairs to be a bit stiff when they picked up the car.
WTF are the rates in that garage?
And how long did it take to do some of the fixes?

[spidernut]

Hopefully I can access it on the web - no cable TV at my house.

[ga.spyder]

How much was the final bill on the Spider? I freakin' fell asleep and missed the end At one point they had fixed the seat ,window,and crossmember and the boss commented that they were getting close to the original $7000 buying price. Holy Crap!!! $1000 an hour rates or they are very ,very,very sloooow! It was a very nice looking car.So much better looking than the Sunbeam it was parked with.

[RoyBatty]

I think the final tally on the Spider repairs was 10K.

[garion]

In my search for the video online, I found the company's page on the project:

http://www.fantomworks.com/project/1979 ... 24-spider/

[MrJD]

ive sat it to record. 10 grand... crazy.

[ga.spyder]

I am not sure what they ended up doing to the motor,but it wasn't a rebuild.I had all the parts used in the other repairs at less than $500!

[focodave]

It's going to re-air this Friday evening and Saturday morning.
According to what they showed on TV, they tore the motor down quite a ways -- but did not take the bottom end apart.
They had the head off at one point. They suggested that the motor be rebuilt, but the owner did not want to spend that much money -- so the motor was re-assembled and put back in the car. Don't know what they actually did to the motor as there was too much editing that took place on the show.
Sounds like they may have installed a solid-gold oil pump in it.

[spidernut]

$10K makes no sense for what they show in the photos on their site. Their shop rate must be ridiculously high.

[aj81spider]

Just watched the episode. They had $6800 of labor and said it was 85 hours, so about $80 per hour. They had over $3000 in parts which seems high - but then again I have lots more than that in mine!

I could believe the 85 hours. They replaced the whole front end, including the cross member. They pulled the engine and partially rebuilt the head. They rebuilt the seat rails and fixed the window regulators. I'm sure the time also included hunting down and ordering all the parts as well.

The husband's Sunbeam Tiger was worse in my mind. He spent almost $6,000 for a new dash and some better spaced pedals.

They're definitely not a bargain shop, but they seem to do better work than some of the other shows I've seen.