a good buddy of mine rents out bays, each one has air/water/heat and 2 docklights, one for the front and one for the rear, no hand tools but specialty tools available for a few more bucks. he charges $20 a hour or $100 a 8 hr day. , no lifts available in his 2 you-do-it bays though for insurance purposes

 

good thoughts....thanks

 

Yeah, but if you're gonna pay somebody that much an hour just to use their shop you might as well pay a mechanic to do it for you.

 

I get a different satisfaction out of doin it myself - I don't want to pay somebody to do somethin I can do, or learn to do. There are times a mechanic is a must but for all other times doin it yourself is way better in my eyes. some people don't feel that way and a shop like this would not be 'cost effective' in their eyes. It might cost more for me to do it if I rent a shop like this but it might also cost more if you take it to a mechanic and they screw it up. I saw one on here the other day bout a guy that took his in to get front end work done and the shop decided on their own to update his pcm and now they want him to pay to make it right - no thank you

 

$70-120 is the price for a mechanic to do it for you. I'm not aware of shops around here that just rent out space.

 

There would be no way I would ever think of $50/hr to rent some shop space and a few tools. Not that I don't prefer to do thing myself, but your paying that much and taking all the responsibility. Now for some specialized equipment or some "help" from a mechanic then I would pay that. I would contact a lawyer and be very selective on who I let use the shop space.

 

If you could charge 50% of shop rate for labour, I think you'd get some good business. I'd definitely do it, no hesitation. It would certainly be worth it. The other consideration though is advance booking, or booking for extended periods of time...depends on what kind of a shop setup you're offering for certain jobs...like if I wanted to do an entire engine swap, I might not get it done in a day, and I'd need to leave the vehicle there until everything is good to go, so it might take a couple of days of rented shop space, or a day of shop and being able to leave it parked outside.

There is a local business here that does something similar in the music industry. It's not really recording studio, but just a jam space. They rent out jam spaces for $17/person for 3hrs, plus additional cost for the use of mics or recording equipment. It's great for people who have **** neighbours. Anyhoo, now I'm just getting off topic. Great idea!

 

interesting concept and it may work

like others have said the tools missing would be a problem, maybe keep yer tools seperate and rent them out and make em sign for em one piece at a time, if they come up missin it goes on their bill

 

good thoughts but no way am i renting out my shop ,just bought the place from my father and he used to let everybody use the shop(for free) and the only one who knew where the tools( i own approx 15k in hand/air tools) went was me after someone used it i could spend 7-8 hrs cleaning it out so i am not lending out my shop