Building replicas

I've been contacted by a few people to build replicas of their cars. Mostly people on local car forums.

For those of you who do commissioned builds. What are your rates? The first one I've decided to try and bid, I bid him about $100. I told him that includes about $50 in materials (including the kit) and $50 labor. Its not a real intensive build, but there are some scratchbuilt items.

I'd say it's damn cheap. I don't know about the degree of intensity but just do the math counting from the 50 $ you get for the work and devide it with the man hours you estimate to put into the project. I mostly put about 60 hours down in a build wich would mean I would work for less than a buck per hour. Cutting time in half I'm not yet getting 2 bucks per hour. Sweat shop if you ask me. But if you have a lot of free time and if it is a fun project that you learn something from to invest in your own builds that has to be put into the equation.

Or, if the person is special to you, that would make me do it for free.

None the less I think 50 is much too low, no matter if you want to get rich on it or not.

Sit down, do some math. You, and you alone, is the only one to decide what your free time is worth.

Best regards
Joel

I just finished my first requested build a few weeks ago and was paid a total of $100 for it, $50 was for the 2 kits I needed to build it. Looking back I'd say that Rob got of cheap but he was a friend. All the work, materials etc. you put into a model, next time I build for someone I'll expect at least $100-$150 above the cost of the kit and materials.
I've seen your work Russell, you do a damn fine job so don't sell yourself short.