The weather is rapidly declining so I have a bunch of work I'm willing to pay out, but the cost and hassle of towing this again is a non-starter.
I got in touch with one so far - a guy named "Nate the mobile mechanic." 101 reviews on Google, mostly positive. For labor only on a half shaft, control arm, sway bar link, inner tie rod and investigating a possible snagged parking brake cable (button disappeared into the handle during the rally) and a short in neutral safety switch, he's quoting $300 labor and $60 to diagnose. Seems fair, anyone have a better option?
My guess is that the $300 for front end work completed and the $60 is for brake and neutral safety switch diagnostic.
My guess is he has 3 hours into the front end work at $100 per hour. That's fair. Seems like a good rate for "coming to you."
I would expect that real repair of parking brake and safety switch are not included in this estimate but for $60 he'll look at it so that he can give you and educated guess of what it will cost to fix those.
That does seem fair. I have a friend in Grand Rapids that does mobile wrenching on the side of his engineering job. If you need you can PM me and I can try to hook you two up.
NYN
Never heard back from Grand Rapids dude, went with Nate the mobile mechanic"
I'd say he's doing a good job. He's run into a couple hurdles so judge for yourself:
Control arm captive nut broke off. He cut a little hole and retrieved it.
Lower ball joint boot tore during the process, unknown cause. Went to pull it out but bolt sheared off. Recommended I buy a replacement knuckle. I asked if he could drill it out he said "ha." That night I drilled it out. When I told him I'd drilled it out but not yet fully (needed to be cleaned out) he said don't worry about it I'll come back out and finish that up.
"And I sprayed Rust-Oleum on the k frame and other parts underneath the car to stop the rusting and make it look nice too" Is that SOP or best practice or something?
I'd ordered the rear shaft instead of front so we're waiting for that part to come in.
total bill at this point is $480, to include $80 replacing ball joint, $40 tie rod, $60 for finding issue with parking brake cable and frayed wire on neutral safety switch (or the auto equivalent)
And he's coming back this week to redo half shaft once right one comes in.
Hes been more accommodating than I expect from taking my parts in to a shop, I'll give him that. Also has offered to replace my front struts for free but I'm $2k into a free car with a head gasket leak so I'll let that go for now.
