OMG! I brought the new conversion home last night!

[E30FTW]

Its sad, but hey, I have seen worse.

Indeed. The last S52 swap I saw come out of TSA was a whopper. Customer provided a running driving 89 325i. He provided a MRoadster 3.2L engine, transmission, driveshaft, and differential.

TSA provided the labor, OBDI conversion parts, brake parts, oil sump/pan parts, IE sways, IE3s, and Bilsteins.

E30 owner picked up his e30 with a $13,000 bill IIRC.


Last swap I did took a friends car for 10 days, 7 days of which I worked normal 10hr days at my day job, and he paid about $6k for parts and labor for a full OBDI S52 engine swap into his e30. I sourced all the parts for him, and installed it.

I understand big shops have overhead, insurance, employees, etc.. but have you seen TSA in person? The shop is a gypsy town of tents and RV pipework/tarp carports built off a residence on residential property. I don't think TSA has workers comp, and I know they don't offer health insurance, 401k, or any other legitimate benefits. Given the type of property I think overhead is limited to utilities and taxes as I'm sure the house/shack/whatever the tent city is built off is paid off. The shop is a tent city because the City of Austin breathes down their neck (this is zoned residential) and they city will knock down and permanent structures that he may try to build.

[Van Westervelt]

do you know who trevor is? he is 60k deep into a 4 door e30 swap by turner.

Exactly. Just sayin, the random bump up 6 months later is a little annoying.

[blunttech]

Indeed. The last S52 swap I saw come out of TSA was a whopper. Customer provided a running driving 89 325i. He provided a MRoadster 3.2L engine, transmission, driveshaft, and differential.

TSA provided the labor, OBDI conversion parts, brake parts, oil sump/pan parts, IE sways, IE3s, and Bilsteins.

E30 owner picked up his e30 with a $13,000 bill IIRC.


Last swap I did took a friends car for 10 days, 7 days of which I worked normal 10hr days at my day job, and he paid about $6k for parts and labor for a full OBDI S52 engine swap into his e30. I sourced all the parts for him, and installed it.

I understand big shops have overhead, insurance, employees, etc.. but have you seen TSA in person? The shop is a gypsy town of tents and RV pipework/tarp carports built off a residence on residential property.

ive seen pics of the place and yes, your description is accurate.
what irritates me is people that have not run a legitimate business have no clue of actual expenses. my wifes patients are frequently heard to say "i guess someone has to pay for your new car" or vacation or whatever the dumb fucks happen to say. like we are living like rock stars. they have no clue we are mortgaged to the fucking hilt trying to pay for a building and a million dollars worth of medical equipt. etc etc. if you feel something is too expensive go somewhere else. or do it yourself

and now i understand your feeling towards sayther. it all makes sense now

[Turf1600]

but he doesnt have the overhead sayther has either.

I don't think anyone is arguing that it costs alot to run a shop. 14k is just too much though. Especially considering TSA didn't supply the parts..

[jflip2002]

Nice lookin car. Nothing like a bunch of shit bags to start knocking the cost, cleanliness, noting how they could do it better, cheaper, blah blah blah. Shits on a good thread the OP made for being happy about having his car back, with a new motor in it. He obviously felt it was fair. He trusted their work, he trusted their price, so who is anyone to tell him that he paid too much? All haters, suck an under priced cock.

[blunttech]

I don't think anyone is arguing that it costs alot to run a shop. 14k is just too much though. Especially considering TSA didn't supply the parts..

maybe im misunderstanding the whole thing. to me it sounded like 14k including motor,suspension,body kit and all labor. thats the way i understood it. regardless, the guys happy.

[TrentW]

Nice lookin car. Nothing like a bunch of shit bags to start knocking the cost, cleanliness, noting how they could do it better, cheaper, blah blah blah. Shits on a good thread the OP made for being happy about having his car back, with a new motor in it. He obviously felt it was fair. He trusted their work, he trusted their price, so who is anyone to tell him that he paid too much? All haters, suck an under priced cock.

Whoa--those is harsh words Hoss. Can't we all just get along and express thoughts that may help someone down the road also? Isn't that what the purpose of these forums are anyway?

[jflip2002]

No one is fucking helping, they are talking shit, Hoss. This happened in June of 2008, so by now its over and done with. Hes not getting any money back, nothing can be done. So its only going to take away from his joy. Ive been in a relative boat when spending a couple grand on reef tank equipment. It takes away the joy when people just knock it and say you could have gotten it cheaper, or it could have been done better, etc, etc.

So you too, can suck a dick, and stop trying to be a peace maker.

[TrentW]

You're an Ugly American.

I tried to be nice...

[jflip2002]

You are from Chicago, you would know ugly. Be on your way.

[Money$hit]

14k and e30 dont belong in the same sentence, unless you are talking M3.

[blunttech]

14k and e30 dont belong in the same sentence, unless you are talking M3.

depends on the car. i got well over 14k for mine and it was a diving board car

[Van Westervelt]

14k and e30 dont belong in the same sentence, unless you are talking M3.

You are right sir, try tripling or quadrupling that number.

[Kerrath]

42k e120 m12

Kidding, but I think 14k is a bit much for even an S52 swap. I'm sheisty and squeezed my M50 out 3/4 assed at under 1500, but I know it costs a lot to have somebody else do it for you. Other people have gotten theirs done cheaper here before and it seems like it would've been a good idea to talk to people here first. Either for finding a good garage to do it for a good price or even to have it done by someone trusted on the boards who've done it before.

napabavarian said something about how the mechanics have to do all this work to find out what parts they need and stuff, but that's kinda silly. Pretty much all that work is already done by people here on r3v, so pretty much all they'd need to know can be found here, ETMs and bentleys and the brains of half the people here. It's just silly.

[george graves]

10k? - fuck me.