How much would you charge to fully weld a new skin on a dump body?

[J93Welder]

A customer contacted me about replacing his 1 ton trucks dump body floor. I’m not sure the exact size of it, but I factored in 2 4x8 sheets of 1/8 steel. He said it isn’t very old, less than 10 years, but doesn’t want to patch the existing holes and wants to weld a new one on after I told him patching would be cheaper option.

I don’t want to **** him, or myself. I haven’t told him figures on cost, he just said whatever I quote he will pay because he needs it done. For a brief background, yes I’m insured, own equipment, job will be done at his site. I was thinking $2,500-$3k including the materials, fully welded(not stitch welded). Hoping that’s a fair figure, but looking to see what you all think, thanks!

[ronsii]

A customer contacted me about replacing his 1 ton trucks dump body floor. I’m not sure the exact size of it, but I factored in 2 4x8 sheets of 1/8 steel. He said it isn’t very old, less than 10 years, but doesn’t want to patch the existing holes and wants to weld a new one on after I told him patching would be cheaper option.

I don’t want to **** him, or myself. I haven’t told him figures on cost, he just said whatever I quote he will pay because he needs it done. For a brief background, yes I’m insured, own equipment, job will be done at his site. I was thinking $2,500-$3k including the materials, fully welded(not stitch welded). Hoping that’s a fair figure, but looking to see what you all think, thanks!

Price depends a *lot* on just who is doing the demo and prep???

[J93Welder]

Price depends a *lot* on just who is doing the demo and prep???

I’d be doing it all myself. So just me. As far as I know, he just wants a skin to go over it. I know that doesn’t stop the rot underneath from progressing, but customers needs.

[CrookedRoads]

It's hard to say without seeing it and depending on the amount of rust and crud you have to deal with but whatever estimate for time you come up with it will probably take quite a bit longer than you think. A job like this would be better with two men otherwise you'll be climbing in and out of this body to get under it and then back on top again, the genuine pain in the azz job.

[Lis2323]

By the sounds of it this sounds like a “no win” situation for both parties.

The client will always feel you spent too much time on a glorified patch job and you will always feel you should have charged more for all the stuff you had to do that the customer doesn’t readily see.


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[welding1]

Ive done similar for about the same money. What I would do is have some of that sheet metal bent at 90 degrees, so that a few inches covers floor and some goes up walls. This way is easy to weld instead of welding into the coners. Post pics or it didn't happen.

[MinnesotaDave]

I’d be doing it all myself. So just me. As far as I know, he just wants a skin to go over it. I know that doesn’t stop the rot underneath from progressing, but customers needs.

Just wants new sheets welded over the old?
That's a pretty fast job with only 2 sheets to weld on.

[CrookedRoads]

It's hard to say without seeing it and depending on the amount of rust and crud you have to deal with but whatever estimate for time you come up with it will probably take lolquite a bit longer than you think. A job like this would be better with two men otherwise you'll be climbing in and out of this body to get under it and then back on top again, the genuine pain in the azz job.

Disregard above, I thought you were fully removing the old skin and reinstalling new.

[user 9328330]

I only agree to do this type of repair for certain customers in certain instances. Such as giving an almost-scrap truck another year's lease on life or keeping a yard truck on the job for awhile longer.

As I'm sure you know, layering sheets creates areas where water will quickly find a place to hide and you'll get rust issues pretty fast. You're also adding permanent EW (empty weight) to the truck and reducing payload by that amount.

I've also refused to do this type of work.

If the crossmembers are OK, it's not a bad job at all to slice out a new floor and weld one in. Have the sheets broken as described above so that your welds are up on the undamaged areas of the sidewalls.New crossmembers in a few places aren't bad, either. I actually have a similar job on hold for good weather right at the moment; the floor is a different size...probably 7' wide x 20' long, cutting the floor out and replacing it with 3/16" sheet.

[Country Metals]

I put new 3/16 floors in dump trucks for $3,500. I can buy a full sheet plasma cut to size for $1,200. I clean the whole area where I have to weld, usually asphalt in the front. Weld the hole floor down with 8-12 holes for plug welding intermittently.

This is just an overlay floor, nothing special. Takes me about 1 day to do the whole thing.

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