OT - Cost of Repairs 70 yrs ago

Brian G. NY

Well-known Member
Ran across an invoice for work performed by my wife's late uncle back in 1947 when he owned his own garage.
This was for work done on a Model A Ford which was probably the easiest car to work on you could find.
Still,......seems like so little money for so much work!
Get a load of the price for parts back then.
' course, back then a dollar was worth a dollar!
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Dad usually did the overhauls, but I remember about 1960, he had the local dealer do an overhaul on the WC...was around $200. But that was about a third of the monthly milk check from 27 cows. Every time I see something about how cheap things were years ago, I ask what was a typical wage then? A lot of ratios haven"t changed all that much.
 
In 1947 a Model A would be 15 years old. Probably could buy a running driving decent
car for 75 bucks.
Ben
 
When I left the Marine Corps in 1963, I went to work for a local weekly newspaper for $1.50 per hour, and that was a living wage back then.

Five years later, when I became manager, I went on straight salary for $155 per week and thought I'd struck it rich.
 
father in law bought new 1974 was JD2120. $ 4500 Canadian
Did get a loader and a 3 x 16 plow, but traded a crappy david brown
Forward about 20 years, engine needed a rebuild. Price from same dealer was $5500. For the rebuild
Things go up. I started at a steel plant in 74, made $4.24 an hour retired in 2014,was ,making $ 40 an hour
Seems l like I had more money back then. Lol
 
Not trying to insinuate anything, or make any accusations, or anything negative whatsoever. It looks like he got the valves on the invoice
twice. Just something I noticed. All that stuff does seem cheap compared to today's costs, but like has been said already,back then it would
have been like it is today to have to pay for a job like that.
 
Most likely 4 intake valves and then 4 exhaust valves would account for the two listings. They did not list part numbers.
 

I am gonna take a stab at the shop labor rate about $3.00 a hour...
His top gun would have been lucky to earn 1.00 a hour...

Shop labor rates were stagnant they increased very little till around 1980/81 then labor rates took off... All those EZ cars to work on were gone by then.... Your standard craftsman tool set started to gather rust about that time also....
 
interesting reading from many years ago, but looking at vehicle maintainance from another direction I always do my own servicing and repairs except for fitting new tyres but there are several fast fit independent outlets locally so prices are good and once a year vehicle have to go for safety inspection and in recent years if engine management lights start flashing getting it sorted is not a do it yourself option... one more thing I am in UK and is it the same in USA ... over here motor spares outlets have 2 prices for spares trade and retail and there is big difference between the two!! but again there is competition so I can get parts at trade price. I will finish with what one local farmer said to me some years ago when fuel prices were increasing rapidly and that was there is only one time when you need to be concerned about driving and that was for some reason you cannot get behind steering wheel and drive off
 
Well yeah I bet you're right about the valves. Silly me, didn't even think about both sets.
 
It is cheap compared to today and a very interesting memento but to put things in perspective when
my Dad bought his home farm in 1948 on the GI bill he was making $160.00 per month and they made
him take a 30 year mortgage on a $17,000 purchase, of course, by the early 60's the note was
cheaper than the light bill.
 
BLS says 1947 $77.29 equates to $895.09 USD today.
Ford price for head gasket July 1 1948 was $1.00 list, 0.65 wholesale.
 
Different deal. But I have my grandfathers tax bill for 1921. Total bill for 318 acres plus all the other taxes. 32.57. Times have changed.
 
For some reason I remember this: about 1964 Dad bought a 1954 Buick directly from a neighbor. He said he had just purchased a new (not rebuilt) 4 barrel carb for $70.
 
Back in their day, how many miles would an average model A run between engine overhauls? Considering the quality of oil back then, would most engines make it to 40,000 miles before they needed to be rebuilt? This one needed distributor work, that makes me doubt that this was the engine's first rebuild or were distributor rebuilds common back then?.

Five quarts of oil for $1.75, 35 cents a quart sounds high for those days.

Thanks for posting!
 
Inflation calculator says that $77 would have the same buying power as $833 today. Still seems cheap for an overhaul. I know engines are a lot more complex today.
 
Nice penmanship. Not only overhauled the motor, but documented it with a clear and neat invoice.
 

Been thinking about that repair bill... I bet you could have had a baby cheaper... I just seen a bill to have a baby in 1943...

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(quoted from post at 03:01:09 03/19/18)
Been thinking about that repair bill... I bet you could have had a baby cheaper... I just seen a bill to have a baby in 1943...

13128.jpg

Love that......I was born in 1941 so I guess that must be about how much I "cost". LOL
 

This was posted by my niece don't know the origin her mother was a Davis... 1943 would be close I will have to ask my mom her first husband was a Davis...
 
In 1972, the year I got married, I bought a '65 Buick Wildcat. A couple months later I blew the engine on it. Took it up to the local Chevy dealership. They located and installed a used engine. The total bill for that little adventure was $411.57! The engine was $275.00, and the total labor to change engines and re-charge the air conditioner was $78.00! That included tearing the original engine down far enough to determine that it was not repairable.

The rest was for oil, filter, Freon, some misc. gaskets, etc. The cost for the oil was 80 cents a quart!
 

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