what's a fair price?

So over the long, cold Utah winter, I was thinking of having my bike taken apart down to a rolling chassis and get it painted. What do you think is a fair price for having my engine, wiring, etc removed?
My mechanic works cheap, but I really couldn't even know where to begin with this...

If he/she charges by the hour, then lots! It actually is fairly easy to disassemble a bike...is there a reason you don't tackle this yourself?

mainly because I don't trust myself completely. Haha...

your best bet is to do it yourself..theres nothing better than taking a bike apart to learn how to put it back together.

I know my 550 so much more than I ever would have, had I had the mechanic get it ready for the road after I bought it. It takes longer, but you can't put a price on the experience you gain.

If you do it yourself, just make sure to take lots of pictures with your digital camera prior to the dismantle. It really helps out sometimes when you get stumped putting stuff back together.

I was going to do my own, but like you, I am not a mechanic. I had some guys who did the tank, sidecovers and both fenders for 1500 to include some really nice airbrushed graphics but I had to dismantle it and reassemble it. Since it went no further down than that, I did it myself, they painted it and it looks awesome.

thank you to everyone who posted. I would like to do what I can by myself, but when it comes to the real technical stuff I'll probably leave that up to the mechanic. He's been really good about teaching me as he goes (I could totally replace my own clutch, install a new clutch cable, bleed and refill my brakes, tune up my points plate by myself now).
As for the paint. I'll probably do all the prep work myself, and finish the frame paint, but the tank, sides and fenders I'll have done professionally.

If I had to throw a number out there I would say $2000. That is to disassemble, assemble, replace parts that will break while taking everything apart, new bushings, polishing the ugly aluminum and so on. Mechanincs get around $55 an hour, more or less depending where you are.

it all depends on what you want them to do;) i came strip a kz to the bones in 2-3 hours,leaving motor together.it all depends on how detailed you want bike to be as far as what the rest of it will cost ya.if i had to pay myself $5.00 an hour for all the time i spend building each bike id be living in a box under a bridge!:woohoo:

I would advise taking it apart yourself. When I did a rebuild, I took lots of digital photos and put screws/nuts in bags and wrote on them to keep track of where they went. I also ended up numbering screws and drawing diagrams as to where they went (in respect to each other). I learned a hell of a lot from folks here. It was rather rewarding and I'm sure you will agree once you've done it yourself.

Just a thought!

have to add my vote for doing it yourself as well. box of cheap zipper bags, a sharpie marker, and a digital camera go a long ways to making it easier to put things back together, maybe a notepad to jot down notes about things as you take them apart.

some sort of service manual is another "must have" item to have handy, too. factory manuals are best, but even the clymers manuals are more helpful than not having anything, and usually have exploded diagrams for most of the bike...

but then, when you are broke, like me, you pretty much HAVE to learn to do it yourself, or it doesnt get done - cant afford to pay someone else to do much of anything. (thus the sig line...)

There is nothing like the feeling of satisfaction, and accomplishment, that goes along with succesfully doing the job yourself, whatever that job may be.