Any good Land Cruiser restoration and/or mechanic shops in Texas? (2 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Feb 20, 2009
Threads
13
Messages
128
Location
College Station, TX
Do y'all know of any good restoration shops in Texas? Apparently Cool Cruisers of Texas in Rowlett is no longer doing restorations. They told me today that they are only selling parts right now. And previously, I believe they were only restoring vehicles that they purchased and then resold.

I'm looking for a place that will do restorations and/or mechanical repair work on a Land Cruiser that I bring in. A place with some quality advertising like TLC would be great. Watching their YouTube channel makes me long for a place of that caliber in Texas.
 
Call Buddy at the cruiser shop in richardson (north dallas) tell him Tom sent you, he does exclusively land cruisers and does a real good job. Not the cheapest but he is a specialized shop and TLC's arent cheap anyway in any regard. His shop is in north dallas and he doesnt advertise but keeps busy 972-241-9904
 
Buddy is great. He does top-notch work and, as mentioned, is at the top of the hourly-rate spectrum.

Baertrax (Josh at Baertrax on Mud) is also great and is a Cruiser guy.

Butch Baker (Texican on Mud) is also great and owns Baker Tire up in Bonham. He's restored several 40 Series and has worked on an untold # of all model Land Cruisers.
 
Call Buddy at the cruiser shop in richardson (north dallas) tell him Tom sent you, he does exclusively land cruisers and does a real good job. Not the cheapest but he is a specialized shop and TLC's arent cheap anyway in any regard. His shop is in north dallas and he doesnt advertise but keeps busy 972-241-9904

Sounds good. Where can I see some of his work? Like I said, TLC 4x4 posts all kinds of photos, videos, and write-ups describing their extreme attention to detail which is very reassuring when you're looking at potentially shipping a truck to their facility and then spending several thousand dollars on a repair/restore job. :cool:
 
Sounds good. Where can I see some of his work? Like I said, TLC 4x4 posts all kinds of photos, videos, and write-ups describing their extreme attention to detail which is very reassuring when you're looking at potentially shipping a truck to their facility and then spending several thousand dollars on a repair/restore job. :cool:

Why not send it to TLC? If your spending thousands, what's one more to ship it there?
 
Sounds good. Where can I see some of his work? Like I said, TLC 4x4 posts all kinds of photos, videos, and write-ups describing their extreme attention to detail which is very reassuring when you're looking at potentially shipping a truck to their facility and then spending several thousand dollars on a repair/restore job. :cool:

Buddy doesnt advertise and so pretty much all of his business is word of mouth which means no website. I would call him usually he works from 10 am to about 7 or 8 at his shop with his wife.

Im sure he could hook you up with some photos. What im not sure about is paint amd upholstery. Im not sure if thats something he does personally or has another shop do. Either way weve been using him for a long time and hes always honest and makes sure everything is 110% before it goes out the door. Last time i was there he had an fj40 up on the rack looking brand spankin new along with 2 fj62s and another 40 that was clearly in there fornthe long hall. Like i said give him a call and im sure he can send you some pics, id love to see them too
 
Fair enough. And since he's in-state, I could always make a little road trip to pay him a visit and see it first hand. Thanks guys. :)
 
Butch (Texican) does a great job, and usually has several FJ's around either being worked on (like mine right now), or he and his family also are LC fanatics with their own toys...
Butch has always been fair and honest with me, and he has never hesitated to educate me on aspects that I was not familiar with...
Come to the LSLC meeting Thursday night at Pappa's BBQ (near Northwest Highway & I-35E), as Butch is often there at our meetings, so you can meet him in person and get other's first-hand opinions.
 
related but I don't need cruiser work done nor want to bother those good guys by having my vehicle tie up their shop.....

I wonder if any of them will be interested in rebuilding my diff (off my previa)? It's the same thing as the 86-95 hilux... 8" ring gear, 4.30 ratio

they can probably do a better job than my shop can right now, and if so for any reasonable price, I prefer to have my spare housing (all the guts are trashed) rebuilt with all new parts combined with my Altezza LSD (OEM part in Japan, our IS300 never got it), then pay my shop to just swap it on... I tried to pull this out myself (so my buddy and I could rebuild it... but he has no time for anything now) but the axles are seized... already broke one slide hammer and the other 10lbs ones didn't work! Just not enough leverage on the ground :(
 
related but I don't need cruiser work done nor want to bother those good guys by having my vehicle tie up their shop.....

I wonder if any of them will be interested in rebuilding my diff (off my previa)? It's the same thing as the 86-95 hilux... 8" ring gear, 4.30 ratio

they can probably do a better job than my shop can right now, and if so for any reasonable price, I prefer to have my spare housing (all the guts are trashed) rebuilt with all new parts combined with my Altezza LSD (OEM part in Japan, our IS300 never got it), then pay my shop to just swap it on... I tried to pull this out myself (so my buddy and I could rebuild it... but he has no time for anything now) but the axles are seized... already broke one slide hammer and the other 10lbs ones didn't work! Just not enough leverage on the ground :(

Not exactly sure what youre saying you want done but call Josh at Baertrax over on like 35 and walnut hill or something. He's a land cruiser guy but also a diff guy. Toyota of dallas told me they send all their diff work to him.
 
Ok cool.

I meant to say that I need a non-land cruiser 3rd member rebuilt... it's from my previa van, but the guts are actually the same as the 86-95 hilux, so most of the common knowledge applies :)

right now, my van is at a shop and they're having a hard time pulling the axles out just like I had over the weekend (axles must come off to take the 3rd member off of course)... they're getting me worried now that I might have to buy a complete rear axle assembly... anyone seen/heard of this happening? stupid northern cars! :mad:
 
epic fail on axle pulling... I'm dropping off the van at Baetrax next week... Josh says he always was able to pull axles out no matter how tough... so I hope it goes better there! Otherwise, I'm up the creek and have to buy an axle assembly from the junk yard! :mad:
 
Call Buddy at the cruiser shop in richardson (north dallas) tell him Tom sent you, he does exclusively land cruisers and does a real good job. Not the cheapest but he is a specialized shop and TLC's arent cheap anyway in any regard. His shop is in north dallas and he doesnt advertise but keeps busy 972-241-9904

FYI, I called Buddy the other day about some issues I have been having.
He was extremely helpful. We talked for ~ 20min and he suggested several diagnostic tests to do on my own to save time and money if I need to take the truck into him.

He charges ~ $90/hr, which is good considering he works exclusively on Land Cruisers.

The other mechanics (Butch and Baertrax) are excellent as well. It's great that North Texas has good LC support! Thanks guys :cheers:

We are lucky
 
He charges ~ $90/hr, which is good considering he works exclusively on Land Cruisers.

WOOOOWWW 90$/hour

I am moving to Texas soon,is this a normal rate?

Ofcourse I have been living in Panama for the last 3 years where the rate for a mechanic is about 25$ for a whole day:D.Unfortunately there are not to many decent mechanics in Panama:doh: so I did all the work on my cruiser myself.

Does anybody of you guys know how much a mechanic working in a shop makes more or less?

Grts

Joeri
 
Well Buddy is self employed so I guess he's making 90/hr :D:

But that is high for an independent mechanic but not for a very good Land Cruiser specific mechanic. There are less expensive ones but you kinda get what you pay for. The lexus dealer here is 130 or 140 an hour I cant remember which but that's absurd.

Of course if you're working on it yourself you always have Cdan to order cheap(er) parts from just a state over
 
Get ready for sticker shock in the states, nothing is that cheap or even close. mIke
 
WOOOOWWW 90$/hour

I am moving to Texas soon,is this a normal rate?

Ofcourse I have been living in Panama for the last 3 years where the rate for a mechanic is about 25$ for a whole day:D.Unfortunately there are not to many decent mechanics in Panama:doh: so I did all the work on my cruiser myself.

Does anybody of you guys know how much a mechanic working in a shop makes more or less?

Grts

Joeri

Unfortunately Joeri, get ready for sticker shock! Things are entirely different in the states than they are in Panama. I learned that after living there in Panama myself for 3 years as a kid, and then moving to Arizona... Would love to meet you some day, and share memories...
 
Unfortunately Joeri, get ready for sticker shock! Things are entirely different in the states than they are in Panama. I learned that after living there in Panama myself for 3 years as a kid, and then moving to Arizona... Would love to meet you some day, and share memories...

We will definetly meet at one off the meetings or trails:cheers:

Luckely before I moved to Panama I lived in Belgium(Europe) so I just have to get used "AGAIN" to the higher prices:hmm:

Whell i guess with higher prices comes better service.......Right:rolleyes::D
 
Does anyone have Buddy's shop address ? Thanks !
 
Cruisershop (Buddy & Geana)
13595 Floyd Circle Suite 100
Dallas, TX 75243
Phone: 972-241-9904
972-896-5942 (cell)
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom