Bodywork in Columbus, OH area for '78 FJ40 (2 Viewers)

[bulldoglover]

So, several years ago, Jim C. did the mechanical restoration on my 1978 FJ40. But it really needs body restoration, maybe even up to and including a new tub. He doesn't know of anyone, nor do I. Does anyone have any suggestions/recommendations? I'd rather not ship my rig to Texas or Colorado or some such, especially if there are folks who do good work somewhere in Ohio. Thanks.

 

[LeftFootCruise]

I had the body of my 1999 4Runner completely redone by Tongda Autobody in Clintonville. The owner Tom is a fantastic guy and is a huge Toyota fan. His whole shop is set up in the "Toyota way". He has even taken his employees to tour a Toyota factory in Japan to see how things are done. He had an apprentice do a lot of the work on my 4Runner to save some money but it was still $$. If I had to do it over again I wouldn't do it any other way though, my 4Runner looks like it just came off the showroom floor! My FJ40 has a date with him someday........when done paying for college!! If you go, please tell Tom that Chris with the black 4Runner said hi!

 

[SWCruiser]

It’s been difficult for me in upstate NY to find a true body shop or atleast one that wasn’t going to cost the price of a new tub. Most people don’t want to do that kind of work and the shops that I found did mostly high end custom work. My cruiser was from AZ and was in relatively good shape and it was still crazy expensive. For example the body guy wanted 450 to prep for paint a fender which had no rust and was already bead blasted for Just a hand size dent on the front. I opted to buy a new one for 500. Just didn’t make sense to rehab. If your doing rehab buy as much metal as you can. It’s not worth to patch most panels on the quarter after you factor all the work to get the repair clean. You’ll spend more hours fixing spots then just doing the whole panel. Would love to hear what people are paying for body of type of work. Please post up if you find anyone.