Cruiser Mechanic DFW

[TXLCdood]

My truck has been there 2 months. Took about a month to get the laundry list. The truck had been neglected so wasn’t overly surprised. Yes, very slow but it’s not my daily. If it’s not wrapped up in a couple weeks may look elsewhere. Hope not bc I like the guys that work there and they seem very knowledgeable .

 

[TXLCdood]

My truck has been there 2 months. Took about a month to get the laundry list. The truck had been neglected so wasn’t overly surprised. Yes, very slow but it’s not my daily. If it’s not wrapped up in a couple weeks may look elsewhere. Hope not bc I like the guys that work there and they seem very knowledgeable .

To be fair, I’m also having them install an Emu lift but still taking a while

 

[onesix6]

I paid Dadja $300 to inspect my FJ62 and ...I definitely did not get $300 worth of an "inspection" from him.

Sounds like my experience. I too paid for the $300 inspection that was supposed to include a compression and leak down, but in the end I only got the compression values for 3 cyclinders, never got the leakdown results, and am left guessing as to what the compressions numbers are for the rest of the cylinders.

 

[banieldowen]

Also - one more note on Dadja. Again, not knocking his work, but it takes balls for you to put a sticker on my rig without asking permission.

 

[onesix6]

Also - one more note on Dadja. Again, not knocking his work, but it takes balls for you to put a sticker on my rig without asking permission.

I didn't even get a sticker.

 

[VXLimited]

I'm glad to hear that Goode's Offroad was a quick turnaround.

Also, I mean putting stickers on 80's is crazy when you can use magnets. Right?

 

[mdawg]

In my case, I made an appointment one week in advance for a 1 hour/$100 inspection to diagnose my high oil consumption (which I kinda self diagnosed as leaky valve seals). I was told I would hear something in 1-2 days, which turned into a week, which turned into almost 2 weeks. I saw where this was going, so I told them I was coming back to pick it up. Their analysis was that my rear main and upper arch pan seals were leaking oil... so it cost $100 to tell me I have oil leaks? I was really wanting them to tell me I needed new valve seals and valve job, and then provide me a quote. They did not even provide a quote for fixing the oil leaks. So, seems like they were not very interested in the work to begin with? Kinda wished I had known that up front

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

Here’s my intro Fort Worth side:

Dadja last option because he’s a month behind

Lexutech on 6th in Fort Worth for anything Toyota and original setup. They knew the classic Toyota like nobody else. They had transmission leak, pinion seal and a few other items finished in 3 days

I’ve got a 5.3 swap restored so hybrid challenge of power plant and frame one shop does one thing the other does the other. Not found a good shop that is one stop shop.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Hi, Found A great shop for transmissions . They did my clutch and I was very pleased. They will be doing one of my my auto transmissions next week. Mike

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

I live in SW Fort Worth and drove past the shop in Benbrook that had a Toyota/Lexus sign on it. I've seen it for years and never thought about it. Stopped in and the owner said they own several shops on the West side of DFW. Told him I need a specialist. He told me the shop on 6th will address most maintenance needs. Several old school guys there that get it. Very clean professional shop and in 3 days they changed oil, overhauled steering and gearbox, inspected and delivered back to me. Lexutech, ask for Kevin. Mike, Texas Cruiser Man is seriously over booked however if you're willing to put up with wait and the BS he can fix it.

 

[Cannon88]

I live in SW Fort Worth and drove past the shop in Benbrook that had a Toyota/Lexus sign on it. I've seen it for years and never thought about it. Stopped in and the owner said they own several shops on the West side of DFW. Told him I need a specialist. He told me the shop on 6th will address most maintenance needs. Several old school guys there that get it. Very clean professional shop and in 3 days they changed oil, overhauled steering and gearbox, inspected and delivered back to me. Lexutech, ask for Kevin. Mike, Texas Cruiser Man is seriously over booked however if you're willing to put up with wait and the BS he can fix it.

I lived in Benbrook for a few years and had that shop do several items on various Toyota's I had, they always did quality work and on time with reasonable rates. Great little shop.

 

[Mike Beauford]

I wanted to add to the conversation and put on the record how happy I have been with Goode's OffRoad in Rowlett TX. Mike has worked on 2 of my Land Cruisers with excellent results. He diagnosed some challenging noises in the front suspension that the local dealership could not find. In the process, he changed my 100 series Upper Control Arms using SPC uppers, changed the passenger side CV axle and all the Front Diff Bushings. In a previous visit, he changed the power steering pump and entire rack and pinion steering. All prices reasonable and the work outstanding. He is my go to guy for my Land Cruisers. He is always busy but great to deal with.

 

[TexasLandCruiser]

New to this group. I am looking for a good mechanic to baseline an 80 I'm buying out of CA and address a few minor issues . Anyone have a recommendation for someone that specializes in LC 80s in DFW? Thanks!

Here ya go, Lexutech and Dejdas I’ve had work done, others I pulled from others on here, Dejdas is probably better for older cruisers and Mike is a month behind. Lexutech is about the most solid shop I’ve been to, quick, parts available and don’t overprice everything:


Land Cruiser Shops Local:
Lexutech - Toyota Repair
Ask for Kevin
2720 West Sixth St.
Fort Worth, TX. 76107
817-877-4357

Pratt Automotive - Toyota Repair
(Owns Lexutech) ask for George
8191 SW Loop 820
Benbrook, TX. 76126 817-249-0800

Goode's Offroad
4940 Gordon Smith
Rowlett, TX. 75088
469-556-7752

Frisbee Automotive
308 W Madison St.
Waxahachie, TX. 75165
972-937-4161

Dajda's Auto Care
Ask for Mike
8075 Boulevard 26
North Richland Hills, TX. 76180
817-427-4857

Tandem Automotive
1728 Layton Ave Suite E2
Haltom City, TX. 76117
817-633-3225

D&J Auto Repair
8711 Clifford St.
Fort Worth, TX. 76108
817-900-8910

Seery's Garage
1005 E Hwy 67
Alvarado, TX, 76009
(817) 783-3222

RT Customs
2700 W.Irving Blvd TX
www.rtcustoms.net
Phone: 972-977-7524
Review: Randy is focused on 40/60 series and vortec conversions.

 

[schdds]

Also - one more note on Dadja. Again, not knocking his work, but it takes balls for you to put a sticker on my rig without asking permission.

Too funny. I just picked up my 04 yesterday after having an inspection. Noticed the sticker. My wife thought it was ballsy too. I’m ok with it. Also, I dropped it Monday night, picked up Friday. So, maybe it’s just timing. Have a list of things I need. Power steering and CV stuff, will cost about $3K. Wife wants me to sell instead of putting more money into it. It’s my daily driver. 265K. Just put $2K for brakes/tires/battery/misc. guess those don’t count as they’re normal running costs. Still, $5K+ in one month has me wondering. Oh, fixed the MFD display so I can have AC and backup camera again. I was letting it go because my AC was set on Auto (stuck on Auto) and I can live with that. Changing the battery screwed that up, so AC was off. Second time I’ve taken it apart to repair the solder. Not THAT hard. Just hope it’s not an annual job.

 

[Mrsparkle3000]

I could vouch for Pratt they’re good people I brought my 99 runner and got new radiator, timing belt water pump whole bunch of gaskets good people and are all about business. I believe they own Lexutech on 6th.

I also brought my 07 LX and my wife’s 13 Rav into Lexutech to do our 100k (LX 125k) tune up and belts/pump. They’re very knowledgeable and friendlier than Pratt in my opinion. If I were to choose it’ll be Lexutech, only because it’s a walk away from restaurants while waiting (like oil chance), he’s a week and half booked out.

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

I paid Dadja $300 to inspect my FJ62 and give me a list of things to do. Was a really nice guy, and seemed to be extremely knowledgeable, but when I FINALLY got it back after almost a month, the list they gave me was an extremely invasive list of things that didn't seem right to me. I'm not an expert mechanic, but I'm fairly mechanical and this list did NOT seem right. I'm sure the work he does is actually great...when he does work, but I definitely did not get $300 worth of an "inspection" from him.

I took it over to Goode's Offroad, 3 days later he had a full list of what he recommended (for free, though for the $300 Dadja did do a compression test). It was reasonable, and made perfect sense (given I had just purchased it and it needed a good baselining). His prices were fair, he kept in great communication via text and e-mail. He kept it a little over a week as he was waiting on a few parts. I got it back and my rig with 250k is running like a top!

My friend took it Dadja’s recently. Dadja took 3 months to get back to him with a list of things. One thing, I am really peaved about is he said he cleaned and inspected/adjusted the brakes. He did not. I opened them up, and it was not touched. Brake shoes were worn. He sent my friend off to drive his rig with a potentially dangerous situation. Still got charged.

He also had the balls to put on “Dadja Do it Right sticker on the truck”

 

[Ragetits]

Figured I would throw in my 2 cents on Dadja, as several others have mentioned him.
I contacted them at the end of last year to see when they would have availability to look a cruiser that I had bought months prior. I had tinkered around with it and addressed several issues, but was at the point that I wanted an expert to take a look and see what else may need to be addressed. I was told that the earliest they could take it was January 24th. Sounded about right to me. I had seen this thread and knew that they were behind, so I planned to haul it up there in January. I asked for the $375 inspection, and to specifically take a look at a couple of things that needed to be addressed. They also mentioned that they had a glass guy that could replace my windshield. Sounds great to me!

I loaded it on a trailer and dropped it off on January 24th of this year. Spoke with Michael (not to be confused to Mike) about what I needed done and asked when I could expect some answers back. He estimated 1-2 weeks until I heard something from their inspection. Based on this thread, I was expecting to hear 1-2 months, so a couple of weeks sounded great.

Cut to one month later. I give them a call to see if they have any information for me. "We haven't had time to look at it, but we have your vehicle scheduled for next week."
...and then another 2 weeks go by with no feedback. I call them again and get the same story. "We'll have it looked at next week. I promise."
...and ANOTHER 2 weeks go by. Same story.

Thankfully this is just a project for me, and I don't need it back immediately, so I just accepted that it was going to take a couple of months and went about my life.

Mid-May, I called again to ask for an update. "We just finished up a couple of big projects and we have space in the shop now. I'm so sorry that it's taken this long, I know that it has been here a long time. I talked to Mike about it and we have you scheduled for Monday, guaranteed." This is the first time that it seemed like they actually acknowledged how long they had had it there. I gained a small amount of hope.

Well, now we're a month past that phone call. Still no update. I've driven past the shop several times on my way to work and my cruiser has been parked in the same spot since I dropped it off. Nearly FIVE MONTHS they have had my vehicle on their lot and they have not even looked at it yet, let alone done anything to it.

At this point, I've lost all confidence that it will ever get serviced there. (With my luck, as soon as I submit this, they'll call me. Let's hope.)
I talked to Goode's at the end of last week and I plan on picking it up from Dadja's and bringing it to them next week when they have availability to look at it.

I've been hesitant to post anything about this, as I know that they're busy and probably shorthanded right now, but 5 months just to look at a vehicle that you told me would take 1-2 weeks is past the point of acceptable. Had they set the expectation up front that it would be several months, I could understand, but stringing me along 1 week at a time doesn't exactly build confidence.

 

[Cannon88]

Project vehicle or not, no way I would leave it there that long knowing it hadnt been touched at all. What a joke.

 

[Ragetits]

Project vehicle or not, no way I would leave it there that long knowing it hadnt been touched at all. What a joke.

I guess on the bright side, life got really busy the first part of this year, so I wouldn't have had much time to work on it myself!

 

[ceylonfj40nut]

Figured I would throw in my 2 cents on Dadja, as several others have mentioned him.
I contacted them at the end of last year to see when they would have availability to look a cruiser that I had bought months prior. I had tinkered around with it and addressed several issues, but was at the point that I wanted an expert to take a look and see what else may need to be addressed. I was told that the earliest they could take it was January 24th. Sounded about right to me. I had seen this thread and knew that they were behind, so I planned to haul it up there in January. I asked for the $375 inspection, and to specifically take a look at a couple of things that needed to be addressed. They also mentioned that they had a glass guy that could replace my windshield. Sounds great to me!

I loaded it on a trailer and dropped it off on January 24th of this year. Spoke with Michael (not to be confused to Mike) about what I needed done and asked when I could expect some answers back. He estimated 1-2 weeks until I heard something from their inspection. Based on this thread, I was expecting to hear 1-2 months, so a couple of weeks sounded great.

Cut to one month later. I give them a call to see if they have any information for me. "We haven't had time to look at it, but we have your vehicle scheduled for next week."
...and then another 2 weeks go by with no feedback. I call them again and get the same story. "We'll have it looked at next week. I promise."
...and ANOTHER 2 weeks go by. Same story.

Thankfully this is just a project for me, and I don't need it back immediately, so I just accepted that it was going to take a couple of months and went about my life.

Mid-May, I called again to ask for an update. "We just finished up a couple of big projects and we have space in the shop now. I'm so sorry that it's taken this long, I know that it has been here a long time. I talked to Mike about it and we have you scheduled for Monday, guaranteed." This is the first time that it seemed like they actually acknowledged how long they had had it there. I gained a small amount of hope.

Well, now we're a month past that phone call. Still no update. I've driven past the shop several times on my way to work and my cruiser has been parked in the same spot since I dropped it off. Nearly FIVE MONTHS they have had my vehicle on their lot and they have not even looked at it yet, let alone done anything to it.

At this point, I've lost all confidence that it will ever get serviced there. (With my luck, as soon as I submit this, they'll call me. Let's hope.)
I talked to Goode's at the end of last week and I plan on picking it up from Dadja's and bringing it to them next week when they have availability to look at it.

I've been hesitant to post anything about this, as I know that they're busy and probably shorthanded right now, but 5 months just to look at a vehicle that you told me would take 1-2 weeks is past the point of acceptable. Had they set the expectation up front that it would be several months, I could understand, but stringing me along 1 week at a time doesn't exactly build confidence.

Same experience my friend had. Dadja held it for three months before he got an estimate. Talks big on the initial visit. Was charged $4k for things that I had to redo for my friend. I took it on because I felt bad I recommended Dadja. The “Dadja Do It Right” sticker he had the balls to put on the vehicle was just plain ridiculous.