Dallas area Land Cruiser shop (1 Viewer)

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Hawkeyes4Life

Joined
Dec 6, 2022
Threads
1
Messages
10
Location
North Dallas, TX
Hey all - in process of purchasing my first FJ40 and curious if there are any reliable shops in the area, near Frisco would be great but not essential. Appreciate your time and look forward to contributing to the Forums.

Happy New Year
 
I will PM you. Can share my thoughts with you. There is a minefield to navigate.
 
Good luck. And I mean that sincerely. My daughter's in Dallas and has searched for a year, without success. I won't mention the names of the four most well known Land Cruiser shops, because although they claim to be repair shops and all have parking lots full of Land Cruisers, none of them will take work, claiming they are backed up for over a year.

One I can believe, but four? I don't know how you pay the rent like that.
 
Malleus said:
Good luck. And I mean that sincerely. My daughter's in Dallas and has searched for a year, without success. I won't mention the names of the four most well known Land Cruiser shops, because although they claim to be repair shops and all have parking lots full of Land Cruisers, none of them will take work, claiming they are backed up for over a year.

One I can believe, but four? I don't know how you pay the rent like that.
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Yeah thanks, sounds to me like a tremendous business opportunity. Hmmm….

H4L
 
I could put in a 10 bay shop in Dallas and be busy 7 days a week. Problem is.... THERE ARE NO QUALITY TECH'S to do the work. As far as that goes no one wants to work regardless of quality or crap.

I get several requests a week for a Dallas area shop referral.

GL

Jason
 
TRAIL TAILOR said:
I could put in a 10 bay shop in Dallas and be busy 7 days a week. Problem is.... THERE ARE NO QUALITY TECH'S to do the work. As far as that goes no one wants to work regardless of quality or crap.

I get several requests a week for a Dallas area shop referral.

GL

Jason
Click to expand...

Well now I’m super intrigued as I always appreciate a worthwhile challenge. Staffing is an issue for many business, I’m in the healthcare sector. We are very selective with our searches, pay at or above market but genuinely treat our employees like family and give them a higher purpose than merely a job. We’re family owned with clinics in 15 states and have over 7,000 employees, 3,000 of which were hired in 2022 due to hyper growth. I say all this not to brag but provide example that no challenge is TOO large.

I’m going to noodle on this for a few days but may fire up another thread to discuss in greater detail. Appreciate the spirited conversation and wish y’all a Prosperous 2023.

H4L
 
Malleus said:
Good luck. And I mean that sincerely. My daughter's in Dallas and has searched for a year, without success. I won't mention the names of the four most well known Land Cruiser shops, because although they claim to be repair shops and all have parking lots full of Land Cruisers, none of them will take work, claiming they are backed up for over a year.

One I can believe, but four? I don't know how you pay the rent like that.
Click to expand...

There are 4 LC shops in the DFW metroplex?
 
Go up to Bonham and look up Pete Phillips with United Motors. I posted his info in the FJ Shops list. My dad and I have used his shop for other cars and he’s been honest to work with.



finding shops is hard, you have to find a dozen shops by googling, then call them. You have to “sell” your project to them a bit, make your car sound like something they want to work on and sound like a client they want to work with. They have so much work they don’t have to take your project.
 
The shops around the Metroplex are questionable at best. The "big names" in the area are putting out crap work for about the past 2 years, and charge a premium. I have had to help about 10 guys this past year fix jobs that were done wrong.

Examples that come to mind: Engines that were "rebuilt", but were junk yard motors cleaned and swapped in (somehow a FJ62 3FE ended up in a FJ80)... knuckle jobs that leaked within 5K miles. Knuckle rebuilds where bearings were swapped out, but old bearing races were reused. Oil changes with motors severely overfilled. 12V bulbs In 24V systems. Shops holding onto a cruiser for 4 months before they even inspect it. Shop stated a A440F needed rebuilding, without even checking fluid level and cable tension... all it needed was fluid. List goes on and on.

Proceed with caution, the typical experience is "wow, I thought I was the only one that had issues with that shop. They seem to have a solid reputation".
 
OGBeno said:
My question still stands: there are 4 LC specific shops in DFW? What are the shop names?
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They are not "cruiser specific" shops. I would generalize them as 4WD shops that are willing to work on Land Cruisers.

I believe the 4 shops prior poster is referencing: Daja Automotive, Goodes Offroad, Baertrax, and Tandem.
 
For those looking for good work, @crtx does it right. He knows his way around Toyotas well. No corners cut. Straight shooter.
 
Hawkeyes4Life said:
Hey all - in process of purchasing my first FJ40 and curious if there are any reliable shops in the area, near Frisco would be great but not essential. Appreciate your time and look forward to contributing to the Forums.

Happy New Year
Click to expand...
In Garland is Goode’s Off Road. They specialize in FJ’s and do great work. It’s just around the corner from Cool Cruisers
(469) 556-7752
 
Was a first time Cruiser owner and did not know anything, when I bought my HJ60. Had some relatively light HJ60 work done in one of the 4 shops ... I can tell you that my cruiser sat at the lot for about 5-6 months, the work that supposedly done on the brakes was a scam, where I almost ended up driving off-road and despite shops owner telling me multiple times that drum brakes and pads were support to be "replaced, inspected, cleaned" etc... net net I am very jaded on the shops in DFW and rely on great people in this forum to do it right. @Hawkeyes4Life first recommendation is to ask one of these pro's to go buy FJ with you, to ensure you are not buying a mega project, second would be to work directly with people on here to fix coming up issues .... some of the local shops (caliber) can do great job as long as you absolve them out of liability for their warranty etc...
 
kTXRed22 said:
Was a first time Cruiser owner and did not know anything, when I bought my HJ60. Had some relatively light HJ60 work done in one of the 4 shops ... I can tell you that my cruiser sat at the lot for about 5-6 months, the work that supposedly done on the brakes was a scam, where I almost ended up driving off-road and despite shops owner telling me multiple times that drum brakes and pads were support to be "replaced, inspected, cleaned" etc... net net I am very jaded on the shops in DFW and rely on great people in this forum to do it right. @Hawkeyes4Life first recommendation is to ask one of these pro's to go buy FJ with you, to ensure you are not buying a mega project, second would be to work directly with people on here to fix coming up issues .... some of the local shops (caliber) can do great job as long as you absolve them out of liability for their warranty etc...
Click to expand...
They also have the audacity to also slap on the damn stickers on your truck for advertising before it leaves the shop. I had to clean up the mess that was done on @kTXRed22 truck. It was a total s*** show. What a shame and total lack of conscience to send off someone in a very unsafe vehicle. His cruiser sat in this “cruiser shop” for 5-6months. Not for repairs. But to get them to inspect it and give him a god damn issues/fix list. Useless service. I guess when they feel “we depend on them” they have a don’t give a s*** approach. They need to be shut down. It’s criminal. I have all the pictures documented of the grave omissions.
 
Last edited:
Greetings everyone. Stumbled upon this thread. Thought I would make this my first post. I'm a little shy. I also realize this is the 40 forum too but I'm local and have been searching for a dependable local cruiser mechanic/shop.

Yeah def seems to be a minefield to navigate. Picked up 97 fzj80 with 170K miles in nov of last year. Great condition but got CEL after few weeks of driving. The dreaded p0401 error code. Local shop close to me quoted me like I wanna say around $1700 to replace egr valve and clean tb and intake where there was carbon fouling from bad egr valve. What they reported. I didn't actually get my eyes on it. Was super busy at the time with work, christmas, family, etc. Told them I'll come pick it up. Found the mud forums and this wonderful community and decided to order the parts and do it myself. Anyways, just wanted to intro. I'm in the East Dallas/Lake Highlands area. Following this thread for any mechanic/shop recs but yeah looking forward to my "amateur mechanic" journey.
 
ronescobar said:
Greetings everyone. Stumbled upon this thread. Thought I would make this my first post. I'm a little shy. I also realize this is the 40 forum too but I'm local and have been searching for a dependable local cruiser mechanic/shop.

Yeah def seems to be a minefield to navigate. Picked up 97 fzj80 with 170K miles in nov of last year. Great condition but got CEL after few weeks of driving. The dreaded p0401 error code. Local shop close to me quoted me like I wanna say around $1700 to replace egr valve and clean tb and intake where there was carbon fouling from bad egr valve. What they reported. I didn't actually get my eyes on it. Was super busy at the time with work, christmas, family, etc. Told them I'll come pick it up. Found the mud forums and this wonderful community and decided to order the parts and do it myself. Anyways, just wanted to intro. I'm in the East Dallas/Lake Highlands area. Following this thread for any mechanic/shop recs but yeah looking forward to my "amateur mechanic" journey.
Click to expand...
Welcome aboard and appreciate the context. Coming to you from Frisco
 
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