Land Cruiser Heaven

[tweeek]

Makes me sad to see this thread. I bought seat covers from frank 1.5 years ago. He was very upfront about lead times, very good to deal with and the quality of the product was way beyond anything else I could find on the market.

I hope he hasn't come on hard times because he did seem like a standup guy at the time.

 

[FloridaFJ80]

I want to apologize for not getting back to everyone via the forum. I have been offline since Feb and have not had the time or the opportunity to login until today. As you may know from this forum, I have been a one man show @ LCH since the beginning. LCH was a side business for me from the very beginning. When I started, I juggled a full time job in Corporate America and after work, or on my breaks or in between meetings I was working LCH. For the first few years, I was the LCH sales guy, product and vendor procurer, Customer and after sales support, the shipping guy, the marketer, the web and ecommerce developer, the social media manager, the accounts payable rep, etc. Growth has been tremendous and unprecedented that all the time I was playing catch up and have been up until now. This doesnt come with tons of hiccups along the way or even making the famed Buyers Beware page on Mud. The only way to resolve these hiccups is to be dedicated 100% to your product and finding the issue first hand is my priority. Sometimes these issues are not found until they get received by the customer sometimes months down the road. I rely heavily on the feedback of my customers, this entails me to make the improvements necessary for future orders. I want to outlay to the mud community what has happened at LCH since the very beginning and how things have progressed to where we are now. It has been an uphill but satisfying battle.

LCH Timeline:

Mar 2015 - Got ripped off by a known mud vendor for an 80 series leather kit
METRICTLC - committed FRAUD

May 2015 - I set out on a quest to find leathers for my 80 series and for others on the forum. I unknowingly enrolled in a crash course on International trade and cross cultural business dealings and expectations. Never assume that our quality standards are the same everywhere, learned this the hard way. Growth is exponential. I brought to the US a new option in Land Cruiser parts that werent available stateside by a US vendor. The standards and quality comment I made above played a big role here.
My Toyota Parts search Expedition

Sept 2015 - Now - Worked with negative feedback from customers concerning the tubs and body panel fitments. Used the time to improve on the product and continually improved every single process with our body panel suppliers. When we started all our panels were sold bare metal. At the time I didnt have the facilities to protect the product. now we ship all our products with a thin layer of primer. All our panels get sanded and primed prior to loading to the container and shipping stateside. On mud there are comments of damage thru shipping. It happens no matter how much we protect it. Freight companies are animals when it comes to dealing with our crates. We must be at v10.0 of the crates we build for the half tubs. The first crates I built were done in my garage with 2x4's, I have learned a lot when it comes to crating, and it came with a lot of unhappy messages from customers. This is an ongoing process that up until last year I was able to resolve with the correct facilities needed. We are still researching ways to keep freight costs down while improving our delivery timelines. Unfortunately these 2 things dont go hand in hand. We dont want to depend on container loads in order to ship these items stateside, but until then its the only way to not charge outrageous shipping charges. We are working currently with some LTL carriers that may provide a solution. This is in the works and I hope that this will resolve our delivery timelines.

I have had a 4 month delay on shipping a container stateside due to a Land Cruiser we are bringing back not being ready to ship. In order to keep all our costs down, container shipping costs are paid for by the truck we bring back. We use the extra space to bring back everyone's orders. This truck has delayed us significantly, everyone's order finally shipped stateside a few weeks ago after jumping thru extensive hoops and Colombian holidays to get our export authorization. This export was the most difficult. We hope to have the container arrive by the end of the month.
Fj40 half tub replacement woes....

January 2017 - LCH 4x4 Shop opens in Hagerstown MD. For the first 2 years of LCH, I was shipping everything out of my garage and unloading 40 ft containers on a side street in my townhome community. I didnt care where and how I unloaded, I needed to deliver to my customers. The shop has a loading dock and has been a welcome tool for container unloading. Now we can build crates and package orders making sure that the product will be protected on its last journey home.

Leathers Timeline:

May 2015 to August 2015 - Shipped my 80 series to Colombia to develop the correct leather seat cover molds for a US Spec 80 series. Worked directly with the automotive leather factory to correctly match the 3 different leather colors available to the 80 series. (Oak, Tan, and Grey) Offer for sale a certified automotive grade full leather seat covers designed for durability.
My Toyota Parts search Expedition

August 2015 - July 2017 - LCH leathers become the standard for leather seat covers on ih8mud due to Great reviews. Quality and fitment exceed expectation. Hiccups along the way as expected but all issues get resolved. Delivery timelines arent the best, this has been a huge issue for me with my international supplier. I rely heavily on them to get the ball rolling with everyone's order.

July 2017 - My leather supplier runs out of leather. Certified Leathers are sourced from Uruguay and Argentina. A restocking container got damaged on the way to Colombia and all leathers were beyond salvage. This put me in an very difficult situation with my customers. All orders to my supplier are prepaid. They offered non certified leather to resolve the issue and I said no. This was my name and company on the line and I wasn't going to tarnish this by taking a shortcut. They also didn't want to refund the money so I can refund my customers. As a small business, this situation can literally bankrupt anyone. I took time off from work to resolve this issue, flew down to Colombia met with the top executives of my leather supplier, looking for a quick resolution as I had angry customers knocking my door down for answers. I was finally able to come to terms with them and I made an email communication to all my LCH customers. Small batches of leathers were shipped via DHL from Uruguay and we were able to move forward with production. Everyone waiting for their leathers received their leathers eventually.

August 2017 - October 2017
After the ordeal with my leather supplier, I knew I needed to find another supplier that offered the same certified leather. I found another automotive leather factory in Colombia. I reached out to them and I had to start from scratch with providing all molds for the 80 series (LX450 and 80 series are different). I was traveling every few weeks to Colombia to meet with this new supplier, doing extensive quality checks, setting up processes, negotiating terms and timelines, etc. And I did a trial order for some rigs I had in the shop. When I received the order, I set out to install them and provided feedback to the supplier to make changes. Once the changes were made, I received the product and gave them the green light that we were good. I placed a big order for leathers.

October 15, 2017 - I leave my full time job at Verizon to work full time at LCH. A new chapter in my life opens up.

December 2017 - July 2018
Continue to use the new supplier with all our leather orders. Timelines are dramatically reduced and everything is going fine until I receive some fitment concerns from a truck we are doing in the shop. I call down and tell them to stop production. When dealing with international vendors its hard for them to accept issues and take ownership. I start traveling extensively to Colombia to find a resolution to our fitment issues. I shipped down oem seat covers for them to find the corrections. We found the issue a few weeks later and they were ready to move forward, and I said no. All the orders that we have built we need to go thru them and check for errors. They insisted that all was fine and I pushed back. After a few weeks deliberating, they finally accepted and started going thru the orders. I was right and they had to redo some covers again. This of course delays everyone's orders and a year later from the other debacle I am facing it all over again. Customers not happy because of the delays wanting refunds,etc. After extensive traveling and man hours looking for resolution, I was finally able to resolve this issue last week and have emailed all my customers letting them know why we had the delays. They will be receiving their orders in less than 6 weeks.

Future of LCH:

I continue to work for LCH in bettering every process available. Initially, I got a lot of complaints because when traveling internationally I wasnt available. I tried the global roaming option, turned out to be very expensive when I received a $750 dollar cell phone bill. I then tried call forwarding, that only worked half the time. I then tried VOIP software on my cell phone and that works 85% of the time just need to have some good data signal. Sometimes becomes an issue when I am outside of big cities. So I hired a person to manage my ecommerce customer service. This was the solution, but there was a big learning curve as of course I need someone who knows cruisers and can speak both English and Spanish. This is an ongoing process as the person I hired, I had to let go as I wasnt satisfied with the level of service they were providing. So for the time being, I am back with the customer service rep hat.

At the shop, I have 4 people on payroll. 2 LCH Techs, a helper/parts puller/detailer/shipper/etc, and a shop supervisor. I finally have the help needed to move forward. The LCH Shop has seen tremendous growth in the last 6 months, we have a 1 month backlog of work currently and I am looking for more techs to get projects moving along. Currently I am in dire need of a welder/fabricator for all my body work work I have in backlog.

I want the MUD community to know that LCH wouldn't be what it is without the support from this forum. Being an active mud member for close to 13 years I can surely relate to being on both ends of the spectrum.

Land Cruiser Heaven is a small business ran by a die hard Land Cruiser fanatic, who believes in this community and what it stands for. I am continually striving to better customer communication, this was my main priority when I started, and have fallen short on this and for all that I apologize. I want everyone to know that I will never leave anyone high and dry, I may be delayed but I will always resolve the issue. I am not one to take money from anyone and not deliver. I will always make every effort to make it right for my customer. Sometimes we all get caught up on the Amazon Prime way of doing things and forget that not all businesses are built the same way. These negative reviews are vital for a small business to grow. I take them on in efforts to make the experience a lot better moving forward. I look to ih8mud as my community and look to rebuild that trust again.

I am not always available on the forum, but if you need to get in touch with me you can always get in touch with me via the following methods:

Email: frank@landcruiserheaven.com
Personal Cell: (786) 518-0838
Shop Number: (240) 347-3827

@Rock40 @CaptClose @BILT4ME @tstepp920 @bigredmachine @raymond2335 @mtrdud @Picz34
@tweeek

 

[CaptClose]

Let me see if I understand correctly... I ordered new leather on March 8th of this year. It was literally the first product that I ordered for my build, and it is now the only product that I’m waiting on to finish the build.

I’ve been patient because I didn’t absolutely need them until my trip to the Solid Axle Summit that I am leaving for on August 4th. But now that is just two weeks away. Looks like I won’t have them in time.

It’s going on 5 months that you’ve had my money, and you say the only reason that I’m waiting is because you pack the covers in with a cruiser that you’re building to save on shipping, and that cruiser build has experienced delays that you passed down to all your leather customers?

This doesn’t make any sense. You could have easily saved your company’s reputation by having them shipped directly to your customers and saved the time and expense of shipping them to your shop in Maryland first, and then re-shipping to your customers. It’s much better to eat a little money on freight, than tarnish your company’s reputation.

The same “make it right by any means” that you demanded from your suppliers, is the same “make it right by any means” that your customers expect from you. Think about that.

Furthermore, you said that you’ve made several trips to Colombia to grease the wheels in your supply chain... Could you have not brought a few leather kits back with you each time?

I’ve sent family back and forth to Colombia several times in the past few months, I could have picked up my kit and a few others if you had bothered to explain the situation earlier.

There’s a $90 flight to Colombia from Ft. Lauderdale a few days a week with Spirit airlines. For $40 bucks you can check a bag.

There’s a solution to every problem. Sometimes you have to think outside the box or just suck it up and throw money at the problem.

I’ve been in business for over 20 years, if you can’t solve simple logistical problems, perhaps entrepreneurship isn’t for you.

The very first priority you need to work on is communication. I PM’d you months ago. I know for a fact that even if you don’t log into Mud, you receive an alert and copy to your email. It takes 2 seconds to click on the link and reply

By your own admission, you said that you rely on the support of this forum and that your company would not be where it is without the Mud community. Why would you go almost 6 months without even logging on and checking in? It just doesn’t pass the sniff test to me. The forum members expect your support too Frank.

My second piece of advice is to work on your integrity. Because there are so many simple and relatively inexpensive ways to solve your logistical problems, I’m not really buying all your excuses that you mentioned in your post above. Be honest, be forthcoming, and communicate in real time with your clients. I had more Mud members communicate with me to warn me about doing business with LCH than I ever received from you!

After reading your post, I still don’t know if I’m receiving my covers next week, next month, next year, or never!

Finally, run your business by the three commandments...

1. Do what’s right.

2. Treat people the way you want to be treated.

3. If it ain’t so... don’t say it. Don’t even imply it!

Good luck Frank. I hope you get your act together and that this chronic “hiccup” with your business doesn’t permanently damage LCH. I hope even more that I finally receive the product I ordered, or at least a full refund with interest.

-Ryan

 

[45Kevin]

The Rant:

I don't know Frank, but I know people like him.

They are cruiser heads that source, or build, hard to get parts for their own trucks and then try to share what they have with other cruiser heads.
What comes to mind is the old saying, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".

And when one of these guys puts it out there, all of us lazy, no-talent, wanna' be fabricators jump right in with our money in hand expecting the sale to go like it does at Walmart.

If you want new leather seats, I'm pretty sure there is an upholstery shop in your town that could give you exactly what you want... for 4 times the price, in 6 weeks. I'm positive you would get at least a mediocre product and you would have to pay sales tax to boot.

Or, you could go to Specter for a lot of these things, they are a full time cruiser shop, with people paid to order, and pick, and pack, and ship your product. That's where you see the real cost of getting specialized parts for a niche market at best. And even they screw up on a regular basis.

I know, there have been out right frauds on this forum, but most of these vendors are just trying to do you a favour, and maybe make enough money to get new tires, or a RTT for their rig. They are not business men that have $$$ of capital to get their business running, they don't have a shipping department, or a AP/AR department or even a person to answer the phone. When they answer your phone call, they stop working on someones order; when they respond to your e-mail they stop listening to their kid, or their wife.

I'll give you my own example.
There is a guy in our club that that makes awesome parts for our cruisers. The guy is a master craftsman. He has a full time job, that supports him and his family and he does the cruiser community a large one by spending ALL his spare time making impossible, or nearly impossible metal parts for us. But he has a growing family; he has football and ballet to drive his kids to, he has a wife that needs to see him occasionally, and he has his own truck to work on. Four months ago I asked him make some custom brackets for my truck awning, thinking I'd have them in time for the summer camping season. Well, I'm still waiting, but I understand. I could go to some random metal shop and pay big time and get them in a few weeks, but for the quality and the price I'm willing to wait.

So to all you guys moaning about having to wait, or "lack of communication", or "breaking promises", you had other choices; or maybe you didn't.

So cut them a break.

Rant off.

 

[FloridaFJ80]

Let me see if I understand correctly... I ordered new leather on March 8th of this year. It was literally the first product that I ordered for my build, and it is now the only product that I’m waiting on to finish the build.

I’ve been patient because I didn’t absolutely need them until my trip to the Solid Axle Summit that I am leaving for on August 4th. But now that is just two weeks away. Looks like I won’t have them in time.

It’s going on 5 months that you’ve had my money, and you say the only reason that I’m waiting is because you pack the covers in with a cruiser that you’re building to save on shipping, and that cruiser build has experienced delays that you passed down to all your leather customers?

This doesn’t make any sense. You could have easily saved your company’s reputation by having them shipped directly to your customers and saved the time and expense of shipping them to your shop in Maryland first, and then re-shipping to your customers. It’s much better to eat a little money on freight, than tarnish your company’s reputation.

The same “make it right by any means” that you demanded from your suppliers, is the same “make it right by any means” that your customers expect from you. Think about that.

Furthermore, you said that you’ve made several trips to Colombia to grease the wheels in your supply chain... Could you have not brought a few leather kits back with you each time?

I’ve sent family back and forth to Colombia several times in the past few months, I could have picked up my kit and a few others if you had bothered to explain the situation earlier.

There’s a $90 flight to Colombia from Ft. Lauderdale a few days a week with Spirit airlines. For $40 bucks you can check a bag.

There’s a solution to every problem. Sometimes you have to think outside the box or just suck it up and throw money at the problem.

I’ve been in business for over 20 years, if you can’t solve simple logistical problems, perhaps entrepreneurship isn’t for you.

The very first priority you need to work on is communication. I PM’d you months ago. I know for a fact that even if you don’t log into Mud, you receive an alert and copy to your email. It takes 2 seconds to click on the link and reply

By your own admission, you said that you rely on the support of this forum and that your company would not be where it is without the Mud community. Why would you go almost 6 months without even logging on and checking in? It just doesn’t pass the sniff test to me. The forum members expect your support too Frank.

My second piece of advice is to work on your integrity. Because there are so many simple and relatively inexpensive ways to solve your logistical problems, I’m not really buying all your excuses that you mentioned in your post above. Be honest, be forthcoming, and communicate in real time with your clients. I had more Mud members communicate with me to warn me about doing business with LCH than I ever received from you!

After reading your post, I still don’t know if I’m receiving my covers next week, next month, next year, or never!

Finally, run your business by the three commandments...

1. Do what’s right.

2. Treat people the way you want to be treated.

3. If it ain’t so... don’t say it. Don’t even imply it!

Good luck Frank. I hope you get your act together and that this chronic “hiccup” with your business doesn’t permanently damage LCH. I hope even more that I finally receive the product I ordered, or at least a full refund with interest.

-Ryan

Good morning Ryan,

Thanks so much for your reply. I apologize in advance if I was not clear with my first message. There are two facets to my business, Leather seat covers and body panels. If you see above I broke them into two categories. The body panels, they all get shipped back in containers that rely on other big items to return stateside (ie the truck). This is what I am working on improving.

Your leathers dont rely on anything to be built. All leather kits get shipped stateside via DHL Air Freight. The issue with the leathers was a fitment issue with a new leather provider. This was the delay with your leathers, explained above. Your order was ready months ago, and I could have shipped it like that. My integrity is important to me and I could not knowingly send you something that will not work or fit correctly. Ryan, I thank you for your constructive criticism, there are some facets that I need to work on, I agree. Just because I am a member on this forum, doesnt mean that I frequent it. There are direct ways to contact me outside of the forum. Please PM me your order number, (fixed mud alerts from going to junk mail) and I will see about getting your order expedited.

 

[Rock40]

Well Frank, I'm glad that you posted what you did and I'm trying to fully understand it. Bottom line however, I simply can't grasp how MONTHS AND MONTHS pass with zero communication. Email is free as would have been replying to MUD PM's. I get that you're busy and you travel a lot but you took this on. No company can survive and thrive if customers wait for in limbo and simply "hope" that things will resolve themselves.

 

[Rock40]

On 6/22/2018 I received a PM from Frank:

"Hey Ross,

I will call you tomorrow to give you a resolution. Sorry for not getting back to you earlier."

And to my shock and surprise I still haven't heard a peep from him 1.5 weeks later. DO NOT GIVE THIS GUY YOUR BUSINESS, TIME OR MONEY. As far as I'm concerned, Frank's dissertation above on how he grew his business from the ground up with customers always coming first isn't worth the time it takes to read it. I'm done with Frank from now on. I guess I'll be taking my seat leathers into a local place hoping I can actually get them dyed the correct color. What a bunch of BS @FloridaFJ80

 

[Putins4x4]

Has anyone that’s bought from LCH been satisfied with them?

I doubt it

 

[LINUS]

Bummer.

I was actually thinking Frank for leather for my FR seats.
Guess he’s either stretched too thin or doesn’t prioritize updating people?

Lseats it is then.

 

[Putins4x4]

Let me see if I understand correctly... I ordered new leather on March 8th of this year. It was literally the first product that I ordered for my build, and it is now the only product that I’m waiting on to finish the build.

I’ve been patient because I didn’t absolutely need them until my trip to the Solid Axle Summit that I am leaving for on August 4th. But now that is just two weeks away. Looks like I won’t have them in time.

It’s going on 5 months that you’ve had my money, and you say the only reason that I’m waiting is because you pack the covers in with a cruiser that you’re building to save on shipping, and that cruiser build has experienced delays that you passed down to all your leather customers?

This doesn’t make any sense. You could have easily saved your company’s reputation by having them shipped directly to your customers and saved the time and expense of shipping them to your shop in Maryland first, and then re-shipping to your customers. It’s much better to eat a little money on freight, than tarnish your company’s reputation.

The same “make it right by any means” that you demanded from your suppliers, is the same “make it right by any means” that your customers expect from you. Think about that.

Furthermore, you said that you’ve made several trips to Colombia to grease the wheels in your supply chain... Could you have not brought a few leather kits back with you each time?

I’ve sent family back and forth to Colombia several times in the past few months, I could have picked up my kit and a few others if you had bothered to explain the situation earlier.

There’s a $90 flight to Colombia from Ft. Lauderdale a few days a week with Spirit airlines. For $40 bucks you can check a bag.

There’s a solution to every problem. Sometimes you have to think outside the box or just suck it up and throw money at the problem.

I’ve been in business for over 20 years, if you can’t solve simple logistical problems, perhaps entrepreneurship isn’t for you.

The very first priority you need to work on is communication. I PM’d you months ago. I know for a fact that even if you don’t log into Mud, you receive an alert and copy to your email. It takes 2 seconds to click on the link and reply

By your own admission, you said that you rely on the support of this forum and that your company would not be where it is without the Mud community. Why would you go almost 6 months without even logging on and checking in? It just doesn’t pass the sniff test to me. The forum members expect your support too Frank.

My second piece of advice is to work on your integrity. Because there are so many simple and relatively inexpensive ways to solve your logistical problems, I’m not really buying all your excuses that you mentioned in your post above. Be honest, be forthcoming, and communicate in real time with your clients. I had more Mud members communicate with me to warn me about doing business with LCH than I ever received from you!

After reading your post, I still don’t know if I’m receiving my covers next week, next month, next year, or never!

Finally, run your business by the three commandments...

1. Do what’s right.

2. Treat people the way you want to be treated.

3. If it ain’t so... don’t say it. Don’t even imply it!

Good luck Frank. I hope you get your act together and that this chronic “hiccup” with your business doesn’t permanently damage LCH. I hope even more that I finally receive the product I ordered, or at least a full refund with interest.

-Ryan

Hey Ryan, I’m in the same boat you are. Have you gotten any update or your order getting expedite? It sounds to me like a bunch of bs.

I don’t know how many months ago I started looking for a cover kit for my FJ80 and everyone agreed @FloridaFJ80 had the best. Before I placed my order I decided to call and double check on delivery times and such. He told me 2 months. When the time was getting close he sends this copy+paste email apologizing for delays and saying he’s gonna make things right, but it’ll take him another 6 weeks!!! (By making things right I’m sure he’s throwing a t-shirt with your order)

When I saw in here that @FloridaFJ80 told you to email with order number to get your cover faster, I went ahead and did the same and he replied saying he was gonna get in touch with his distributor. Ever since that day I’ve been emailing daily asking for updates and just this morning I got an email saying that the covers where being built... he’s 3 weeks away from the 6 weeks deadline and the cover are being built! Not to mention Colombian customs the freight trip, USA customs and then for him to have them shipped to everyone (whenever he feels like doing so)


I replied back calling him out on all his lies and told him I was gonna have my experience posted on the web not to mention that I’ll be waiting for a refund.

@FloridaFJ80 You can keep your seat covers, I won’t be giving you my money. You run a s***ty operation and you shouldn’t held peoples money if you can’t get your act together my order number is 674 and i’ll be waiting for my money back.

I wonder when is gonna be the next time he checks his email or the forum. I like Ryan’s idea of him having to pay interest on that money.

@FloridaFJ80 might have been a stand up guy sadly it has turned into a cancer. Like that rust spot on the body of your car. You get it out or it’ll destroy your car.

Steer away from this guy!

 

[kjtlc]

Was just about to contact Land cruiser heaven for some maintenance. Now I’m feeling rather uncomfortable about them working on my truck after reading these comments.

 

[Putins4x4]

Was just about to contact Land cruiser heaven for some maintenance. Now I’m feeling rather uncomfortable about them working on my truck after reading these comments.

After my frustration with the sea

Was just about to contact Land cruiser heaven for some maintenance. Now I’m feeling rather uncomfortable about them working on my truck after reading these comments.

It was frustrating, but I guess it was for the better. I was talking to my best friend down in Colombia, I told him the whole situation to which he replied that father in law own a big leather products company and he was gonna ask if he has mold for Toyota Land Cruisers.

Yesterday he texted back saying they do. I went ahead and placed and order with him. It should be here in about 3 weeks and I’ll be posting pictures in case anyone is interested. Quick shipping and much better prices for the same product.

 

[Putins4x4]

Hello everyone, my kit has arrived and it looks amazing! Excellent stitching and quality. I got first and second row plus door panels, arm rest and center console. I’m only including some of the parts in this picture since I don’t have enough space to display them all. Most likely I’ll start today with the installation process if the rain allows me...

Please note that the order got placed on August 28th and the product was at my front door on September 9th.

 

[Mauser]

Hello everyone, my kit has arrived and it looks amazing! Excellent stitching and quality. I got first and second row plus door panels, arm rest and center console. I’m only including some of the parts in this picture since I don’t have enough space to display them all. Most likely I’ll start today with the installation process if the rain allows me...

Please note that the order got placed on August 28th and the product was at my front door on September 9th.

View attachment 1785107

Price? How do we order?

 

[Rock40]

Price? How do we order?

A new thread needs to be started somewhere about the new covers, this one is about how Land Cruiser Heaven has burned multiple folks

 

[Putins4x4]

A new thread needs to be started somewhere about the new covers, this one is about how Land Cruiser Heaven has burned multiple folks

A new thread needs to be started somewhere about the new covers, this one is about how Land Cruiser Heaven has burned multiple folks

I wish I was more skillful with this site. Do you mind guiding me on how to do that?

Thanks

 

[Rock40]

I'd go to the regular "classifieds" section and post up there under 80 series parts. You should get quite a bit of interest

 

[Putins4x4]

I'd go to the regular "classifieds" section and post up there under 80 series parts. You should get quite a bit of interest

Thanks!

 

[CaptClose]

So... after 6 months + 6 days of waiting, my leather kit from LCH has arrived. It’s been a long wait, but Frank threw in the center console and armrest kit for my troubles. This kit has a retail value of $160 dollars, so that is about an 11% rate of return over the 6 months that he had my money. That’s fair I suppose.

I’ll get to my initial impressions on the kit in another post, but first I’ll talk about the purchasing experience.

It’s no secret that a lot of people have been waiting for their kits to arrive. Without a doubt, sone have cancelled their orders and moved on. I considered this option many times. However, two things kept me on the fence. First, the reputation that Frank’s leather kits have is excellent. The consensus says that these are the absolute best kits you can buy for our cruisers.

The second thing that kept me on the dense was that I could find no evidence that Frank ripped anyone off. Kits were eventually delivered, or funds returned (as far as I know). I could find no posts to the contrary.

For the first 4 to 5 months, Frank was absolutely horrible at communicating anything about the order status. I do admit, I wasn’t a squeaky wheel. I had other projects going on, so I let time pass.

It wasn’t until July came around that we all started to hear from Frank in the form of email blasts that went to all that were waiting on their leather kits. The email addresses were sent bcc:, so we could not tell if there were five clients waiting, or 500 clients. A little bit nerve racking for sure.

By this time, I started to make regular contact with Frank or his office. In their defense, he never dodged my calls and he was always able to reassure me that the kits are coming. I remember thinking that this guy must be a great con artist, or he’s telling the truth. It was always just a few more weeks. I continued to put a lot of faith in Frank and I stayed the course. Finally, I had enough. I called Frank again and gave him an ultimatum, I wanted a tracking number by the end of the month, or my credit card refunded. I had every intention of following through and going with another vendors kit.

In the end, Frank fame through with that tracking number (a few days past my deadline). They arrived on September 14th.

A few bits of advice if your considering purchasing leather from Frank.

First, don’t believe the 4-week turnaround time. It won’t happen. Just count on it being several months and be happy if you get them within 8-12 weeks.

Second, don’t expect frank to proactively provide you with status updates. This is not his strong point. Frank has quality products, but he must have a little Colombian in him when it comes to business operations. Understand this, and you won’t be disappointed.

Finally, have faith. Frank will eventually pull through and deliver.

Some advice for Frank...

1. Consider collecting a small deposit from your customers st the time of order and the balance at when ready to ship. Your clients will experience far less anxiety. $1500 bucks is a lot to gamble with. Work out the logistics with your vendors to make this an option.

2. Be more proactive. Tell your clients exactly what is causing the delay. Don’t wait until the heat comes your way.

3. Don’t send email blasts. Personalize your communications with your clients. A blast email creates more anxiety because it gives the impression that you’re facing a more systemic problem that could threaten the financial viability of your company. This bolsters your customer’s fear that they may lose their money.

4. Re-evaluate your delivery timeframe on your leather kits. People will wait for quality.

5. Pay attention to your competitors. Poor customer service provides an opportunity for your competitors to get a foothold in the market. Be the best, and deliver in a reasonable timeframe.

To those who question on whether I would recommend LCH leather kits to others... Yes, I would. With the above caveats. The kit is very high quality. In fact, better than OEM. A full review will follow later.

 

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Okay... I’m 98% finished installing the Land Cruiser Heaven new leather kit. I’m not going into the ordering experience with this post, as I’ve said all I need to in my previous post. This will be a installation and first impressions post only.

The covers arrived in a unreinforced cardboard box. I wasn’t concerned because leather is impact resistant. I was somewhat concerned with moisture exposure, but once I opened the box, I noticed everything was sealed in plastic wrap. I have no problems at all with shipping methods. Frank did use FedEx to ship them from Maryland, so they were not exposed to the elements for long.

I laid everything out on my island counter to inventory what I had and to assess the job I had ahead of me.

My first impression was very positive. 100% leather, even along the sides where the OEM set is vinyl. The quality of the leather appeared superior to the original set and the stitching was top quality. I do not have first hand experience with any of the other seat kit vendors, so all I can say is that you will not be disappointed with the quality of this set.

For a bit of background, I’ve re-skinned several 60 series seats in the past. I can probably completely skim and recover a 60 in about 45 minutes. I was going to attempt the 80 as well.

I’ve got a few pairs of hog ring pliers and a bag of leftover rings, so I had everything I needed to get started and I decided to start on the front passenger seat.

I don’t want to make this a “how-to” post, so I’ll limit my comments in that area. I’m happy to answer any questions people might have about self installation, just tag me in a follow-up.

I will say that if you’re not the DIY type, this set might be best left to the pros. If you’re comfortable with hands on projects, this job isn’t that bad. I think it’s best to pace yourself to maybe one seat per day. Otherwise, it’s easy to get tired and frustrated, that’s when you start to cut corners. I’ll also add that some heavy stretching and pulling is required, and two sets of hands can be extremely helpful. Luckily I had Cody @cwwfj60 available for extra muscle.

I ordered new seat foam for the front seat bottoms. I also added the seat heater kit from LCH. You can see it installed in the above photo. I have not wired the heaters to power yet, so I cannot add anything about their effectiveness in this review.

Installation was smooth and there were no major issues. My one complaint is that the OEM kit has a plastic rail sewn into the fabric backside to keep the armrest pocket leather tight to the corner. This rail is missing in the LCH kit.

The rail is hog ringed to the vertical rod that runs along the inside seatback. Because this is missing, the pocket is somewhat lose and saggy. It does not have a the tightness that it should. With the armrests up, you don’t notice it. But it is pretty obvious when they’re down.

Here is the plastic rail on the original OEM set that I am referring too.

This isn’t a deal breaker when it comes to the set, but LCH should make sure that their vendor includes this piece in future kits.

The finished result is absolutely stunning. My interior is now completely restored.

The camera exaggerated the very slight difference in color. In reality, the color is very close. The fit and finish is a 9 out of 10. The issue above, along with a few very minor rod sleeves that were different than OEM, prevents me from giving the kit a perfect 10.

Overall quality is a 10 out of 10. Because this is a 100% all surfaces leather kit, it’s very rare that I can give a product a better than OEM rating, especially when it comes to Toyota. This leather is thicker and appears more durable than the original leather. However, only time and miles will be the true judge.

Ease of installation is 7 out of 10. This is not specific to the LCH kit. Any kit you buy should go on the same way. I would estimate that a professional would take about an hour per seat. So maybe four hours of labor for the entire kit. Add another hour if you’re also doing armrests and the center console. Amateurs will probably take 2-3 hours per seat. Use this estimate to decide if you want to tackle the install yourself or not. If you take your time and are methodical, you can accomplish this project without any prior experience. But you’ll get frustrated at times.

Price of the kit was around $1500 for the front and middle rows. This was for the premium all leather kit with upgraded seat heaters. Not the cheapest kit you can buy for sure.

All in all... it is a great kit. 4.5 Stars.