Met Luke Porter at 4x4 Labs today

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mtweller

mtweller

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Traveling for work in Sacramento and had a few hours to kill, so I called up Luke and he said come on up. Super cool dude. Not much in the shop right now, but saw his 80 rear bumpers and they are sick.

Greg, he's working on materials pricing and will but sending out a quote on a group buy...he hasn't forgotten or decided not to go through with it.

I saw his Mercedes diesel project in his 40, pretty sick. Just got a custom Aluminum flywheel made for it with a serviceable friction surface - ingenious. Couple of pics, crappy from the BB, but everybody loves pics.

:beer: R
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Thanks for the update Ramon, you sure you don't just want to drive back and bring the bumper with you? Would save me a little on shipping....
 
I'm sure it would fit beneath the seat....
 
Definitely the over head compartment
 
Luke is a metal artist for sure.

I just love his rear bumpers. I can imagine he will start on front bumpers at some point and blow everyone else out of the water.
 
You wouldn't believe his shop, very "low tech". Don't get me wrong, he's got some equipment, but there is $hit all over the place.

I felt right at home :) Just not what I expected to see based on his level of service and his products. I thought it would look like a NASCAR shop - I was not disappointed to see a dude turning out products like he does with the resources he has. Ingenious.

:beer: R
 
He was a pretty good guy at getting back to me when ever I had questions for him. Finally glad to see he got the MB adapter done. That took him years. Hopefully he can actually get a few more done and put some of for sale. The MB diesel is second to none in reliability and simplicity. I've owned 3 of them.

Glad to hear the small shops are still making it. I hate seeing everything on TV and the huge companies. The small shops and associations of small groups is what made america what it is. We USED to make quality and innovative stuff. Not so much anymore.
 
I've seen a lot of good fab work coome out of small, low-tech shops. It seems as if some of the guys with the hi-tech equipment need it to compete with the craftsmanship and skill level of the guys in the smaller shops.
 
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