Who’s had personal experience using a shop for a complete FJ60 restoration?

[Lead Head]

Tread very carefully. My experience (not necessarily with Land Cruisers), is that when you give shops essentially a blank check to do everything, they will take all kinds of short-cuts and do everything wrong and charge you a ton of money. I've seen countless friends burned by "restoration" or "performance" shops.

Also keep in mind for a shop to do what you want done, you're probably going to be looking at around $30,000 in work, if not more.

 

[Beat Navy]

My rig is currently with @kelly saad and I have nothing but good things to say about the experience. He's also been very patient with me during the process. I would send it to Jason after Kelly finishes for an engine replacement and new axels but I've got to save a little cash first. There are some great examples of their work all over the 60 forums.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Look forward to getting the rig later this year @ewright .

Parts are already being ordered this morning.

Jason

 

[ewright]

Look forward to getting the rig later this year @ewright .

Parts are already being ordered this morning.

Jason

I looked at Doug’s build, spent hours yesterday reading through Trail Tailor threads and the decision was easy. Build thread to come!

 

[Michael Hanson]

Hi, Personally I’d only farm out work you can’t do yourself.Then when your cruiser needs work later,which it will, you can fix it yourself. Mike

 

[David*BJ70]

Dismantle a 60 Landcruiser, from the seats, a good part of the dash, carpets, belts, interiors and hardware of all the doors and their glass, all plastic trims and garnitures, rear side glass, glass and hardware of the tail gate, front grille, side lights and rear light and mirrors is a one-day task at most with tools that most of us have in our toolboxes.

Buy Ziploc bags, take pictures and notes. Be organised.

I bet I can do it much faster than any shop especially since every hour of their work is paid handsomely.

If you need rear quarter panels or rockers to be change, you can also source them and bring them.

If the shop is not too far from your home, you can come once or twice a week and bring coffee and donuts to see the progress of the work and demonstrate that you follow the restoration. It keeps the pressure on and is more reassuring. I also guarantee that the donuts and the coffee will motivate the employees to work on your truck.

The 2 times that I paid a shop for some bodywork and paint, I drove my vehicles bare naked with only the windshield, my seat and the seat belt and the front and rear lights. The doors were tied with laces . Shop is 7.5 miles from my home.

It's really easier for them to do the job and for me to assess the quality.

 

[SteveH]

I would never suggest/recommend a 'do it all at once' approach. Hire a shop to do the v8 swap. Then drive and debug. Then do the suspension, then do paint/body, etc. Too many shops don't really have a project manager, and you end up with (as many have pointed out) chaos and low quality/confusion. Only YOU care about your FJ60 as much as you'd like to think others do.

 

[bxadook]

highly recommend Doug DeLong and his shop Well Sorted in Buena Vista, CO.