LT shop recommendations in the Bay Area

Ok my rear suspension project has gone on to long without me even being able to work on it. I have become crazy busy with work lately and am starting to look for places that are knowledgeable in LT suspension to finish up my truck, preferably withing 2 hours drive from Vacaville area.

I also need to figure out how I can transport it without the rear axle even connected to the truck.

Please if anyone can help me out by recommending shops in the area and methods of transporting it, I could really use the help. And a drivable truck back.

 

Daaaamn. I think the shop Alex is eventually taking his truck to is in the South Bay. But apparently they do good work. Might be right at the 2 hour mark for you. Only thing is idk how you'll transport it. Do you have AAA?

 

What else needs to be done?

 

I still have to final weld the hangers, set up the spring perch on the axle, spring mounts on axle, fabricate a shock hoop, notch the frame, box the frame, slip joint the drive shaft, bump stops, limit straps, and just a few other little things here and there.

 

ill bump this. id also like to know of any good shops in the bay area to help with a few things. thx

 

I found a guy that does work on trucks a lot and he is willing to do mine. I drop it off tomorrow and will see how it all goes, and report back.

 

There was a LT guy named Dave that moved from Santa Cruz to Vacaville I believe, but I don't think I have his info anymore. Sounds like you found someone, but I can try to get it if you want anyways.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/no...-so-cal-wheelin-trip-september-12th-14th.html

Hope you can make it scotty! And all you guys as well!

 

It would be nice to know someone else that would know LT suspension especially if he is in my area. And fir anyone else that might be looking.

My guy is really going to town in my truck so this actually looks like it might be doable.

 

Nice post some updates if you can so I can see that beast scotty

 

Here it is back on it's wheels and the bed back on for transport to the shop. It has been almost 2 months since it has looked anything like this. No shocks mounted at this moment only sitting on the springs. It's also missing the gas tank and spare, which is probably why it looks so much higher in the photo.



Day 1 at the shop:
With a couple issues loading it onto the truck that I will keep to myself (mainly because I expected them to happen with other issues it also brought up I did not think about till it happened). Everything striped down and already cut out the cross members.



Day 2: I stopped by the shop to just see how things were going and to mention a couple more things I had forgotten to tell him before. Templates for the plates to box in the frame already cut out welded in and back cross member welded in. He also went back through and cleaned up soe of the welds that I had done before.






Needless to say he is really going to town on my truck and I'm loving it. I happened to mention that I didn't even expect him to be this far already and he told me that he had to have my truck rolling again by Monday so he could get another truck in on the lift. So it looks like it might be as far as finished in only a week or two. The deciding factor might be waiting on bump stops and limit straps to ship.

 

Man scotty looking good ! Happy for ya truck looks awesome! The guy is really gettin it together fast

 

Sorry if i missed it, but whats the name of the shop?

 

No you didn't miss it, I was going to wait till I could make a good review of his work first.

 

Next think you know I'll have a finished truck. Ordered bump stops and limit straps today. Going to be putting an Optima battery in, because my factory one leaked all over sitting for 2 months for some reason, and have a Ruffstuff battery tray coming too to put it in!

Edit: oh yeah this

 

Any updates on the build scotty ?? Im very interested in seeing how this beauty is goin to come out

 

I don't know how much was done Friday, I never got an update but I ordered the bump stops and limit straps got them Friday already and dropped them off to him today, so that he will have them first thing Monday. I feel like it could easily be finish this week but that might be a little optimistic.

 

Nice!! Just in town for our socal trip

 

Made some progress the last couple days.






The bottom of the shock isn't where it will end up in this next picture but it isn't far from where it will be and the frame seems to be no issue it is just the bed that limits it to where it is.



The shock is mounted on the axle now with a little flex. As you can see it is far from full bump at the moment, I need get him to disassemble the leaf pack and get it to full flex so I can be assured everything will be where it is suppose to be.





We were going to go with an axle perch as a strike plate but the shock is closer to bottoming out before the bump stop bottoms out so he is thinking of making the strike plate from scratch and making it taller than the axle perch was.

If anyone has any advice on the bump stops/strike plate it would be nice to know a little more about what works and doesn't work.

 

That's because you run a 265 tire with a 4.5bs wheel.