Shop recommendation: Familiarity with 1st Gen. Tacomas (1995-2004)

Hi there, I found some good leads on adding and welding parts (e.g. Milo etc) but I have been thinking of just looking for a shop to do parts+mods; ideally, the shop would have some specialty with 1st gen tacomas.

For me, time is money so I am looking for someplace I can consult with to do a lot of mods would be awesome (in the Bay area). For example, someplace I can say "can you make 35s work on this?" Or ask them what I'd need to get my tacoma up to off road spec (via inspection of the current setup). Something like yotamasters?

Thanks!

 

you try toyota HB yet?

 

No which one is that?

 

I haven't had them do any work but I've had more than a few recommend Toy Connection in Santa Clara in the past. Be forewarned - they are super busy ALL the time and apparently the follow-up isn't the best. Still, nothing but high marks in quality and knowledge. Now whether or not they can spend the time to help you figure out your overall build plan, not sure there.

Anyway, just passing it on. Good luck.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/toy-connection-santa-clara

 

cool thanks I'll give them a looksie.

Edit; based on yelp reviews this looks like a hard pass. Even if 20% of what was said in those negative reviews is true, it seems terribad+risky. I can't believe it's so hard to find someone quality to take my money! lol

 

if you have money to spend on real stuff and are serious, then try shaffers offroad. But this is for serious builds.

Simple driveway mods and you are pretty much on your own or make friends. There is enough information on this site to get you all the answers you need and more.

 

Not sure what you mean by real stuff but yes I was looking for someplace to heavily modify. Working on the getting to know people locally part

 

serious suspension and drivetrain upgrades. little things like racks and lights and stuff you would be best served handling on your own, the labor would double the price of anything.

 

yep that's what I had in mind; things that need welding and suspension upgrades including possibly cutting for 35s.

 

Milo can do everything from basic suspension upgrades like extended travel kings, body lifts, and body trimming to heavy modifications such as long travel.

It's just that it would save you a significant amount of money to do non-long travel related upgrades since bolting on a rack is an hour long affair with simple hand tools. You could install a lift midtravel in an afternoon with youtube and hand tools. The other added benefit of this philosophy behind doing much of this work yourself is that if you intend to go offroad with any frequency, and I don't mean smooth dirt fire roads, but through mildly difficult trails with no reception is that you'll have a high likelihood of breaking down and getting stuck. Having familiarity of fixing your own vehicle by yourself is exceptionally important unless you enjoy being stranded.

If you already have familiarity with working on vehicles and troubleshooting, then this is old hat and notwithstanding.

You could also do us a favor by being specific on what mods you want to pay someone to complete. This would show, on your part, an understanding of what needs to be done to reach a specific goal such as running 35" tires on a 1st gen Tacoma w/o clearance issues or the other related modifications necessary to run those larger tires so we can communicate the relevant information instead of having to guess what's going on in your mind.

 

This should be a posted sticky...