Mexstan

I have a very frustrating problem and hope that somebody here can help me or guide me in the right direction. As much as I love living here in Paradise, every now and then something comes up that causes extreme frustration. Here is my sad story:

I am ready to do some major mods to my truck. These mods include a suspension mod such as a Carli Performance 2.0, upgraded control arms, HD after market front and rear bumpers, 12,000 hydraulic winch, front hub conversion, etc.

To have these heavy parts shipped from the states to me here in central Mexico will cost dearly for shipping and probably at least 30% duty. I was thinking that as the duty and shipping costs will probably be close to the labor to have someone do the work, just have everything installed up there. The trouble is that I can't find a reliable shop fairly close to the TexMex border to do the work. Can anybody recommend a shop that will not rip me off and has the tools and expertise to do the work? This shop has to be willing to allow me to have the suppliers ship the kits to them and store them until I get up there to have them do the work.

Another alternative is to find a place that can receive the various shipments and store them for me. Then I will take a special trip up there to pick them up, fight with customs and later install everything myself down here. The problem with this is that I need to go up there to find such a storage place and make the arrangements. That involves two long trips for me. The storage place must be capable of receiving one pallet and a few fairly heavy and large boxes, such as the bumpers.

Any and all suggestions will be much appreciated. The closest place for me is McAllen, Brownsville, Laredo, San Antonio or even Austin.

Mexstan

Mods, please delete this duplicate post. I have no idea what I did to cause this.
What happened to the delete post option?

high bid

I have a friend who has a large shop and does work/repair/paint for all major trucking companies....Coke, UPS, Brinks, etc. He can accept just about anything as long as it's paid in advance. I don't know exactly what you want done or what he would charge. If you're interested send me a PM and I can get you more details and/or a ph#.

Hoss

Stan, unfortunately I can't really help you out with your problem, but it's good to see you back on DTR. If you happen to make it up to the Austin area look me up and you can buy me lunch.

CowboyDave

How far are you willing to drive in to the states to get the work done?

Mexstan

Would prefer not to go any further North than Austin. Wait, Hoss lives up that way, so maybe not that far. East, well Houston is almost too far.

Mexstan

Will do. Hang on there, isn't the person who lives in the city supposed to be the host and pay? Methinks you have the concept backwards. Are you a backwards country bumpkin?

PourinDiesel

Does this involve a bank transfer out of Nigeria?

Hoss

Traditionally that would be the case. However, the motto around these parts is "Keep Austin Weird". Being the conservative kind of guy that I am I'm usually not too interested in doing my part to help keep Austin weird (concrete bedliner excluded) -- bunch of freaks -- but in the interest of conformance I'm willing to help out this time by allowing you to pay. You're welcome, Austin...and thanks, Stan, for the really good BBQ you have so graciously offered to buy me.

westcoaster

You gotta stay with the program.


It involves a bank transfer out of Mexico.....

Mexstan

It's taken some time, but I finally have most of my ducks lined up and am almost good to go. High Bid and MCummings both stepped up to the plate and their offers to help are very much appreciated and want to publicly thank them.

Thanks to Merrick, I am going to have the heavy work done in Laredo which is just a short 10 hour drive from my home. Have done it in 9 hours but the border crossing could take an hour or so. Just waiting for some goodies to arrive in Laredo such as my Road Armor bumper and then I will head up and have them installed. Was hoping to have the fun of doing all this bombing myself, but it is just not practical to bring big and heavy stuff (bombs) across the border and ship them down to me. This is a small penalty to pay for living here in Paradise. Before the end of August I will have the majority of the long saved for bombing completed. It is going to be a lot in one go. Now, how do I prevent my wife from finding out the true megacosts? The smoother ride will help.

CowboyDave

Glad to hear you got things going your way now. The best I could do was another 5+ hours for install work from what you have going for you now. Dont forget PICTURES.

MCummings

You make it back home Stan?

Nice meeting You and your Wife.

Would have enjoyed eating with you at Olive Garden, but apparently, u-joints don't stay put when you don't install all the snap rings....

Merrick

Mexstan

Daaah?? Didn't your daddy teach you to check and double check your work

We arrived home safe and sound around just before 10 p.m. in the middle of a thunderstorm. Drove thru two really bad storms on the way home. One storm the temperature when I drove into the rain was about 99 degrees and within 5 minutes the temp dropped to 64. Strange weather. My headlights are the typical horrible Dodge lights, but found out last night that with the higher front end that the lights are now way too high and are only one step away from useless. Was not going to stop in the rain to try to set them up. Will do that tomorrow.

We only left Laredo about noon as I had to go back to get the alignment re-done as it was not right, or we would have been home before dark.

Just finished connecting my Pacbrake and had time to cycle it a couple of time before another deluge hit us. Big panic gathering up my tools etc before the rain soaked them. I saw the dark clouds coming but there was no thunder as usual, so thought that I had a bit of time. Wrong! The wind and the rain hit with a vengeance and in seconds the ground and everything else was soaked. Just looked outside and see that my street is now part river.

Thanks again for all your help. Could not have done all these mods without your help. Please say hi to Joann (Jo-Ann?) from both of us.

MCummings

JoAnn. She says Hi, it was a pleasure meeting yall.

Just be glad you don't have my '98.5 headlights. My fathers '05 lights were wayyy brighter than mine. Get those PIAA's installed and you'll be double and triple checking to make sure the OE lights are still on heheh.

Yah, actually, my Dad was the one helping me LOL. We got the new u-joint installed on the side of the road, he had to come rescue me. I wonder what people were thinking as they drove by and I was hammering on the driveshaft on my flatbed? LOL

Glad yall made it back safe. It's been raining on and off here as well.

Since you didn't mention the border crossing going into Mexico I'm sure it was less hassle and wait than coming into the U.S.


Merrick