I'm headed to Austin this summer and was wondering if there are any good fabricators in Austin or San Antonio? Willing to consider Dallas as well, I guess. Looking for tube-bending capabilities, bracketry, skidplates, that sort of thing....

Jason Kenne. His e-mail is jkenne1@austin.rr.com. He is your man in Austin for bending tube and custom welding work.

He works out of his house and does AWESOME work.

He built Jason's cage and cut/turned his knuckles before Moab.

Talk to Russ Baer at Baertrax. www.baertrax.com I think he's even worked on Kate, hasn't he Nolen?

:flipoff2:

Originally posted by wngrog
Jason Kenne. His e-mail is jkenne1@austin.rr.com. He is your man in Austin for bending tube and custom welding work.

He works out of his house and does AWESOME work.

He built Jason's cage and cut/turned his knuckles before Moab.

Hey Nolen, any chance you have a picture of this cage or any other work this guy has done?

Same question for Houston. Tube especially.

This is for me, but, Houston is closer than Dallas anyway for the Austin guy anyway.

Elmer Chapman @ http://www.bigdogcustomfab.com is the man to see he is in San Angelo about 200 miles from Austin

http://yellowtj.homestead.com/files/cage1.jpg

http://bigdogcustomfab.homestead.com/files/cageseats.jpg

http://bigdogcustomfab.homestead.com/files/cobyscage.jpg

hey henry, there's a guy on this list, roundrocktom, who lives in north austin in the round rock/cedar park area who has most of those tools i believe. I just moved from austin back to Alabama ...

- jack

There is a shop in north San Antonio about 5 min. off I-35 called Full Traction. The # is 210-599-2703 Talk to Gabe he is the owner, good guy. He is building my truck for me.

Thanks a LOT, guys, this is good info! I really appreciate it, I don't foresee having much time to dedicate to the truck till the end of this year, but after that I want to start catching up on a lot of custom projects I've been setting aside and I'll finally have another vehicle to drive while the truck is sidelined.

Looking forward to the move to Texas, too!

Henry,

Rent my HOUSE, and I'll leave the hydraulic tubing bender for ya to use! :D

Need to spend all my spare time/energy getting my current house cleaned, drywall patched, painted, new carpet so I can rent it out (owe too much on it to sell at current market prices). 2500 sq ft, 4 bedroom, about $2000/month rental (average for that area).

Catch is I'll be building a large shop at the new house (about five miles away). So I might rent the house out and "lease back storage" until I can get the mill, lathe, welders, etc moved to the new location. I figure the riggers will charge about $500 to move the machines, so cheaper to move them only once.

Jason Kenne has been doing some nice work out of his house. Need to machine some parts for him before I pull out all the three phase wiring!!!

Also discovered a new neighbor is a fellow list member, Tx4x4Fun. Cool to have a fellow POR member as a neighbor!!! Maybe we can talk him into a FJ40? :D

Tom :usa:

Thanks, Tom, but that's out of my initial budget, and besides, my territory will be South Austin and I need to be closer, Round Rock may be too far away! My wife is applying for work in Round Rock (elementary school teacher), though!

Let me know if you need any help once I get to Austin, I can provide some cheap immigrant labor on weekends (myself) and while my welding isn't the prettiest (who am I kidding, it's emergency trail weld quality), I am handy with a grinder and not afraid of hard work.

Looking forward to the move!

Henry -- glad to have you in Austin.

Hmm... how are you at being a job formen? I need someone who is fluent in spanish when it comes time to hire a crew for some jobs. :D Only problem with driving a crew cab in Texas, if I pull over to dial a number on the cell phone next to the day labor location, I suddenly have 10 guys in the truck wanting work!!! :D

Any idea of what school in Round Rock ISD? What grade... would be funny to find out if she has my youngest for fourth grade! He's into cruisers and dogs! (future Vet?)

Oh, my welding has a LONG way to come. Thankfully I started gas welding over 25 years ago in high school. Just need to drink enough coffee to get the shakes, so my welds look good. :D

Tom :usa:

Originally posted by roundrocktom
Henry -- glad to have you in Austin.

Hmm... how are you at being a job formen? I need someone who is fluent in spanish when it comes time to hire a crew for some jobs. :D Tom :usa:

Bugger off Tom, he's mine, plus, I'm paying him more :D

Originally posted by 60seriesguy
Thanks, Tom, but that's out of my initial budget, and besides, my territory will be South Austin and I need to be closer, Round Rock may be too far away! My wife is applying for work in Round Rock (elementary school teacher), though!

Let me know if you need any help once I get to Austin, I can provide some cheap immigrant labor on weekends (myself) and while my welding isn't the prettiest (who am I kidding, it's emergency trail weld quality), I am handy with a grinder and not afraid of hard work.

Looking forward to the move!

Henry, Welcome to Austin. :flipoff2: You don't want to be drivin from Round Rock to S. Austin if you have to travel during rush hour periods. I'm in SW Austin so feel free to give me a shout if you need any help. Hope you've factored in the cost of housing here, it ain't cheap :eek: Also, get your rental lined up early... esp if you are coming towards the end of summer when UT is getting back. I had to live in temp housing for a month till I could get into a place after I signed a lease. It seems a little better now with the tech slowdown though.

Originally posted by Shrock
Same question for Houston. Tube especially.

This is for me, but, Houston is closer than Dallas anyway for the Austin guy anyway.

I don't know about Houston, but I work in Conroe, just a little North and Bobs Race Car Chassis does good work. I can get his number if you're interested.

in Dallas anyway

Mike