12-16 WEEKS CURRENT LEAD TIME
12-16 WEEKS CURRENT LEAD TIME
Located right in the center of the US in Kansas City, I was born and raised in MO, I run Valley Tech Fabrication with the help of my business partner Joe Boettcher. He and I met in high school during welding classes. He went to Enginering school while I continued on with my welding education. We reconnected later after he saw what I was doing and we figured out that we really lived very close to one another. Joe takes care of all the 3D CAD work, structural design integrity and makes sure we can acheive maximum build efficiency. I run the business right out of our house so-to-speak (laughing...) and my wife also helps. An ER nurse by trade, my wife is my rock and my biggest supporter which allowed me to follow my passion for fabrication, open my own small fabrication shop and grab a small slice of the American Dream. I was so excited when we bought our house for a shop behind it. I did not know it would become the official VTF shop back then but I am thrilled of what I have been able to accomplish so far out of this small shop. We've made so much progress already as a small business and the support we have received from friends, family and the various Facebook groups we are involved with, has been nothing short of spectacular. This really fuels my desire to make everything I fabricate better and better. I come from a passionate family in general, so the drive to do my best for my customers is something that I try to instill in all my products and the reason why I love the custom aspect of my fabrication. Well, that and the fact that I loved legos as a kid!! As an adult and a business, I get to be creative, talk to great clients and offer them a product that suits their needs perfectly, what can be better?
Currently our products (rear modular bumper and rock sliders) are mainly for the Toyota Landcruiser 100 series which also includes the Lexus LX470 not only because this is the rig I currently own, but also because I have really fallen in love with the community of fellow 100 series owners who really are as passionate as I am. In the early days of my 100 ownership I didn't have the money to spend on fancy bumpers, but I knew I wanted to fabricate my own and so that's what I did and it sort of evolved from there. I sold the first one to someone I met on this Facebook group, he traveled all the way to Kansas City to do the install, and we custom fitted it to his truck. He went back home to Louisiana and started to rave about the bumper and the experience he had and then the interest started to spike! I really love the organic way my business is growing and, although I am growing and improving my processes in order to meet demand, I still will remain very attached to building a real relationship with all my customers. I want them to be just as thrilled with the bumpers in the field as I am proud of building them.
This custom fabrication is not new to me. I use my experience as a field mechanic/fabricator for a large tree company where I was in charge of solving technical challenges by designing and fabricating all sorts of attachments for our equipment. This is something I did not learn in trade school but that I am naturally interested in.
My plans for the shop are to first and foremost make sure I stay true to my custom fabrication roots while still constantly improving the products. I want to deliver a great bumper and sliders at a very reasonable price tag while also in a time frame that doesn't have customers wait too long to enjoy them. See you on the trails!
