For some reason this reminded me of the song, "I've got my hash pipe..." by Weezer?
YouTube - Weezer - Hash Pipe
I had to go through the trouble of importing a troopy from Australia, but after I got it home and cleaned out I now have my first hash pipe...I'm so happy. But not only am I the current owner of new hash pipe, I'm the new owner of a 1984 HJ47 Troopy...and that's almost as good as that new hash pipe.
Later this summer I started getting a little itch about getting a troopy, and like any good infection...I started to scratch it. I made some inquiries on some units already in the U.S. After looking at several they were either not quite what I was looking for or more than I thought I should spend for one. So...I sent out a few Pm's to fellow mud members that I knew who had already imported from AU asking for some guidance, and possible mud members in AU that could assist with a troopy acquisition?
My quest ultimately led me to mud member, "HJ47" (Josh). After contacting Josh, his reply was a enthusiastic, "anything I can do to help!!" Let me just say that without him, more than likely I would have not bought a troopy from AU. Having someone like him who is in his own words a, "focused" cruiser head was a huge, huge help. Having the confidence and trust of knowing someone over there that can go look at a vehicle, drive it, touch it, feel it, massage it, stroke it, spank it.....well, you get the idea. In one word, "priceless" in my opinion.
I explained to Josh that I was looking for a stock troopy, the less mods the better. It didn't have to be the nicest one on the planet, but I also didn't want the rusty'st one either. One of my other requirements is that it MUST be a Diesel. I had some inital ideas about what I wanted to do, which would result in complete disassembly so a mint troopy would be some what counterproductive if I was going to tear it down anyway. I also didn't want to spend the next year or 2 fixing rust and sourcing parts from overseas either. After combing ebay.au, and several other Au car online classifieds sites it came down to one Josh had actually found while getting fuel at a gas station. From my understanding the guy had a, "for sale" sign in the window and he struck up a conversation with him. So, after initially contacting Josh around the end of August, I bought a 1984 HJ47 Troopy approx. Sept. 12, 2010. As I mentioned before Josh was invaluable. He brought a pair of coveralls with when he went to look at it, called me on his cell from AU and he crawled around that thing for over an hour talking to me the whole time....priceless. After the deal was done I started to make arrangements for shipping.
I had seen 2 shippers tossed around on mud, Loyds and Bluefreight. Not sure why, I think maybe Josh had used them before, but I contacted Richard at Bluefreight. This is the first time I had imported a vehicle into the U.S. so I don't have any other experience with other shippers. But, I will say that the response from Bluefreight and Richard was amazingly quick. After a few weeks wait, I think mostly because Josh wanted to drive my troopy to picnics and romantic get away's with his wife....oh yea, he also got me a spare part or 2 from the local wreckers and some other spare consumable parts such as filters I told Richard at Bluefreight we were ready. Once again, Bluefreight was on it. As soon as I emailed Richard they had made arrangements within 2 days to have the troopy picked up at Adelaide and shipped to Melbourne some 500 miles away. On Oct. 14th, 2010 Josh drove the troopy to work where the car transport company met Josh that morning and loaded the troopy, it was off to Melbourne. It took less than a day to get from Adelaide to the Melbourne shipping dock. The troopy had been scheduled for shipment on the roro vessel, "Ocean Challenger" on Oct. 17th, 2010. What was kinda fun at this point is that you can track those cargo vessels online in real time. The Ocean Challenger and my troopy departed Melbourne on Oct. 17th, destination LAX (long beach) with an ETA of Nov. 7th, 2010. Along the way about 3 days later the Ocean challenger made a stop in Auckland, New Zealand for about 8 hours. And from there a couple weeks later it made another stop in Southern Mexico for about 12 hours. Ultimately arriving in Long Beach Nov. 8th, 2010. I had contacted the brokerage company KWE (once again because Josh or someone he knew had used them) a day or 2 after the troopy had left Melbourne. I dealt with a gal out of there Long beach office by the name of Nancy. KWE and Nancy were on top of everything the whole time keeping me apprised of what was happening, including when the troopy arrived and what needed to happen once it did.
Now it needed to get from Long Beach to Northern Minnesota. There is a gentleman I know in the auto transport business that has a 10 car transport that runs from Fosston, Minnesota (about 2 hours south of me) to L.A. every 2 or 3 weeks hauling cars. I had contacted him a week or 2 earlier and we weren't quite sure if it was going to work out or not? He was a day out of L.A. on Nov. 9th, and would be there on the 10th, but he had to leave no later than the morning of Saturday, Nov. 13th. Nancy at KWE had informed me prior to its arrival that it should clear in a day or 2 after it's arrival. At this point I figured I was good to go and let my auto transport guy knw he should be planning on picking it up, but then Nancy at KWE emailed me and said your vehicle has been flagged by customs for, "intensive exam", which will take another 2 to 5 days. At this point I'm thinking this may not come together, but to make a long story short...they didn't find my new, "Hash Pipe" and it only took an additional 2 days to clear. My initial thoughts were to have my auto transport guy pick the troopy up at the terminal, but after calling the terminal directly to make arrangements I found out that wasn't the case? Supposedly an auto transport company need to be registered with them ahead of time and insurance info on file, my guy was not. But an individual did not have to be registered or have insurance on file and could come down with some paperwork from me and pick it up and drive it out. This made no sense to me because my thinking is who cares what the person is driving when they show up to get it??? If they walk up or show up with a 10 car transport, if I gave them permission to get it they can have it, who cares what they are driving??? Anyway, I'm not much of a boat rocker so I started working on other options. I contacted a friend of mine in the Canoga Park area and explained my situation and he was so, so willing to help me out and do me this huge favor. I got him all the paperwork he needed to get the troopy out and he was able to drive down to the terminal on Friday, Nov. 12th and meet the Auto transport guy there. So between the 2 of them, my friend was able to drive the vehicle out of the terminal and meet the auto transport guy just outside the gate where the troopy was immediately loaded. I know...dumb as hell, but what are you going to do??
After all that the hash pipe and troopy were on there way and on Nov. 17th, 2010 at approx. 2:30 CST a 1984 HJ47 landed in God's country up in Northern Minnesota.
Pictures and more build info to follow.................
YouTube - Weezer - Hash Pipe
I had to go through the trouble of importing a troopy from Australia, but after I got it home and cleaned out I now have my first hash pipe...I'm so happy. But not only am I the current owner of new hash pipe, I'm the new owner of a 1984 HJ47 Troopy...and that's almost as good as that new hash pipe.
Later this summer I started getting a little itch about getting a troopy, and like any good infection...I started to scratch it. I made some inquiries on some units already in the U.S. After looking at several they were either not quite what I was looking for or more than I thought I should spend for one. So...I sent out a few Pm's to fellow mud members that I knew who had already imported from AU asking for some guidance, and possible mud members in AU that could assist with a troopy acquisition?
My quest ultimately led me to mud member, "HJ47" (Josh). After contacting Josh, his reply was a enthusiastic, "anything I can do to help!!" Let me just say that without him, more than likely I would have not bought a troopy from AU. Having someone like him who is in his own words a, "focused" cruiser head was a huge, huge help. Having the confidence and trust of knowing someone over there that can go look at a vehicle, drive it, touch it, feel it, massage it, stroke it, spank it.....well, you get the idea. In one word, "priceless" in my opinion.
I explained to Josh that I was looking for a stock troopy, the less mods the better. It didn't have to be the nicest one on the planet, but I also didn't want the rusty'st one either. One of my other requirements is that it MUST be a Diesel. I had some inital ideas about what I wanted to do, which would result in complete disassembly so a mint troopy would be some what counterproductive if I was going to tear it down anyway. I also didn't want to spend the next year or 2 fixing rust and sourcing parts from overseas either. After combing ebay.au, and several other Au car online classifieds sites it came down to one Josh had actually found while getting fuel at a gas station. From my understanding the guy had a, "for sale" sign in the window and he struck up a conversation with him. So, after initially contacting Josh around the end of August, I bought a 1984 HJ47 Troopy approx. Sept. 12, 2010. As I mentioned before Josh was invaluable. He brought a pair of coveralls with when he went to look at it, called me on his cell from AU and he crawled around that thing for over an hour talking to me the whole time....priceless. After the deal was done I started to make arrangements for shipping.
I had seen 2 shippers tossed around on mud, Loyds and Bluefreight. Not sure why, I think maybe Josh had used them before, but I contacted Richard at Bluefreight. This is the first time I had imported a vehicle into the U.S. so I don't have any other experience with other shippers. But, I will say that the response from Bluefreight and Richard was amazingly quick. After a few weeks wait, I think mostly because Josh wanted to drive my troopy to picnics and romantic get away's with his wife....oh yea, he also got me a spare part or 2 from the local wreckers and some other spare consumable parts such as filters I told Richard at Bluefreight we were ready. Once again, Bluefreight was on it. As soon as I emailed Richard they had made arrangements within 2 days to have the troopy picked up at Adelaide and shipped to Melbourne some 500 miles away. On Oct. 14th, 2010 Josh drove the troopy to work where the car transport company met Josh that morning and loaded the troopy, it was off to Melbourne. It took less than a day to get from Adelaide to the Melbourne shipping dock. The troopy had been scheduled for shipment on the roro vessel, "Ocean Challenger" on Oct. 17th, 2010. What was kinda fun at this point is that you can track those cargo vessels online in real time. The Ocean Challenger and my troopy departed Melbourne on Oct. 17th, destination LAX (long beach) with an ETA of Nov. 7th, 2010. Along the way about 3 days later the Ocean challenger made a stop in Auckland, New Zealand for about 8 hours. And from there a couple weeks later it made another stop in Southern Mexico for about 12 hours. Ultimately arriving in Long Beach Nov. 8th, 2010. I had contacted the brokerage company KWE (once again because Josh or someone he knew had used them) a day or 2 after the troopy had left Melbourne. I dealt with a gal out of there Long beach office by the name of Nancy. KWE and Nancy were on top of everything the whole time keeping me apprised of what was happening, including when the troopy arrived and what needed to happen once it did.
Now it needed to get from Long Beach to Northern Minnesota. There is a gentleman I know in the auto transport business that has a 10 car transport that runs from Fosston, Minnesota (about 2 hours south of me) to L.A. every 2 or 3 weeks hauling cars. I had contacted him a week or 2 earlier and we weren't quite sure if it was going to work out or not? He was a day out of L.A. on Nov. 9th, and would be there on the 10th, but he had to leave no later than the morning of Saturday, Nov. 13th. Nancy at KWE had informed me prior to its arrival that it should clear in a day or 2 after it's arrival. At this point I figured I was good to go and let my auto transport guy knw he should be planning on picking it up, but then Nancy at KWE emailed me and said your vehicle has been flagged by customs for, "intensive exam", which will take another 2 to 5 days. At this point I'm thinking this may not come together, but to make a long story short...they didn't find my new, "Hash Pipe" and it only took an additional 2 days to clear. My initial thoughts were to have my auto transport guy pick the troopy up at the terminal, but after calling the terminal directly to make arrangements I found out that wasn't the case? Supposedly an auto transport company need to be registered with them ahead of time and insurance info on file, my guy was not. But an individual did not have to be registered or have insurance on file and could come down with some paperwork from me and pick it up and drive it out. This made no sense to me because my thinking is who cares what the person is driving when they show up to get it??? If they walk up or show up with a 10 car transport, if I gave them permission to get it they can have it, who cares what they are driving???
Anyway, I'm not much of a boat rocker so I started working on other options. I contacted a friend of mine in the Canoga Park area and explained my situation and he was so, so willing to help me out and do me this huge favor. I got him all the paperwork he needed to get the troopy out and he was able to drive down to the terminal on Friday, Nov. 12th and meet the Auto transport guy there. So between the 2 of them, my friend was able to drive the vehicle out of the terminal and meet the auto transport guy just outside the gate where the troopy was immediately loaded. I know...dumb as hell, but what are you going to do??After all that the hash pipe and troopy were on there way and on Nov. 17th, 2010 at approx. 2:30 CST a 1984 HJ47 landed in God's country up in Northern Minnesota.
Pictures and more build info to follow.................
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