Parts run: Australia

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Yeah, I'[m over my PM limit, and I want to archive them, but I'm at work so I have to be careful on how much time I spend on MUD... :|

I and my friend in Aus have been totally overwhelmed by the response here. I figured a couple people would want stuff, but I never guessed I'd get 40 PMs and emails in the first 24 hours...

So what we are doing is this:

Taking Inventory on what we have, and what it'll cost.

Special requests for stuff we don't have will be looked into, but they will not come over on this month's shipment. This will give us time to locate these special requests.

This is what I know we have. Prices will follow once I clear them in AUstralia. (It's difficult since it's like 5:30 am there right now, and by the time I'm home and can deal with this, he's at work and cant... Damn time zones....)

We have:

2 3B Diesels with H55F trans attached. One I am buying for my "personal stash" so that leaves one available. I'll have mileage and other pertinent data on it tonight.

2 H55Fs that have sale pending.... if theose sales fall through, I'll post it up here

2 Sets of sliding rear windows for the 60. I'm guessing he'll want around 175 for these. SHipping from australia is included in the price. Shipping from Wisconsin is not.

1 Full float axle for 60 and one FF axle for 40 series. I'm getting pics, mileage and whether or not they include diffs and all that as well.

I might have a couple of clinometers out of a 60.



For those of you that requested other stuff not listed: After this container comes in, we are seriously considering doing another shipment in a few months. I have written an excel spreadsheet to track all requests, and we will look to see what's available.

If this goes well, this might become a semi-annual type thing.

The original intent was for me to get some parts for myself and see if anyone out there wanted to share the ride with the container, but with the response I got yesterday, and the demand there seems to be out there, it might very well be worth while to do this again, depending on how it works out.

As I said, I will post prices on the above later tonight. MY PM box is still full, I'll archive it and empty it tonight, so email me or respond here if you need any more info from me in the next few hours.

Fred
 
Fred,

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but a guy on the LCML did this same thing back in 2000. (Do a search on birfield.com for Eric Blase and container). You are taking on a HUGE task, and for some reason, us mudders/LCML'ers think that a deal like this should go off as smoothly as some retail transactions (exceptions of a few notorious cruiser vendors of late noted).

Many were unhappy with the quality of the products, mostly H41 trannies, etc., they had incompatible output shafts, needed serious rebuilding, etc. etc. Shipping took much longer than expected, palleting costs were high, people backed out, etc. etc. Anyone else remember this?

Anyway, if you do this, good for you. Just make sure you are covered financially and time wise to do it. And for all those ordering, remember, if it looks too good to be true...
 
re_guderian said:
Fred,

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but a guy on the LCML did this same thing back in 2000. (Do a search on birfield.com for Eric Blase and container). You are taking on a HUGE task, and for some reason, us mudders/LCML'ers think that a deal like this should go off as smoothly as some retail transactions (exceptions of a few notorious cruiser vendors of late noted).

Many were unhappy with the quality of the products, mostly H41 trannies, etc., they had incompatible output shafts, needed serious rebuilding, etc. etc. Shipping took much longer than expected, palleting costs were high, people backed out, etc. etc. Anyone else remember this?

Anyway, if you do this, good for you. Just make sure you are covered financially and time wise to do it. And for all those ordering, remember, if it looks too good to be true...
Click to expand...

Yep. Take heed in what he says.

Before you buy, make sure it'll work with what you're doing.

Any questions you have I will answer to the best of my ability.

Also, I will give as thorough a description as possible, but all these parts are used, and sold as-is.

there will a 50% deposit required to secure your parts. this is so I don't wind up holding the bag and being on the hook for parts I don't need if someone backs out.

I am not selling parts, I am simply offering them a ride. I'll provide any information I can.

There's always a risk, I'm taking one, too.

THose are the terms, and the risks, and if they're not acceptable, then don't do it.

What guderian says is dead on: if you want a retail experience, go to SOR or MAF.

I have yet to display these prices, or formally offer these things for sale until I have information to supply you.

I don't want anyone getting screwed here, least of all myself, so if something doesn't seem right, I'll not offer it. I personally have bought parts from this person before and found them as good as described, but always remember they are used, and that they may not just bolt in to your truck, due to minor, but important details such as number of splines on the output shafts or whatnot.

Fred
 
I have been watching this with great interest, and although I, personally, cannot afford anything right at this moment, I still wonder about things like customs, overzealous DEA agents, etc. Sounds like Fred is doing a great public service, since he is the one assuming most of the risk and will end up with all the blame. :cheers:
 
re_guderian said:
Fred,

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but a guy on the LCML did this same thing back in 2000. (Do a search on birfield.com for Eric Blase and container). You are taking on a HUGE task, and for some reason, us mudders/LCML'ers think that a deal like this should go off as smoothly as some retail transactions (exceptions of a few notorious cruiser vendors of late noted).

Many were unhappy with the quality of the products, mostly H41 trannies, etc., they had incompatible output shafts, needed serious rebuilding, etc. etc. Shipping took much longer than expected, palleting costs were high, people backed out, etc. etc. Anyone else remember this?

Anyway, if you do this, good for you. Just make sure you are covered financially and time wise to do it. And for all those ordering, remember, if it looks too good to be true...
Click to expand...

I remember it well, I bought an H55F from Eric. It was fully rebuilt and in great shape. I corresponded with him quite a bit and got the details of what I was getting. I know in the end though, Eric's dad was not happy. Everyone ended up having to deal with him for shipping or bitching about what was wrong. I was in no hurry which may have been partially why overall it was a good experience for me. People who need their stuff right away or on some time table should probably look elsewhere.
 
cruiser ken said:
I remember it well, I bought an H55F from Eric. It was fully rebuilt and in great shape. I corresponded with him quite a bit and got the details of what I was getting. I know in the end though, Eric's dad was not happy. Everyone ended up having to deal with him for shipping or bitching about what was wrong. I was in no hurry which may have been partially why overall it was a good experience for me. People who need their stuff right away or on some time table should probably look elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Good to hear.

I didn't mean to imply that all of Eric's transactions went awry. He was going to college in Australia, and the container went to his Dad like you mention. Just that some buyers had unrealistic expectations of the quality/timeframe of their orders...
 
Interested in a 40 FF axle. Also interested in a H55F or 3B/H55F in a future shipment.
 
Will post up pictures and specs on everyintg once I have them.

Fred
 
I figured maybe I could throw some light on your discussion. I was roughly in your shoes about 5-6 years ago. I bought a truck in Australia wanted to send it back and offered my 20 foot container as a place to ship parts. My offer to LCML was that if you wanted you could buy anything you wanted from anyone you wanted and so long as there was room and so long as the parts got to me in australia, they would have a free ride(you pay your tarrifs) to California. Then once in CA, you had to arrange for pick up or delivery. The 20footer went to my dads place as it is the only one I knew who had room and someone to trust with dealing with peoples parts. That said, the understanding was he was not a TLC person by any stretch and you had to be patient as he has a job and he works his ass off and he was doing this in his evenings. No big deal.

The plan was for my box to leave may/june depending on a lot of things ranging from shipping schedules, waiting for people to buy parts from vendors and get them to me, school, time to load etc. In the end i waited until the second week of june as we had 2-3 weeks off of Uni and seemed like a good time to do it.

I dealt with 3 or 4 parts places and the newspaper to get the parts for people requesting me to find them. Like I said a lot of people bought parts from vendors and shipped them to me to put in the box and that seemed easy. I took the average price for the parts in town added 15% for tarrif(it was a lot more in the end) and then offered that as an option so long as it was available.

So now we can get to the bad part if you will. I had posted my box as leaving May/June with an estimated shipping time(from logistics company) of about 6 weeks in transit. No problem. Except some people took that to mean 6 weeks from May 1st. I will say thats my fault for throwing out a possible departure date and NOT communicating well enough that it and I were both flexible on that. Ok so the box ends up leaving mid-june. I figure once the truck has been to pick up the box, it is on the way and 6 weeks later a box will be in sunny CA with parts galore. Not the case. Apparently the 42-44 days in transit was on ship only. That quote did not include the week or so it took for them to get it from Newcastle to Sydney. That quote also did not include customs clearance time. That quote also did not include the fact that rather than landing in Oakland, it would land in Long Beach, clear US Customs, and then be trucked to Oakland then to Sacramento(retarded mapquest on their part) That quote did not include the fact that I paid a logistics company for all of this, only to find out that I was only paying for the australian half and not the US side of things. Not a great day out. So the box does get to long beach and duty is due. A note to you guys interested in this. Duty is based on country of origin NOT country of departure. You pay tax on stuff from JAPAN not aus who we now have free trade with. I will get to all of that in a min, but just understand that the nice folks at US customs are a hell of a lot smarter than you or I and have been doing this a lot longer and they know where it comes from and they will check your box based on murphys law. The tarrif rate as you can see from the Harmonized tarrif schedule was 25%.

Ok so now the box is in and duty is paid(15 by the nice folks and 10 by me) and now the stuff is at my folks place. It is late(a month or 2 conservatively) and some people are not thrilled at that. We let them know its there and of course they want their stuff asap as its paid for and its taken a while and its sitting in Sacramento just waiting to be picked up. My dad unloads the box and with the help of my mom, they start organizing. Just another FYI, you get 2 hours to unload before you get bent over by the trucking company. So here is enough stuff to start a parts house, and the folks want there stuff. My dad wants to wait until the weekend before people come to the house to pick it up since he works and they are driving from as far away as So Cal and Oregon. The locals(CA folk) get their stuff pretty quick. Then my dad starts palleting things and forward airing them all over the country conversing with most of the folkss himself and some through me. In the end we end up sending some of the wrong parts to the wrong people. A few get the wrong size FF's or the wrong 4spds or early doors instead of late. We get the people the sorted out and 99.9% of them work well with my folks. It was hard for them as I was still 8000miles away and doing the best we could over the phone. Another couple of problems were that some of the parts plain sucked. Some gearboxes were not serviceable, same with a couple FF's. At the end of the day everything bought was used, or rebuilt. The rebuilt stuff is easy to deal with its obvious. As far as the used, if you pop the covers everything may look good, but the synchros could suck and you would never know. We also swapped out the early h41s for lates and vice versa as some people got the wrong ones. The 4 speeds were the hang up as a lot were bought by people and then shipped to me to be loaded in the box and in the end we wound up with some diesel inputs and some split case 41s when what they were actually after was 2f older style stuff. Just wasnt an easy picnic.

So all of that said, there were still some unhappy people. I chalk a couple up to being assholes anyways and want new toyota parts at prices comparable to something stolen then sold out back for pennies on the dollar. Some just plain werent happy. Anyone that called and said they still unhappy after everything was all said and done, we offered to buy their stuff back from them. Not a total solution, but it was all we could do at that point. I wasnt in this to make money, but rather try and offer shipping help and cover taxes. I figured if they had a 4 spd they didnt like, i would rather have it and I would see what I could do with it since it was stateside and sitting in the garage. So whether I wanted to use it or sell it or whatever, at least they would have their money back and I would have parts at still a reasonable price. I was not a business and this was not a full time job but it was still accomplished reasonably well with most people being satisfied. The unhappy folks were those not happy about the schedule, those that had parts mixups, those who didnt like dealing with my dad, or those who are just unhappy in general. My dad handled his end with a lot of patience and a lot of time and effort. He was at forwar air(20miles each way) every afternoon for a month trying to get people their parts as quick as possible. As far as palleting goes, he built them on his own and he shipped them whichever way you wanted. I still to this day swear by forward air, and you cant beat $40 across the country for a 4spd. Even then if you didnt like it, you could always pick it up or arrange for a drop ship like others did.

The money side of it. My BJ40 cost me 2500 to buy in sweet condition. My box was quoted to me at $5000. In the end I spent $5000 to get my container from Newcastle AU to long beach. It cost me $2400 in taxes on top of those paid by people buying parts. It cost another $1400 in trucking and finally it cost $800 in brokers and agent fees. Thats $9600 for a container thats quoted at just over half that. I have no problem paying for it since I commited to it, but it wasnt a cheap run to the bay area with an offer of delivery help if needed. I tried my best to make it work out and it did for the most part with a lot of help from my folks and from the patience of the listers that helped to make it work. It is not a business and you have to look at it that way. If you disagree, call Spector or better yet Steve at Manafre as he is a hell of a nice guy easy to deal with and your parts will be there next day if your willing to pay for it. I hate to say it but these things dont work out in the end and I think its because people expect the business like performance from an individual.

Where it stands today....I graduated a few years ago and still like my cruisers. I go to Aus about 3-4 times a year now usually for 3-4 weeks or so. I still send trucks and parts to california on a semi regular basis but I do it with my own money and dont get into the preorder stuff anymore. If someone comes to me who bought from me before and wants something sent from aus, I will buy it on the assumption they will pay me on delivery since they have in the past. Other than that I buy the parts, ship them, and sell them or use them or whatever but all on my own dollar and I think its the only way to do it without making even one person unhappy. I am now my own broker and have 2 of my own trucks(petes) now and it works. My offer still stands to this day that if youre not happy I would rather buy your parts back then have you be unhappy. So to those of you thinking of doing this, please have patience and understanding with whoever you deal with wheter it be soft tops, panama steel, axt's, jdm lights, or aussie parts especially if its an individual helping you out rather than a business. Again if you want business service try dealing with Steve he is good and he has all the same parts offered overseas. Good luck on this try and sorry if it seems like a highjack, just thought I could throw out my thoughts as they seem relevant. Good Luck, Eric
 
bcon said:
I figured maybe I could throw some light on your discussion. ....
Click to expand...


Thanks for that, all good advice, and I suggest it be considered very carefully.

I certainly am, and with this anecdote, and making sure every t is crossed and every I is dotted.

Consider carefully what you buy.



Right now, I'm waiting for all the details on the parts available. Once I know them all I will post them up.

Fred
 
OK....

I'm finalizing details on the container. I'm also estimating customs levies...

I'm also gathering info about the parts.

I'll be having a phone converstaion with the seller this weekend, and will then be able to tell you what I have, and what it costs.

Sorry that part is taking so long, time differences and the overwhelming reponse being what they are.

Once things are settled, price wise, detail wise, then I'll be posting another thread to say what is for sale, and I'll have a copy of the, well, basically it's a contract, and we'll go from there.

I've been proceeding slowly on this as I do not want it to wind up like the situation above. I want to make sure things are as organized and well planned as possible.

Fred
 
Eric Blase? I got a FF from you back then...Still have it now on my truck.

For those who consider aussie FF, don't forget to get your spare FF axle shafts too since the chance of finding spare on the trail is almost nil.
 
HJ47 seats

I am looking for a set of rear seats for a Troopie project, If you find some let me know !! glad to pay a fair price and shipping, no worries about condition as they are only in need of a good Upholstery Shop...
 
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