1949 Chevy 3600 Pickup: Be seated! Progress!

Hi all, really sorry, but that distraction and man-flu I mentioned!  They knocked me for a 6 for the last month, all explained in the Aersosedan thread.  I'm back again now though, so here is part 5 of the story...

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What about shipping?

So I contacted Hill Shipping who arranged to bring my Aerosedan over from Wyoming and asked them for a quote on bringing the Pickup over from Minnesota. When the quote came in I was pleasantly surprised that it was a few hundred pounds cheaper than the Aerosedan had been. Cogs whirring, I realised that this must mean that they would be road shipping the Pickup to the East Coast, this also meant it was likely to take less time.

I decided that as I had paid for the vehicle I was probably best off getting it shipped rather than storing it on a farm in Minnesota where I had little chance of knowing what was happening to it, so I authorised Hill Shipping to progress with transportation.

It took a few days for the vehicle to be picked up and then within days, on July 9th, I got an email stating which ship and container the vehicle would be in. Here's the schedule of the ship that I screen grabbed on July 10th UK time).

<image of ship schedule>

Yes, you read that correctly. The ship would be leaving New York on July 9th (10th UK time) and docking in Southampton 10 days later!

I have a vehicle which I would be happy to have taking the slow train home, languishing at sea for a few weeks, and the shippers pull a rabbit out of their hats and get it shipped it record quick time.

Here I was, worried that the vehicle would arrive while I was out of the country on holiday and instead, it's due to arrive 12 days before I'm due to leave.

Well, I better crack on with that storage then. I can't exactly stick SWMBO's birthday surprise on the drive under her nose for the better part of 3 months, now can I?

It turns out that the 2CV that I had agreed to sell in order to acquire the Aerosedan was still hiding out in the lockup I had around the corner from home. So Sunday evening (10 July), I grabbed the kids and we made our way to the lockup where I got my lad to help me roll the 2CV out of the lockup and took some pictures. Here you go, have a look!


Returning home, I spent an hour or more crafting a perfect listing for Ebay and then just as I'm about to list it, disaster, I lose everything.

After about 15 minutes of ranting to myself I decide to start again, and then in a roundabout way discover that Ebay had actually saved my work.



Phew!!!!

So I posted up the listing. Following that I popped downstairs to take some photos of a chassis I need to sell and returned upstairs to list it.

Hmm? What's this email from Ebay? Must be a hoax! My item has sold! Seems I either priced the 2CV too cheap, or I listed it at just the right time for the right buyer to see it. A lovely chap from up the road in the next town had spotted my listing within 23 minutes and hit that lovely BIN button. He gave me a ring later that evening and arranged to come around with cash the next night to collect.

Storage arrangements:

So on Monday 11 July, Geoff popped around to collect his purchase.

Ever seen a 0.6 litre 8 wheeled contraption?

Here you go:


Well, this meant that I had a lovely lockup all nice and empty, just waiting to be filled. It then occurred to me that I should double check the sizes, as obviously a '50's era American pickup is not going to be the same size as 2CV.

Tape measure out, let's see.

Width: 6 foot 6 inches

Height: 6 foot

Length: 15 foot

So onto the Internet to check out the dimensions of the 3600 pickup.

Width: 6 foot - tick

Height: 6 foot 6 inches - oops, ah, but we could let the air out of the tyres, or even put it on skates. - sorta tick

Length: 17 foot - curse word!!!

Ah well, a different plan needed, as I can't exactly lop 2 foot off the length of the thing.

Chatted with a friend and colleague (Luca) about this. He's a good friend who live with us for a number of years so knows SWMBO well. For this reason I had let him in on the secret. Luca volunteered the use of his drive for 3 months. He lives about 9 miles away which isn't too far, and combined with the fact that I recently acquired a trailer (see my signature for more details on my Aerosedan thread if your interested in why) this was a viable option, so reluctantly I've taken him up on his offer. He has double checked with his lady boss who has graciously agreed.

A quick update, so SWMBO is reading Facebook and comes across a picture of a friend/acquaintance/etc collecting her new Mustang. The car has a great big bow on it (something like the picture below).



Says SWMBO: "I've never gotten a car with a big bow on it!" - Stored in memory banks...

Makes you think doesn't it.  This and other comments, kept me on my toes!

26 July 2016 (The date the rest of this Post was actually written, not posted) - The ship's arrival:

You might recall that the shipping line's schedule said the ship would arrive on the 19th of July, which contradicted the date mentioned by Hill Shipping, they had said the 21st. As I monitored progress, I saw that the schedule updated to show that the ship would in fact be two days later and would dock in Southampton on the 21st as (correctly) advised by Hill Shipping on the original email. No bad thing, as this would mean 2 days less of sitting on Luca's drive.

Well, on Thursday the 21st, I got an email with the VAT invoice which I paid and was advised that the vehicle would probably be available for collection on Monday. In order to be proactive I lined up the transporter who would collect in Southampton and deliver to Surrey and asked Hill Shipping to liaise directly with him. So today (26 July) the transporter told me he was off to collect the pickup and would deliver it to Surrey tomorrow. Little did I realise that the lines of communication had gotten confused and he had not noted that I had said that Hill would contact him. I on the other hand assumed Hill had contacted him, so he made a trip to Southampton for nothing (which I've had to pay for).

At the time of writing I sit here wondering when the vehicle will eventually be released for collection...

Love it!

(And love that it sported twin plates on the rear - that'd confuse an ANPR machine methinks!)

Cheers

Matt

Impressive time no.

Looks like Hill Shipping know their business.

How does their pricing compare to other companies?

I am sure you had a spreadsheet on costs too, knowing you.

You are right about he license plates.....
Not safe around me.


Truck looks good though.

I suspect it worked all its life.

love it !!

those tyres are super hench, look like the old cross ply goodyear extra grip you used to get on land rovers

So many favourite things on one thread - definitely bookmarked!

Vented for sure.