Shipping of 911 Parts (large)?

[MotoSook]

Gang, I need some opinions on shipping large parts. Fenders and hood. From California to Chicago, IL suburb.

What's the best way? I need low cost, but safe so as to prevent damaging the sheet metal.

Help Please.

TIA,

[Kemo]

believe it or not...I "heard" that Greyhound will ship cheap. I am interested in finding out myself a cheap way to ship.

[MotoSook]

Yeah, I thought I saw that somewhere too, but I don't know how safe the parts will be. My parts bouncing around on a Greyhound bus somewhere...I'll never be able to sleep.

[awis321]

I received parts from Cali via Greyhound--seller basically wrapped rearseat assembly in cardboard and packaging tape. The only issues I had was... I had to pickup the parts in a Greyhound 'station' in Joliet, IL. I use the word station loosely since it was nothing more than a frontdesk of what seemed to be a halfway house. Also, the seller provide me with a tracking number which didn't seem to mean anything to the lady behind the counter. I basically had to call every so often to see if I had any packages.

[steve911]

Souk-
for large items, I've found Fedex Ground to be very good. The key is packaging up the items so you don't damage them - you may want to consider a box within a box for some items to provide extra protection.

Whether its Fedex Ground, Parcel Post or another shipper, sometimes even though an item is not that heavy, you end up paying up due to perceived 'bulk' - ie large size takes up space, so they shipping company charges more. I shipped a rear interior deck - only weighed 14 lbs, but cost me $30 (a similar weighted small package would have been less than half that).

You can get an idea of shipping charges by going directly to the fedex site and putting in weight and box dimensions.

hope this helps.

[Wavey]

Hey Souk -

I've been using FedEx Ground for some big stuff too - the price is right and the service is excellent. Of course as with any shipper the parts have to be well protected.

[47silver]

74911S shipped 2 fenders to pittsburgh to calif and they came in large porsche fender boxes. maybe try the porsche dealer and see if you can scoop some boxes.

[dean]

Make sure the seller knows how to package the part. A 3" min. space between the part and the box.

[rick conrath]

I had a c2 kit which is quite large and heavy shipped to me via Greyhound. It was around $70 and arrived perfect. They put the items in the baggage bays with the luggage, so it's not that risky. fed-ex is also very cheap, but has some size restrictions.

Rick '78 930

[ruf-porsche]

You can always try a freight service.; Brought a 50" plasma screen tv over the net, and it was shipped throught a freight company. It was placed on a pallet and it had tip over sensors (ink sensor) to tell if the tv was shipped on it side. It arrived safe.

Brought a used trans for one of my Lotus and that was also shipped by freight. The ladies in the receiving room of our condo thought that I was putting a car together in our condo (just because I had a set of cosmic wheels and a set of pirelli P7 tire ship to me).

Sent a used Lotus frame by truck to some guy in California by freight. Freight is usually the cheapest way the secret to it arriving safely is packing it correctly.

[MotoSook]

Wow, thanks so much for all your input guys. I think I may have found a safe way to do this via a friend of mine who is a local parts dealer.

All the tips above are all very good tips. I hope this thread will help those buying and selling parts in the future.

Keep them coming. THis will be good to have in the archive.

Thanks again!

[JWest]

I have used Greyhound and Amtrac for body parts - works great if you (and the recipient) are at a major location where they have stations.

Very cheap and I had no problems.

[RickM]

A tip for packing materials on the cheap. If you need to protect parts such as wheels or other dentable goods....go to Home Depot any buy the 4'x8' sheets of foam insulation. Cut it up to line your box. Also, try a bodyshop in your area for the big boxes.