Yikes!!! those shipping costs are scary

[Patty and Bob Couse-Baker <c-b@pacbell.net>]

Dear T-3 List:

I did a little research and discovered why Bill and Steve’s won’t ship
sheet metal.  I though they were just being schmucks. But there's
different reason (or perhaps a second reason) -- if the part is too big
to send UPS, the shipping cost quickly exceeds the value of the part.

It seems the T-3 sheet metal I had for sale here in California (of which
I placed little value) is in great demand elsewhere on the planet.
Shipping the little stuff has been easy, the big stuff not so.

Here are estimates (from the lowest bidder) for shipping and crating of
a couple of selected Volkswagen parts:

*** Late Squareback fender, shipping to Montana $80, crating $40, for a
total of $120 (I was asking $40 for the fender).

*** Late T-3 hood, shipping to Florida $190, crating $50, for a total of
$240 (I was asking $25 for the hood)

I had my own nightmare experience with Bill and Steve’s trying to get a
Notch trunklid (notch-lid? Or just notch?). Trust me, when they say they
WON’T ship sheet metal, they mean it. I did eventually get my decklid,
but it took a friend of a friend of a friend, two false starts and about
a month of finagling, but I finally got the decklid brought up to
Sacramento from LA -- for a small and nominal fee. I think Bill and
Steve’s finally took pity on me and helped facilitate the "shipment." Be
that as it may, the situation is not so easy for people that live in at
the distant ends of the earth, like Montana, Florida or France.

I know there are solutions out there, I just don't know what they are.
Inovations in Fiberglass ships front fenders UPS, but it may be that a
fiberglass part requires a lot less packing material than a comparible
steel part.

If anyone has any ideas of how to help get these people the parts they
need? For example, is anyone on the list thinking of going cross country
in a T-2 any time soon. Suggestions solicited.

-- Bob Couse-Baker
   ’64 Notch (about six weeks away from painting, hopefully running by
Spring 98)