Vintage American Steel Leaving The U.S.

Seriously though , Almost all of these vehicles will be destined for countries with MUCH tougher registration laws .....
And are bought buy people with the balls , dedication and patience to make an international purchase ....
Which in the end , must equate to less poorly engineered " shock rods " and last but not least HOODLUMS WORLDWIDE ....

 

i sent a merc to sweden.....

Spreading the gospel of traditional hot rods and customs to hoodlums WORLD WIDE...

 

My 59 Apache's on it's way to Japan.

 

Yup, Australia too, the cost of gettin' 'em here is worth it anyhow and when they gat here they are loved and pampered but most importantly used as designed.

A good example I see regularly on the roads around my neigbourhood is the one and only Coddingtom Built Vern Luce Coupe. Whe it arrived it had not seen many troad miles at al. It is now 100% street legal (even has cycle fenders) and is driven as much as possible by it's owner. The cost of aquisition, import, compliance etc, would blow you guys away. Does the owner care? Nope, he always loved that car and as soon as it came on the market he sacrificed whatever he had to in order to get it.

Point being that nothin comes here if there aint someone to love, nurture and drive the sucker.

 

When you stop to think about all of the extra trouble and expense that foreign buyers must go though to get old US cars, it leaves very little room for doubts as to their intentions or dedication to the cars. How many of us here would have the cars if we had to go through that much hassle? Cruise safe and enjoy them, whichever side of whichever pond you're on.

Damn, Carps posted my exact thoughts while I was typing!

 

It does go both ways.

There's quite a significant number of Aussie Utes been shipped to the US in recent times.

Deuce Customs was making Boydster bodies for Coddington and many of Ken's regular line of ultra high quality bodies have been shipped to the Us.

In fact we've been losing cars to the 'States since cocky was an egg. Back in the late 60s early '70s it seemed every deuce Roadster or Phaeton was loaded on a boat bound for Long Beach. Dick Scritchfields famous '32 Tub is one of those cars.

 

This has been going on for years and in both directions, so what's the problem?

In the 1970s I had friends buying Rolls Royces out of the UK and shipping them to SoCal, in the '90s, the Japanese were buying restored Jags and Minis from New Zealand and the Swedes, Finns and others were buying up Detroit Iron, stateside for as long as I can remember (and I have a long memory!).

I agree with fbama's comments about the dedication of foreign buyers (and I guess after 29 years of living overseas, I qualify to be one - I brought my '64 with me when I moved to NZ in '81). Isn't it cool that we have a global hobby?

 

Funny some of the very best historic HAMB style cars I've ever seen have been in England. The guys in the UK and in Europe were much more hip to, and reverential of, historic rodding before it became a "mainstream" thing over here again. I'd rather see a guy in Sweden or England or Belgium building a lovely trad style car out of an imported model A than a guy over here turning it into some garish gross pastel colored street rod POS. Just my two cents worth. I just sold my 1950 Hudson Super 8 Club Coupe to a guy in Australia, he is a Hudson nut and a deserving buyer of the car (plus Hudson exported to them in the 50's so I am too).

 

I remember in the late 70s when you laughed at us
stupid swedes that bougt such ugly cars as 58 impalas
and other ugly late 50s cars that was hard to give away
for free.And ship a 3five chevy halfway around the world
????????stuuuuupid
and we was so stupid that we bougt Hemi cars during
the fuel crisis

 

Guilty, remember one thing guys it is very expensive to import any old US iron here, shipping, duty etc, for projects as a rule of thumb, your price, double it then use that as a conservative (low) estimate in Pounds Sterling. We must like US cars trucks over here to have imported so many.

 

Sold 2 to Australia, 1 to England, 1 to Sweden. It's part of a one world hot rod conspiracy to undermine the American hot rodder and get our women. Either that or it's people that appreciate cars for what they are. What difference does it make where they live or is just something else to whine about?????

 

So are you going to go around and buy every old car so they stay in America?

No?

Then let them go to someone that will, after all the effort to ship them around the world, probably look after them better than you could imagine.

If i hadn't bought my A model, it would still be sitting somewhere decaying.
It was for sale for a while, No-one wanted it.

 

For someone to go to that much trouble and expense to import a car, I think that means it's going to a good home.

Our foreign cousins here on the HAMB seem pretty cool to me, why shouldn't we sell them anything they want to pay for?

 

If there was a problem with the supply of cars drying up in the US, the prices would be driven way up....I recently bought a 32 roadster from the States...it had been for sale for quite a long time and had gone through ebay twice without selling....It was originally from South America and had been imported into the States, so I guess it goes both ways.

The way our £ is at the moment, I would not be surprised to see cars starting to go back "home".....the Rudy Rodriguez primered roadster is on it`s way back to you I believe already...

..And remember, a lot of classis American cars are shipped overseas every day...in little pieces, all the way to China!the only way you`ll see them again is in some different form with a little gold sticker on it.

 

I could nearly cry every day when I see my dream cars in american scrap yards for like £1k. but I cant buy them because then Id have to import all the parts for it too =/
so that leaves me having to buy running cars at higher prices + import.

plus american cars here would be, starting from the ranges of £5-£10k upwards for something that needs work.

dont forget the exchange rate, £1 pound = $1.51usd atm.

 

I would love to see pictures of this warehouses! I bought my Merc(Made in Canada and shipped here in the 50's) here in Brazil but I would be glad buying some of your American Steel...Sorry man!

 

It kinda bothered me at first, then I tried sell something and got dicked around to much here. The overseas folks pay you whats is worth, and guys I have delt with are really cool and really want the ride for themselves

 

And lets not forget that exporting classic iron is directly employing thousands of Americans!!! Add to this the jobs in the manufacture and sale of all those quality made in the USA speed and reporoduction parts!!!

The export market has saved many more cars from the Chinese smelters than have been exported to foreign lands by boosting market prices... Myself and many friends have imported cars that I dare say most Americans would not touch but we're more than happy to take the sloppy seconds... You guys get a good price for your cancer classics, and we're more than happy to build them... Supply and demand baby... But I quess boring economic boohaa is best kept for zerohedge ;-)...

 

Interesting that I have a friend here in the UK with a real nice Willys Gasser for sale
he has had a number of very interested potential buyers from the US but they are paranoid about sending him the money so he still has the car.
In Europe we seem to be more trusting maybe a bad thing, but we are usually happy to send $$$000's to a seller in the US then wait 6, 8 or 12 weeks for our dream project or ride to arrive. Also plenty of the top European exotics end up bieng shipped to the US to be sold at auction, many of these cars are far rarer and produced in much lower numbers than all the A's, B's Mustangs and Camaro's that are bieng shipped out of the US so it works both ways.
Rich

 

It is Ok to me and i am not concerned

 

+1

Honestly, why would you care? Do realize how many cars we have lying around in this country that are just sitting (and sometimes rotting). Somebody putting them to use is a good thing.

 

I guess we better get all those phaetons and roadsters back from the US too. And the utes. And Falcon coupes.

 

Someone said that he is seen one car shipped dozen of times back and forth to US and Europe .I would be more concern all the vintage steel being still crushed in US then cars leaving, at least they will be saved/restored and may be even get shipped back to US someday.

 

If the price is right I'd sell over seas...

It's nice to see Old Iron around the world!

 

The way I look at it. When we get done allowing our government to wreck this country, the only remaining examples of great American iron will probably be those that are overseas. Ship as many of them out as possible so they can be preserved!

 

I just sold Rusty Olds, my other 1947 Oldsmobile convertible to a very cool guy in Queensland, Australia. The car is enroute over the open sea right now. I'm really looking forward to watching the build process and will one day go over there to see the completed car in person.

 

1. there are currently 1000's of hot rods and American classics in warehouses waiting to be shipped overseas? I'd like to know more about that "fact"...please tell us how you know this "fact".

2. So, you are one of those people who'd like to take away my right to sell anything to anyone of my choosing?

3. So, if I could sell my rod in the U.S. for $50K and someone in Japan wanted to pay me $70K, please tell me why I should lose the $20K to keep it here.

 

OOOOOOH! automotive xenophobia!!
How many of us foreigners over the years have saved kool cars in waiting from ending up in US junkyards and lovingly given them a new lease of life ?

 

1. It must be a comfortable position to dictate weather or not you sell a car according to it's final geographic destination.

2. If you've decided to part with it for X amount, then said amount should leave you just as warm and fuzzy if it came from Joe next door, or Sven across the pond.

...I sent my 64 Impala to Sweden last fall.

 

Are you kidding?

It seems that classic cars and hotrods are being pulled out of barns on a weekly basis over there. If I hear "i just pulled this original 50s hotrod out of a barn, built by hand from the best speed parts of the era" I'm gonna fuckin scream

The abundance of parts, cars and history never ceases to amaze me. Even the piece of shit rusting in some guys front yard that he wil re-build "one day" would do me.
Get onto egay .au and type in a few classic brands and see what comes up...And you will see why we are shipping from a well that won't run dry..ever.