Does anyone have a freight company they can recommend? I checked out Fedex freight today and they're out of their mind when it comes to pricing. Thanks
I had a large box of 2 rear fenders a grill and other misc things that I shipped from Seattle to Southern Cal by greyhound for a reasonable price.
Thanks for the quick replies, Fastenal store near me doesn't ship, the two greyhound terminal near me that ship you'd be taking your life in your hands literally going to either one. As far as what I am looking to have shipped, two front fenders two rear fenders and a hood for my 49 Plymouth coupe if I found a coupe decklid one of those too if not I'll repair mine
Fastenal would require the sheet metal to be boxed for starters. There are many Fastenal stores perhaps another nearby that can ship for you. Call there LTL division and ask them to verify the shipping locations. The contact info is on their website under services.
How far away from Fishkill, New York are you? My '38 Ford Hood & front fenders were shipped to the Fastenal store there. Big boxes won't ship to every Fastenal store. The 45 minute drive was worth it for me. Bob
Thanks I am about 2 and a half hours from Fishkill NY thats doable, I found a set in southern Maryland too but the guy is dragging his feet. He is obviously not in as much of a rush to sell them as I am to buy them....lol. I reached out to Fastenal and I'll call Monday thanks again
I sympathize, but I think you are thinking inside the wrong box. Your stuff is big and bulky, but not terribly heavy for its size and sheet metal is easily damaged. If I am a shipper like FedEx, I am thinking how many standard cartons I can ship in the space your stuff would take up-and I'd charge you an amount that's at least equal to that-maybe 40-50 boxes?-so that's pretty high. Buses aren't really set up to ship that stuff, either,even if it would fit. They don't usually staff their terminals with enough manpower to handle those bulky items. Again, I'd charge you for the extra service. Have you checked with the HAMB haulers-Bill's Auto Works or BenD, etc. in the HAMB-O-Dex? You could also check with some place like U-ship and get space on an unfilled truck. They are set up at trucking terminals to handle your items. There are also a ton of auto specialized haulers you could contact-they advertise monthly in Hemmings. And, of course, you could talk to the haulers if you go to Hershey in two weeks.
Bus shipping is 100 lb limit (everything is handled by hand) From the web site The maximum weight per package is 100 pounds. The maximum dimensions that we can accommodate are 29" H x 47" W x 82" L. I shipped a 51 Mercury coupe door to New Jersey with them a few years ago. Shipped a 54 Chevy pickup fender to a kid on here who wrecked his pickup the first day he had it a while back too. A stiff box from the furniture store and lots of Styrofoam pieces for padding works well when shipping with them. Good hand holds on the box keep them happy too. Through regular freight companies if you get the shipper to take it to the freight company's dock and you pick it up at the local freight dock it saves some bucks over having it delivered. Or even if you have it delivered to a commercial address it saves over residential aka home delivery.
My company sends freight all the time and I get our discounts through them for my car parts but as mentioned above its cheapest to send from dock to dock. Usually about a extra $100 for pickup from residential that needs a lift gate truck and its the same on drop off. Freight companies don't care about how big the box is. They charge you by the weight or cubic foot which ever is greater. They also have a fuel surcharge they will hit you with and if you need to be called its another charge. If its not boxed or crated and they see oil or grease that's a hazardous materials charge. It can all start adding up pretty fast. If they loose the parts they are only liable for about $2.00 pound unless you get the additional insurance. I have had both UPS Freight and FedEx Freight loose big boxes (crated engines) and find them weeks later. If you use a consolidator like Roadrunner it will be cheaper but plan on about 3 weeks for delivery.
Find a "safer" Greyhound within a reasonable drive from you, or do what I do when picking up at the slummy terminal; Drive right around back where the buses load and load your parcels there. Takes less than 5 minutes. If you're willing to drive 2.5 hours to the Fastenal in NY (and pay for shipping), why not just make the drive to southern Maryland? Even if it's 5-6 hours each way, you could hammer it out in a Saturday or Sunday, especially if you took a buddy along to share the driving. Spend the shipping money on gas. Leave at 4:00 or 5:00 AM under traffic. Arrive before lunch. Be home before dark. 49 Plymouth sheet metal doesn't grow on trees and the drive may be what it takes to get the parts. One other plus is that you won't have to worry about your parts getting lost or damaged in transit.
I agree that going to get them might be the best option-you see the parts before your bring them home, more likely they'd get there safely, etc. But, you do need to weight the cost of crating and shipping with driving and don't forget-time,insurance, depreciation on the vehicle, wear on the tires, oil and gas. Federal rate is about 53.5cents per miles so a 600 mile round trip would cost you 300 dollars or so. Theoretically. Plus your time.
Fastenal pricing is reasonable but make sure the item is packed well,A good friend bought a hood just to get the rare hard to find emblem on the nose if the hood,Fastenal dropped it of the truck square on the nose and shatter the emblem. HRP
Just me, but I am for driving the 6 hours to see what the almost-70-year-old sheetmetal you want to buy looks like. Assuming you have the time to do so. If you want the safest shipping, I vote for one of the folks on here that do that. Nothing against Greyhound or Fastenal, but handling classic car sheetmetal is not their main business. That being said, I probably would not be afraid to use them, but I also would not be shocked if something got damaged by shipping it with them. 200.00 to ship a front clip halfway across the country is a good deal. I cant get that good a deal from Salt Lake to here, and that distance is under 200 miles.
post specifically where you are trying to get it from and to. With Hershey coming up, you may find one person to take it there and one to bring it close. Or just go to Hershey and pick it up.
I recently sold one of my Muncie 319, 3 speed/overdrive transmissions. It had to go, more-or-less, from one side of the country to the other. I could't believe how much $$$ the various shippers wanted. Greyhound's limit is 100 lbs, so they were out; Fastenal was a lot more than I thought it would be at $210.00; I did't even look into FedEx because they normally charge more than UPS; and UPS was $211.00. My buyer got a better deal with UPS through his work, and it saved him about $100.00, so it went via UPS. It wound up costing just as much to ship it as to what I sold it for, and the amount of time/effort it took me, I did't really make anything from the sale. I built a heavy duty 5/8" plywood box with a 2 X 4 interior skeletal structure, and wooden supports for the transmission to rest on; then I used some pretty tough rubber straps screwed to the 2 X 4's. There were rope "handles" at each end, and the box was marked "this end up" in several places; there were also some "skids" on the bottom of the box. I thought it would be pretty hard to damage the box, but the UPS grilla'so were out to prove me wrong! The bakelite cover on the solenoid was broken somehow, and although the box was torn up a bit, it actually held up very well against the gorilla's. If there's ANY way to deliver an item yourself, have the buyer pick it up, or even meet the buyer at some half-way point, that's what I would do. In my case, the buyer was willing to send my box back to me, and on his dime (thanks again!!!), because I still have another Muncie 319 for sale. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Thank you for the recommendation 5 Window! Had the O.P. posted to & from locations, I may have been able to help as I am delivering a Pontiac in New Jersey Monday morning...Probably too late now. Bill Squires Bill's Auto Works
I have had Bill do several jobs for me and customers they were cars and frames and I have been very satisfied with his work.
The Jalopy Journal
