Friend in New Zealand
 

Just had a call from my friend Willis in Hastings, New Zealand again. 2pm Saturday is 7am Sunday in NZ. I sold him a complete set of new wood for a 46 Ford woodie. I also sent him some maple boards to finish up the woodwork. Didn't know it was 46 wood at first and 41 and 46 are different. I have a 41 woodie needing new wood. The wood fitment needs some work to make it fit great. I sent Willis dozens of high res pictures to make sure he knew what work was required on the fitment before he sent me the money. I went to great lengths to make sure he knew what he was getting into. Not like he lives next door and can see the stuff in person! Biggest weakness was in the joinery of the doors not being mortised. However he can make the doors solid by joining them with a domino mortising machine. He has already lined up a guy with a domino joiner to do that part of the work. I decided not to do the wood work myself and am having Ron Heiden build the wood for my 41. The latest shipment was 7 large boxes weighing around 1,000 lbs. I also slipped in parts I sold to two other Kiwis and Willis re-shipped them saving both him and the others money on shipping.

I first shipped out the boxes to Kiwi Shipping of Los Angeles and they sent it on to New Zealand in a container. Willis said it cost around $1,400 to get the 1,000 lbs to NZ. Sounds like a bargain to me. Took a couple months to get from my house to his.

My 41:
https://mrtexascitrus.weebly.com/41woodie.html

Domino mortiser:
https://www.festoolproducts.com/fest...iABEgI6LfD_BwE

Re: Friend in New Zealand
 

Kiwi shipping are great people to deal with they work in with the Mainfreight group. Steve Curle who runs the outfit is an ex pat Kiwi and real obliging to deal with. In 2009/2010 I imported a 641/2 mustang from the West Coast Steve couldn't be more helpful and as you say the price was bargain when it came to shipping.

GB

Re: Friend in New Zealand
 

I have used Kiwi Shipping on many occasions to ship cars and parts.
Never a problem - always helpful and reasonable rates.
Chris.NZ.
New Zealand.
Haven't been to Sugarland TX, but spent some time first in Odessa in '83, then Kilgore and Longview, back in the late 80's.

Re: Friend in New Zealand
 

I had used Kiwi Shipping for several cars without too many problems, but when they tore the headliner of my '61 Mercury by putting a box of parts (for another person) on the front seat and then charged me $700 to ship a '42 hood from California that was delivered to them by a friend of mine, this I found excessive and so will not be using them again.

Re: Friend in New Zealand
 

Just curious, but don't most shippers have insurance to cover incidents such as your headliner? Sometimes things happen and that's why there is insurance. If they had insurance did it cover the headliner repair? If the repair was covered you should be giving them credit for taking care of the damage. The $700 to ship the hood may or may not be excessive. The question is could you have come to the US and picked it up for $700?

Re: Friend in New Zealand
 

Regarding the headliner, firstly they tried to deny it even happened in their care, but luckily I had extensive high quality photos to prove my case. They eventually agreed to put it right but the whole process took over 12 months to resolve. My current US parts shipper charged me @ $150 to ship another '42 Hood. At the time $700 was about half the freight component for a complete car, which makes me wonder if Kiwi Shipping were trying to recoup some of the cost of having to replace the headliner???

Re: Friend in New Zealand
 

thanks for the info. It's now easier to understand your frustration with the shipper.

Re: Friend in New Zealand
 

Steve Curle sold the company many years ago to main freight who in turn got very greedy. I shipped a box that was about 10 in by 4 in and under a kilo and was charged $ 280 for it. I'm glad to hear that Steve has taken control of kiwi shipping again and it is still in mainfreights premises

Re: Friend in New Zealand
 

Beautiful wood work on that ‘41!
I wish I could do that kinda stuff, if so I’d be working on this;

Re: Friend in New Zealand
 

Wow, now that's a project, looks like it would keep someone busy for a long time.