Lower ball joints

[MYBAD79]

Got them, Fedex delivered them this morning.

$200 for four ball joints incl FedEx shipping - now I'm impressed.....

when you go to Fedex.com and use their shipping calculator it's $150 to ship a box 12x6x6 11lbs from Florida to the Netherlands.

Business rates seem to be a LOT less....

 

[cajos1968]

Shipping International Priority $ 45.71 weight 6.8lbs

I think I had a good deal. When you are abroad price isn´t everything, shipping costs are also a big part.

I once had an alternator shipped for 39 usd, it was stuffed into a flat rate box with some bubble wrap. Always like it when sellers are creative like that. Big suppliers stuff too much air in the shipments, raising the cost unnecessarily.

 

[Twin_Turbo]

They do that so your stuff arrives unscaved. Sometimes it looks like they shoot it across the ocean. Better pay a little more and have usable stuff than cram it in a small box and end up with a box of broken pieces.

Karsten, how come you know shipping rates off the top of your head? Are you a professional shipper? LOL

 

[cajos1968]

Not completely true TT, I had boxes in boxes only containing bolts and nuts. Usually it is plain laziness. My friend has turned 5 boxes all coming from the same shipment into one before shipping it to me.

 

[mrvette]

Got them, Fedex delivered them this morning.

$200 for four ball joints incl FedEx shipping - now I'm impressed.....

when you go to Fedex.com and use their shipping calculator it's $150 to ship a box 12x6x6 11lbs from Florida to the Netherlands.

Business rates seem to be a LOT less....

Screw them delivery companies for overseas work...i'ts USPS or forgetaboutit....

 

[Twin_Turbo]

Not completely true TT, I had boxes in boxes only containing bolts and nuts. Usually it is plain laziness. My friend has turned 5 boxes all coming from the same shipment into one before shipping it to me.

That's not lazyness, that's the order picker doing his/her job. You really don't think they are going to sit down and unpack everything so they can cram it all in a smaller box to save you a dime on shipping?

 

[MYBAD79]

The bigger companies like Summit or Jegs seem to have only a few box sizes, if the item is much smaller than the box they just add bubble wrap. No big deal within the US but when it comes to intl. shipping it becomes expensive.... Intl shipping is nothing but a pain in the rear for them anyways... they have to fill out custom forms and are responsible for the correctness of their values...

So did they ship USPS or FedEX ?? If they can ship FedEx intl for under $50 then FedEx is really ripping us individuals off big time...

FedEx shipping calculator says it's $133 to ship a box 6x8x5 6.8lbs from here to you....

 

[cajos1968]

Mybad, brace your self, . . . . . .. . . . .. That is the box 6x6x12 6.5lbs !!! So cooperate vs individual almost 100 usd difference!! My friend in NC, ships everything for me with USPS, 200 usd difference for rockerpanels compared to sending from Ecklers or "the parts lady"!! Willcox is good with shipments, they are going the extra length. I'm in the market for Vintage air or Hot rod air, but shipment is killing, I had quotes from around 500 usd for shipment!! Willcox is 200 usd. With free shipping sales they also compensate international buyers same as Speed direct and VPandB.

Jegs and Summit are the worst, handling fee wtf is that all about!! Couple of dowel pins 9 usd handling fee, guess someone had to pay for a couple of new sneakers to go and fetch them at the back off that big warehouse!!

Then there is tax and duty!!

Keisler was good in that department, they mentioned their value instead of commercial value. Aussies are perfect they simply adjust the invoice on request.

But don't get me started ;-)


Hey TT; Sendung mit der Maus. Brings back memories.

 

[mrvette]

I feel sorry for you guys over on that side, besides paying for crazy shipping rates much less crappy service 1/2 the time, you get insulted by import bullshit fees of one type or another.....

takes a fair dedication to have interest in American cars & performance on your side.....

I have sent a couple parts here and there, but always used USPS as it was less than 1/2 the rate of others, and then some trick over the import fees...I think...

:banghead:

 

[cajos1968]

I feel sorry for you guys over on that side, besides paying for crazy shipping rates much less crappy service 1/2 the time, you get insulted by import bullshit fees of one type or another.....

takes a fair dedication to have interest in American cars & performance on your side.....

I have sent a couple parts here and there, but always used USPS as it was less than 1/2 the rate of others, and then some trick over the import fees...I think...

:banghead:

hey hey, you forget the Free shipping exclusions ;-) or something simple like only having metric nuts & bolts or tools laying around. It is hard to build maintain an American car abroad.

Thanks for your sympathy.

 

[1Michel]

I was talking with a guy in France and for some shipments he uses BAX intl.
Could be another alternative for shipping overseas.

 

[mrvette]

I feel sorry for you guys over on that side, besides paying for crazy shipping rates much less crappy service 1/2 the time, you get insulted by import bullshit fees of one type or another.....

takes a fair dedication to have interest in American cars & performance on your side.....

I have sent a couple parts here and there, but always used USPS as it was less than 1/2 the rate of others, and then some trick over the import fees...I think...

:banghead:

hey hey, you forget the Free shipping exclusions ;-) or something simple like only having metric nuts & bolts or tools laying around. It is hard to build maintain an American car abroad.

Thanks for your sympathy.

OH, you talk about nutz and bolts laying around.....I have my collections more or less organized between sizes...about 4 large drawers of them, I remember cleaning out my folks house in '92, and discovering my old boxes of parts, nutz, bolts, crap from cars, electronics, whatever dating from elementary school even....

the gas statiion we all hung around at had this bolts drawer, like any shop, it was the source or most of the fasteners and kept the shop alive....the owner passed away, and the son took it over, and tossed the bolt drawer into the dumpster, and no one could understand why.....it about stopped the repairs there as every time needed a bolt/nut, there were none, had to go buy it....lovely....

I got enough nutz and bolts to sink a battleship.....:banned:

 

[cajos1968]

Lucky bastard ;-). Picture this, organizing some friends for a Friday night to remove a BB from a freshly painted yellow vette. Having disconnected everything, ready to slap on a crane and balance only to find out there are no bolts around to secure the balance to the engine block. Luckily the Dutch language has 3 million words for situations like these that offer some relief when spoken out loud ;-). A neighboring workshop heard this cascade of ancient holy words, they came to take a look. Turned out they had an old Firebird standing around and they made an appropriate donation. Saved the day/night

BAX is great I had some dealings with them, problem is that most of the sellers don't want to go through the hassle of ordering in a special shipper. I think I had stuff from DeWitts in through them.

 

[mrvette]

Lucky bastard ;-). Picture this, organizing some friends for a Friday night to remove a BB from a freshly painted yellow vette. Having disconnected everything, ready to slap on a crane and balance only to find out there are no bolts around to secure the balance to the engine block. Luckily the Dutch language has 3 million words for situations like these that offer some relief when spoken out loud ;-). A neighboring workshop heard this cascade of ancient holy words, they came to take a look. Turned out they had an old Firebird standing around and they made an appropriate donation. Saved the day/night

BAX is great I had some dealings with them, problem is that most of the sellers don't want to go through the hassle of ordering in a special shipper. I think I had stuff from DeWitts in through them.

:gurney::rofl::rofl:

MORE than ONE Mutsobitchy bolt on my cars too....bet on that, I have the vette, a Dodge Van, and a Ford Escort in the fleet now, and so there is NO brand loyalty among bolts....nutz either.....if it fits screw it....:hunter:

 

[cajos1968]

Finally had the time and stuff to finish the lower a-arms.


I have to admit this is a crappy job. A bit harder then I thought it would be
First issue I had was that the outer sleeve was ending up against the inner part of the a-arm instead of going through the hole. I ended up opening the hole a little.





Another issue was the left and right bolt holes did not line up with the baljoint holes, some slight tapping with a hammer fixed that



As a press I used a 10ton hydraulic jack. Worked okay, but an extra set of hands would have made the job a lot easier.