Shipping a JDM to the states???
 

Guys

Do you know anyone who has etheir attempted to ship a vehicle or succesfully shipped a vehicle to the USA??

I think I found a way to do it..........but I want opinions.

I am considering taking the engine out and drive train......and ship as a parts car.

I heard you can ship engines in your household goods.

Personel property office (PPO) will not ship complete engines in household goods. we (Yokosuka Auto Hobby Shop) often help patrons break down piston engines for shipping, they need to have the head off at a minimum to go as parts.

sometimes the patrons prebox the engine/tranny and list the crate as tools and misc parts and it goes, but if you get caught by the PPO you will be lucky to get them to ship it later as they get kind of funny when you get caught sliding one by. as far as the body goes, you will have to ship it yourself unles you plan on sending it sans interior, front and rear crossmember wiring and all removable body panels, then you might be able to send it as a part or something, not sure I would want to try that unless you have permission first.

personally I think the best thing most 7 owners can do is strip the car for all of the parts they want to include the crossmember, steering rack, steering column, pedal set, wireing harness, AC/heater junk, dash etc, so that you can buy a shell and transplant it all. thats a guaranteed doable thing and a auto tranny 7 in the states is reasonable especially if the motor is blown.

kenn

I've never been able to ship as household goods, and I bring in parts a lot.
Take your car to Yamato Trans, strip it to a roller, no engine trans diff etc,
and they'll be able to send it as a parts. This is how I always do it, but my
wife works for Yamato Seattle, I don't know if that has anything to do with
anything. For a fee I can have this shipped here (Seattle) for you, if you
can get it down to a roller.

I that he wants to send it via personnel property, IE: US military member free shipping, but only as parts unless the car is shippable to the states already. the only way for a military member to ship an FD and get free shipping is as parts, but they would need to seperate the body from the engine, tranny, wirieng harness etc. and send all as parts, hence my suggestion to send just te required parts to convert an auto tranny LHD to a RHD with all of the parts.

kenn

You might want to look up the kazio skylines apparently they did the whole shipping engines, trannys, axels as parts and chassis as kit cars and are under investigation with ICE, EPA, DOT, and possibly the FBI thats if you're going that route. Importing a vehicle is way too hard these days. Not trying to be a downer, but it sucks when you hear about the gov seizing skylines because of importing issues.

To answer your question.

No there are strict rules by the epa and the dot preventing cars from being just brought into the states. They have pretty much filled in all the part out loop holes in the rules. If it's just and engine it's legal but a whole shell is not. Go on automotiveforums.com -> skyline -> united states section. There you will find all the rules and reg's on importing. There are a bunch of R.I.'s that can tell you what you can and can't do as far as the reg's go.

you're still able to get a shell but it has to be a wreck:(. I'm buying a wreck as a parts car.

Yea that's really about it. The reason why not to throw the blame but it really is, IS because of Fast and Furious. After the movie came out the everybody and their brother wanted some sort of import from Japan. The DOT got a billion letters asking to legalize them and I'm sure they still do, I'm sure by now who ever is in charge of accepting cars probably has a personal grudge against Imports.

Lastly a model has to be crashed 7 ways before it enters the us as a production street legal model. That mean's 7 individual cars. There also must be rebars and air-bags equipped as well as other structural braces. Then there's speedometer and other gauge calibration... that's just the beginning. Everything down to the blinker lenses has to be dot approved and stamped.

The only time it would ever seem probable and cost worthy to bring one is simply as a track car or as a kit car under the show car license (which limits you only to 2500 street driven mile's a year).

Lastly ~ To all you looking at this thread dreaming, keep dreaming and just wait... There is the 25 year rule and in Canada it's 15 years. Basically anything older then 25 years old doesn't have to meet almost any type of reg's. The insurance is illegible for classic as well, which is about 1/3 of the cost and 3x the payout if anything should happen.

Read and you will see...

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=339883

im currently talking and on a wait for a front fc3s clip without motor and tranny, theres no where i can inquire one myself beside going through a shop and getting over charged. all in all i really just need it for rhd parts incuding the firewall itself, pm me if someone can help me.


pedro.

Is it possible to ship cars to canada then drive them down to the states?

stillwouldnot be able to register it,which I think is the reason behind this thread.

kenn

You sir, are asking for a shitstorm of trouble. :(




PM'd, I have a few RHD conversions.

like what everyone else says, you might want to check out the skyline forums about the whole importing and the horror stories. one which involved someone importing to canada and trying to register it in the states. if you're willing to consider a rhd conversion. I'm getting mine done at a body shop called kansai motorsports. they've done a ton of them on civics integras and i believe 2 or 3 fds.