GRIZZ’s ‘79 - 2WD BLAZER Challenge over in London, England. “~It’s not a Project~”

[Grizz1963]

Well.....

What does $80.00 buy you??

Dinner at Harry J’s.

Half a trolley of burgers n fries at Walmart.

Or 36 gallons of Fossil fuel for the Blazer in St Louis, Missouri this week.




Or if you are Dennis Jones in St Louis, then postage to the U.K. for some shackles for the Blazer.



Unpacked and a quick Catscan......

Approved.



Also included were some Disabled plates for my collection from Dennis and some of @CraigRK ‘s Coke purchases that were delivered after we departed the USA in September.



So what have we got for the Blazer this week?




Just a trim, bit off the sides and then a two inch drop in the rear.

Lovely pieces of kit.

Grinder and wrenches at the ready.




Hard to see on some pics, but here the same rake on both pics, and pic no 1shows the real state of the nation.



So trust me, the 2 inches will be just right, thanks to @PaulY





More when the sparks have flown.

Roll on weekend.

[Grizz1963]

.




I guess something to add in at this point for those of you in the USA who build and restore trucks is a bit of perspective.


The two lowering shackles above will cost you $75.00 in the USA from LMC including shipping

Not too bad I hear you say.


But if you are in the U.K. the price of a build changes dramatically.


Add in the $80.00 in shipping or postage that you saw above and the cost has now doubled.



However, if you ship over parts, you have to add in a Customs declaration to value the items. (Thankfully these were used parts)

Once the parcel lands in England, the Post Office then charges a $10.00 handling fee, and the Revenue service add in Import duty that is raised against the cost of the item, the shipping and the taxes you paid on them before.......

So you could look at trebling the outset cost of an item.

So a $100.00 item shipped can end up costing an easy $300.00


And yet we keep doing this stuff.


Which is why we carry parts when we visit America in stead of clothes, why I have left two pairs of shoes at Dennis in St Louis and clothes etc.

Looking forward to working on the Blazer tomorrow.

[Grizz1963]

Real life example.

My mate Martin is restoring a 65 C10 Truck.

He needed a inner floor sill for his cab.


Easy, cheap part........

Cost in English Pounds.

Part: £31.20
International Shipping £130.17
U.K. VAT £32.28
Final landed costin the U.K. £193.65

So in American Dollar Part cost $40.00 final price $250.00

Crazy?

Maybe.

[Grizz1963]

Of course there is the matter of the long weekend in America



Last night after 10pm my one neighbour brought a parcel around.

From Ernie “PedalcarJoe” it had me laughing again, that is twice this week.

Basically for the Blazer as it seems to have a bit of a bruiser look about it, and in all white looks a bit like the Stormtroopers from Star Trek.

Harley of course has to do her inspection, weird cat.



On the way home tonight I had to fill up my car, prices are a bit higher than those in the USA



In other news from the USA, Clem Johnson of Tubatrucks.com had send Dennis an old gas station driveway forecourt bell earlier this week.


Started out like this.





And after doing his magic.........






And earlier today, Dennis sent a pic of it mounted on the side of the replica gas station.




Looking forward to tomorrow.