Pen2_the_penguin

iTrader: (4)

There I was, a couple hundred bucks short of my supra's goal, and a miata sitting there mocking me to fix it and stop being a bitch about it.

I refuse to let my grudge down on my miata taking a dump on me one summer day. However, I notice the hardtop being of monetary value to the miata world, and worth more than I feel the labor to fix the car was.

So I posted a sale thread.... twice; once in a wrong section and the other corrected to it's rightful place.

Soon enough a gay knight in shining armor sent funds to aid in the conquest of 700+ hp; with a commodity trade: Hardtop for monies.

However, I wasn't going to have a happy ending quite yet... I had to ship a hardtop to


CHARLETTE, NORTH CAROLINA





With little info online, and basically small old man textings on miata.net giving the only clue to how to ship; I took it upon myself to be the crusading hero in the how-to quest and create a reusable, reliable hardtop transport pallet, with pictures and stuff.
*Pen2 is logistics trained and certified by the USAF; hopefully so is greyhound shippingxpress.





Step 1:
Aquire pallet, straps, some form of tie down support(i.e.: Eye bolts, or in my case: truck bed tiedown points), scrap wood (my pallet was a little small), 4" wood screws, nails, blanket, foam insulation/padding or scrap large diameter rubber hose (like radiator tubing)



Step 2:
Pry off dead, brittle and rusty nails, replace one of two nails with bigger, better and badder nails




Step 3:
Use one of the removed nail bores to align the tie down point (its bad practice to tie a strap around the pallet or use a wood surface, it will loosen or perhaps break the strap.) at the far 4 corners or where ever feel the need to add a tiedown point



Screw in first screw, drill and/or screw second screw (drill to prevent splitting)


Step 3: using a board or whatever, build a support brace for front half of hard top


(impact driver died)


Next, add some rubber or foam padding at top of board, to prevent damage and cushion.


Step 4*: If needed, if your pallet isnt wide enough for the hardtop and you need to save height space (like for greyhound); build extended bumper/support. I used two hard pieces of wood from the protective frame on new windows before installation.



Be sure to test fit periodically


Step 5: Apply protective measures like blankets, and tart strapping, lots of loosening and re tightening to get it right. Add padding where needed on contact points and sharp angles.



Securely tuck away loose items.




I took the additive measure of supplying rope carry handles, mainly for me and the buyer.

Greyhound was the shipping company of choice, due to the lower fee and ship time. I will print out and label the shipment as fragile and glass; with 2" overhang at front, and 4" overhang on both sides. Informing through labels is as important as how its tied down.

Drop off at the station will be tomorrow.


Time to enjoy a feast made by the female unit.





























Titty Sprinkles.

Gryff

iTrader: (6)

Excellent post good sir 10/10. would read again, but only in Morgan Freemans voice.

kenzo42

iTrader: (6)

How much was shipping on that beast?

dk wolf

bahahaha, massive giant air force wings... I usually look at people in their trucks with that massive and sticker and think to myself "douche..."


However if it was on an iddy bitty miata... I could see someone trying really hard to show their tuff... lol


But anyway, dope write up... now I wonder if APO shipping will accept that. lol

18psi

iTrader: (76)

lolol

The best part, is I read this thread ENTIRELY in Morgan Freemans voice.

Gryff

iTrader: (6)

Even "titty sprinkles"?

18psi

iTrader: (76)

Yes, hearing Morgan say titty sprinkles was truly enlightening

Pen2_the_penguin

iTrader: (4)

except I do work on planes, flightline and drive stuff...

...mr. desk pilot.









As for shipping, I had to teach the bus dude over the phone how it was going to fit; I convinced the manager after the idiot that just gives tickets. I forgot the say that I designed the pallet construction to either be flat, or on its side. He bitched about having 30" depth (which is BS, 30" is not a lot a room, but whatever).


The pallet can safely hold the top vertically for transport just has long as the front end of the top is facing the sky, and the window is facing the ground, just as long as its netted, strapped or just secured using either the pallet itself, or the provided tie down points.

Shipping is estimated between 90-115 dollars.

We will see in the next few hours.
Im headed to greyhound.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

???

Pen2_the_penguin

iTrader: (4)

test fitting.

Pen2_the_penguin

iTrader: (4)

UPDATE: Shipping a hardtop cross country or just a couple states away?

In my opinion, DONT USE GREYHOUND.

Those fools are too clumsy for a hardtop.
After about an hour and a half arguing with the white collar on him being wrong with their own shipping policy, he finally got out the shipping guy from the back... this guy said my item was okay, but failed to yield to the "fragile" signs zip tied to it and almost dropped it front driver side latch into the ground during weighing it. After that fiasco I decided to not go with greyhound. My pallet is sound though, at 112 lbs. (annoying ---- manager wouldnt let 12 lbs. slide since I proved him wrong anyways).

The pallet is perfect though for normal transport in a trailer or truck, it is designed to able to lean front facing top and window facing ground for that reason.

Its really too bad greyhound hires careless ********; I thought they were cheap just because their buses suck and they have cheap travel fare... apparently they hire idiots for shipping too. I dont trust them with fragile items.

Pitlab77

iTrader: (3)

When I bought some seats on here they were shipped via Greyhound. Seller was great, kept me up to date, and did an awesome packing job.

Greyhound. Went way past their est. shipping date. Read almost 2 weeks. They could not use the "tracking" number. They claimed all it told them was where it started and where it would end. They could not give me any information or ETA. Pretty much call and check everyday or we will call you if you have not called us. It was a huge PITA. It finally got delivered when I was off on my honeymoon. I had to call my parents and ask them to pick it up for me because I was scared that they would end up damaged.

On top of that Greyhound is in an area in Downtown Houston where you feel unsafe. And that is saying a lot because it doesn't bother me being in some rough areas.

Pen2_the_penguin

iTrader: (4)

Our greyhound is just full of complete idiots than just shady riders and people who hang out there. Also, I would trust a seat made of plastic, aluminum, fiberglass or stock style than a hardtop with glass. I did feel unsafe leaving my truck and trailer there, im pretty sure some of the convicts that were getting home via greyhound knew how to boost a 1986 bronco.

dk wolf

Doesn't change the fact that most guys with those awesomely huge stickers are pretty toolish.

But I'm not passing judgement.
(just to be extremely clear.... I'm mildly talking **** to you because you are a maintainer, and you ------ ******* can hang)


Anyway... as for greyhound, I had to use them when I purchased a 82' trans for the porsche back in the day... horrible experience. I mean, yeah it was stupid cheap (like, 60 bucks back then IIRC) shipping from Michigan... I didn't get it until a mind numbing 6 weeks later. Customer service was pretty shitty, and it was just meh... but I mean, hey they got the job done. Can't comment on how they handled shipment in terms of fragile **** because you can't really bust a tranny like this that easily. *mind you, this is like 2008*

But I mean, it gets the job done, and it's cheap. So I'd probably do it again for **** that isn't time-sensitive.

Pen2_the_penguin

iTrader: (4)

My ******* parents are complete ********, and I need to really get my loan for my new house in february to complete a lot sooner.

THOSE DAMN DRONES SOLD MY ******* TOP.





So the moral of this story:
-Don't tell my parents that the item in their garage is "sold", because they will think its for "sale"

-Don't leave **** at my parents place. Period. **** goes missing or sold.

-Condos suck when you like cars, because to need somewhere to work on them... like my parent's nice 2 2-car garages of which I use mostly.

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.


Im going to go failflora un in my home, brb.
I ******* feel eighteen again, arguing with them over the phone.

skidude

iTrader: (3)

Wait, so you sold your hard top, collected money, but before you could actually get it shipped your parents sold it to somebody else? Wow. I hope they at least got a good price for it and your first buyer understands, but that is still a PITA. Good luck!

Pen2_the_penguin

iTrader: (4)

Fortunately, the buyer was very understandable and very friendly about the whole thing. I refunded his money and got 500 cash and not a dime missing or less from my parents, regardless if they sold if for less, which I have a feeling thats what happened.

skidude

iTrader: (3)

Ah, so your parents bought a hard top from you and sold it at a loss. Suckers!

Pen2_the_penguin

iTrader: (4)

you made my day that much better.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Well, at least you gave us some nice shipping instructions.