US imports, Salvage certificates, SVA, Q plates, etc, etc, etc

[DodgeRover]

Actually is California one of the States where they had stopped all exports due to the potential for the new titles to be used to track down illegals then deport them or some such crap? 

[dieselnutjob]

I think that the point of a California Salvage Certificate is that it does prove that you actually own the vehicle, they just won't give you the title until you repair it. I wonder what would happen if someone out of state bought it and challenged the DMV in court? 

[Lord Sterling]

7 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

Is anybody able to translate and ask questions about this for me, mainly why it is spares export only

It doesn't explain on there why the van is dealer or export only. Possibly because it doesn't meet tough new regs in Belgium. The dealer speaks English so lob a message his way and see what he says. Below is literally all it says:

Technical specifications

FORD E 150 ECONOLINE CLUB WAGON
Commercial vehicle
5 seats
Dealer or export only
LPG + PETROL
Sold as seen

 

price

€ 2,900

category

Other vans / trucks up to 7.5 t

Availability

In 1 day from order

Mileage

450,374 km

Displacement

5,408 cc

power

187 kW (254 hp)

Fuel type

Other

Number of seats

5

transmission

Automatic

First registration

09/1998

maximum weight allowed

3,265 kg

Color (manufacturer)

Turquoise green

colour

green

Trailer hitch fixed

Power steering

vehicle description

FORD E 150 ECONOLINE CLUB WAGON
Light commercial vehicle
5 Places
Dealer or export only
LPG + GASOLINE
Sold as seen

NV CARROSSERIE NIJSMANS

With mobile.de since December 11, 2018

Keesinglaan 17-19
BE-2100 Deurne

Tel .: +32 3 324 58 17
Tel .: +32 475 24 25 19

We speak:  English

Dealer Rating:

4.9 Stars
( 4 Ratings )

100% recommendations
100% vehicle as described

[DodgeRover]

36 minutes ago, dieselnutjob said:

I think that the point of a California Salvage Certificate is that it does prove that you actually own the vehicle, they just won't give you the title until you repair it. I wonder what would happen if someone out of state bought it and challenged the DMV in court? 

I think it's just another name/ type of title. There have been quite a few flood damaged vehicles registered over here which would have been exported with salvage title.

As long as you have it from your exporter that they are ok to put it in a container with that you should be fine.

[dieselnutjob]

I think I have gotten to the bottom of the worst case scenario.

Worst case appears to be that the US port authority sees that it's a salvage vehicle and removes the VIN tag.

Apparently they do sometimes do that.

I guess then it has to go on a Q plate because it's a vehicle with no VIN.

If you are exporting a valuable classic car then that's obvious a disaster.  A sixteen year old van? no so much.

[LightBulbFun]

4 minutes ago, dieselnutjob said:

Worst case appears to be that the US port authority sees that it's a salvage vehicle and removes the VIN tag.

Apparently they do sometimes do that.

can you get a picture of the VIN tag, so if that happens you can just make up a new one once it gets UK side?

(also surely these have a VIN/Chassis number stamped somewhere else other than just the VIN plate? if so then that will be fully usable for DVLA purposes)

[dieselnutjob]

I have a picture of what looks like a stick on label which has all the weight limits and stuff, and the VIN number.

There is always the possibility when registering a vehicle that DVLA will want to physically inspect a vehicle to make sure it is as the photos suggest.  Apparently they pick some randomly for inspection.

So whatever VIN plate it has, it has to stand up to some scrutinee.  I'm not sure if there are rules about who can make VIN plates and who can't.  I did find a company in the UK that does "replating" mostly for when people want to derate campers so that they can drive them on 3500kg driving licenses.  When I spoke to them they said that they don't do import stuff. 

[PhilA]

Hell, that's new enough that I think even the chassis computer knows the VIN of the vehicle it was fitted to.

The windscreen VIN would've stayed put and that's the "official" one.

Bet you they only went for the cats, that's become a big thing here recently- the truck engine vehicles like that have big ones and they're worth a fair penny as you see on the replacement ones.

Truth on the 6.0, my neighbor has a similar vintage F150 based Explorer and you can hear that all the way down the street and the intake/exhaust is all in good shape. Traveling in it is miserable.

Trouble with these vans is the windowed versions 100% the time were fitted as minibuses and have done years of airport run work and while the bodywork is generally good, the mechanical parts, body mounts, hinges and anything that takes a load are totally shot. Most of them have an air of "shiny builders van" about them. The gearboxes take them off the road after about 350-400k.

Other than that, they're a basic, fairly rugged vehicle with few frills.

Phil

 

[dieselnutjob]

it has 160 something K miles on it, so about the same as my Jag.  Someone from USA told me that it looks like a government/state agency work van.   The interior is going to be gutted and rebuilt anyway.  I guess it will need a lot of sound proofing.

I suppose that the missing cat could be replaced with an extra silencer to try and quieten it down. 

People keep saying to me that I should get the 7.3 but they are even louder.

[dieselnutjob]

it's this antenna mount on the back that made my contact say public authority, state or county vehicle.

[PhilA]

Yeah, could've been prisoner transport or something

 

Though airport run vehicles will get a whip mount like that too

Silencers don't help, it's the block itself and injection pump that make the noise. The exhaust is fairly quiet unless you pull the rear muffler off.

Best thing is insulating the hell out of the firewall and floor.

[dieselnutjob]

It's basically a school bus engine rammed in there with a shoe horn.  They are also a nightmare to work on. I already know this.  Part of the engine actually sticks into the cabin and has a removable "dock house" cover over it.  The upside is that bell housing bolts and the turbo are actually easier to get to because they are inside the cabin; but everything is horrible.

[PhilA]

Yup, which is why they get driven until something grenades, then they get parked and left to rot.

[dieselnutjob]

A good used engine is $2500 USD.  There is a place in Ohio that sells them and has a good reputation.  I have no idea how I would get a 8V diesel engine from Ohio to London or what it would cost.  If that's what it takes, then that's what it will get.

[DodgeRover]

4 hours ago, dieselnutjob said:

A good used engine is $2500 USD.  There is a place in Ohio that sells them and has a good reputation.  I have no idea how I would get a 8V diesel engine from Ohio to London or what it would cost.  If that's what it takes, then that's what it will get.

Buy another panel van with a V8 and put the spare diesel engine in the back of it along with anything else you need for your van, then ship the whole lot, at least nobody will be able to pocket an engine on the journey over.

I always knew those removable covers as a dog house rather than dock.

[wuvvum]

I remember getting picked up from SFO once in a hotel airport shuttle which was one of these with the 7.3 diesel.  Refined it was not.  At idle everything rattled like an old Merc 609D bus.

[sutty2006]

Deffo buy a shit load of parts and have someone Chuck them in the back securely before it heads over. 
 

have you bought it yet? 

[dieselnutjob]

I won't know what parts it needs until it arrives

[loserone]

Buy all of them then.

 

Have you bought it yet?

[dieselnutjob]

Something extremely annoying just happened.

On Friday evening I paid for an inspection of this van to the one and only company that the auction company will currently allow on site.

I just had an email from them saying that they were unable to complete the inspection and so are going to give me a refund.

Basically if I buy this van I am buying it based purely on a few photos, and then paying near £2000 to get it shipped back to the UK before I can know whether it's a bargain (it might be) or a total pile of scrap (it might be).

It could be a non runner just due to a failed lift pump, a worn O ring, or even just a fuse, these are all extremely common scenarios with these engines, or it might have rusted out floors and missing transmission.

or maybe the inspection guy took a fancy to it himself.........

[dieselnutjob]

I had to drop out of this one.  The van sold (to someone else) for $1300 and I think that they got a good deal.

It was getting too much for me.

I also went and re-measured the drive and I think the size is a problem, by just a few inches, but a problem is a problem.

It's a borderline decision and I'm disappointed because I have wanted a V8 diesel van about 17 years.  When I bought the 806 it was an Econoline that I really wanted but I couldn't afford it.

Now it's that I don't quite have the space and the hassle levels are a too high.  If it was just me I would do it but I have a family and a wife and this one is over the line.

Anyway no one gets everything that they want.

I might still get a van and make my own camper but it's more likely to be a Boxer L1H1 just because it's a manageable length.  I should also get a ULEZ compliant one.

I should just get on with restoring the 604 for now.  In a years time those early ULEZ compliant Boxers will be a year cheaper.

[Low Horatio gearbox]

Natch.

 

1 hour ago, dieselnutjob said:

I also went and re-measured the drive and I think the size is a problem, by just a few inches, but a problem is a problem.

However I've  turned down buying a house as there was limited (180 cm)  access 😖  there isn't much sense getting something that won't fit.

[dieselnutjob]

21 minutes ago, Low Horatio gearbox said:

there isn't much sense getting something that won't fit.

I honestly, honestly thought it would fit.  I had a friends long wheel base Jag on the drive and an Econoline is just a few inches longer, and a couple of years back a friend left his mid length Transit on the drive and he says it's longer than an Econoline, but the auction was literally three hours away I thought "I really have to check this properly" and the tape measure doesn't lie.  I think his van is not as long as he says it is.

I should have done that at the beginning of the process rather than the end but I had convinced myself it would be fine, but it won't.

Basically it would hang out over the pavement by a good 7 or 8 inches and whilst there are a lot of people round here that do it, they have road legal cars that they can just put in the street if someone complains.  Would do you do with a dead van that's not even registered yet?  I would be stuffed.

I even tried going diagonally across both spaces and it could be done but the gap to get through for pedestrian access into the house wouldn't be much.  I just know it would cause conflict.

Sorry to waste everyone's time.  I will make up for it with 604 posts this year.

[loserone]

4 minutes ago, dieselnutjob said:

604

Of course we're disappointed, but..  604!

 

Sorry it wasn't to be.

[Low Horatio gearbox]

It's  a waste of time if you learn from it.  And frankly its given me pointers for importing my own yank dream* boat.

 

I hear you about the overhang  though  I've been left stuffed with non road legal project car not long ago and it is stressful ball ache to deal with at short notice.  It'll happen.. you just gotta keep the dream alive!

[OwdChina]

On 2/17/2021 at 9:56 PM, sutty2006 said:

Deffo buy a shit load of parts and have someone Chuck them in the back securely before it heads over. 
 

have you bought it yet? 

Just not too many and not too big...........it will cause a problem with officials, ........yup, I tried it.

[dieselnutjob]

If anyone else wants to follow the same path please ask.

I can summarize in a few bullet points though:-

I think IAAI is safer than Copart.  There is a "thing" with copart that people buy horribly wrecked cars, tart them up and then then put them back through copart and they are actually far worse that they look.

Most of the cars on IAAI are direct from insurance companies, and you can clearly see in the listing whether that's so.  If it doesn't say who's selling it then probably don't buy.

An IAAI account isn't that much use because you can't actually bid on much, you would need to register as a commercial trader.  So don't pay for IAAI access.  Instead head straight for salvagebid or one of the other brokers.  With salvagebid you have to put a deposit in the account but they don't actually charge it to your credit card unless you break the rules, if not the charge never goes through.

I did actually pay for a carfax report for the van and it was way, way more inciteful than the cheap report that IAAI offered. It basically proved that the van had been in California its whole life for example.

You pay the winning bid, plus IAAI fees, plus salvagebid fees.  A $300 winning bid rapidly becomes $1000.

I thought that the best shipping company was Kingstown.  They were super friendly, even when I pulled out, and the quote was competitive.

East coast is cheaper because RoRo ferries, but I'm not sure about non-runners and whether they will entertain or not. On the West Coast they absolutely didn't seem to care.  They just shove it in a container, they don't seem bothered.

The shipping company seems concerned about proof that you actually own the vehicle, I guess that the port authorities don't want stolen vehicles going out.  That's why you need a "title", but it seems that a "California Salvage Certificate" is ok too because only the owner can get one.  There is a small risk with salvage that the port authorities will cut the VIN plate off and may even attempt to put a new VIN plate on (I was told).  You will still know the VIN number because the auction listings seem to always show a photo of it.

Be aware that shipping costs has four components, getting it to the port, the actual shipping fee, unloading fees in the UK, and then import duties and VAT.  Import duties are higher for a commercial vehicle than a passenger vehicle.

 

[OwdChina]

1 hour ago, dieselnutjob said:

I thought that the best shipping company was Kingstown.  They were super friendly, even when I pulled out, and the quote was competitive.

 

Second nod for Kingstown here, they brought mine over for me.

[Asimo]

I wonder what happened to this, I put in the eBay thread  Posted August 5, 2019

Heavy duty Econoline V8 with some interesting features. Like an lpg tank on the roof! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1993-Ford-Econoline-E350-Panel-Van/303234626668?hash=item469a31346c:g:j58AAOSw8VxdONBj

[Pete-M]

On 2/12/2021 at 11:51 PM, Richard_FM said:

It's rare these days to see Q plates even on kit cars.

I've heard some insurance companies won't provide cover for cars with a Q plate, & once issued to a vehicle they are permanent.

Q plates are nearly permanent. The trick used to be to get the car through a NI MOT and put an NI plate on. 

I only know this because many years ago someone I know bought a very expensive Toyota Land Cruiser Amazon that was about a year old. He bought it, complete with NI reg for about £3k less than an English registered one would have cost. 

All would have been fine, if he hadn't decided to put his private plate on it. As soon as DVLA received the application for the reg transfer two officers from the local Dibble Stolen Vehicle Squad (or whatever they're called) rocked up at his house and took his £35k Amazon off to their workshop. It was returned to him about a month later on a Q plate. Turned out it had been stolen when new and stripped to the bone, only the rolling shell had been found. Some enterprising chap had bought it from the insurance, taken it to NI, rebuilt it and managed to get it registered in NI.

If the chap I know hadn't tried to put his reg on the thing he'd probably never have triggered DVLA.