Hello Jon:
After reading this tale of woe I was reminded of an old Tom Lehrer song,
the title of which seems appropriate, "The Masochism Tango". I suppose one
could recite a whole load of cute sayings but as you know in the old car
game - "In for a penny in for a pound".
You will have a rare and unusual vehicle which will be quite outstanding
everywhere it goes and so far you haven't spent a fortune for it. You may
have shortened your natural lifespan through stress, but on the whole the
satisfaction of the thing should put the years back on again. Good luck on
your endeavours and remember not to restore the thing to be a garage queen
- make it work, look good, and be useful.
John
>After the stories of the trials and tribulations Bruce (of the British-cars
>list) went through with his TR7 engine rebuild, I figured I'd give a try at
>telling the story of my experience importing a 1974 Commer AutoSleeper from
>England.
>
>
> It all started innocently enough, with a second-hand post to the Hillman
>list from a chap in England with a Commer AutoSleeper he was looking to
>sell. The AutoSleeper is a van-bodied camper conversion with a pop-up roof,
>very much like a VW camper from the 60s or 70s. It had belonged to his late
>father, who had amassed a large amount of spares that were also to be
>included with the vehicle. It had last been MOTd 5 years ago, but he
>replaced the battery and drove it about a bit to make sure it was still
>driveable. I checked with the authorities, and a 25 year old vehicle is
>exempt from DOT and EPA regulation, and Nebraska doesn't even have safety
>inspections. Not being one to turn down an unloved Rootes Group product,
>and having the necessary purchase price on hand (100 pounds), a deal was
>struck and a checque sent. Now, I just had to figure out how to get it to
>America!
>
> I have some connections through where I work, but they're all in
>Germany. Transporting the camper to Germany was just too expensive, so I
>checked with a number of shipping companies. The best deal I could get was
>through a British company, since the dollar is strong - 750 pounds to ship
>it to the port of New York, which is really in New Jersey, where my brother
>lives. That made picking it up easy, and the freight could be paid at the
>docks. But, I had to get it from where it was, (the far north of England),
>to Southampton, which as it's name implies, is in the south. Having it towed
>would add 450 pounds to the shipping cost (YIKES!), but by chance the fellow
>I bought it from has a trailer. He offered to tow it to Southampton for the
>fuel cost, which was about 150 pounds worth of diesel fuel for his Range
>Rover. So, another checque was sent.
>
> The ship was scheduled to depart December 13th - I should have taken
>that as an omen. The camper was duly trailered down to Southampton, and
>delivered to the docks. Good news, it made it safely and on time. Bad news,
>the pop-up roof escaped somewhere along the way. Blown right off , and no
>sign of it anywhere along the highway on his return trip. It vanished.
>Fortunately, the shipper was very accomodating, and put the van indoors
>until it could be put aboard ship. The seller also reduced his selling price
>to 30 pounds.
>
> The actual voyage was very uneventful, I didn't hear anything until
>about a day before it was scheduled to land. It seems they decided there
>wasn't enough cargo to warrant actually docking the ship at the New York
>port. They decided to offload everything in Baltimore, and send whatever was
>due at New York there by truck. Of course, now that the roof was compromised
>(ok, missing), sitting around outside was a bit of a problem. I was assured
>it would be covered until it went on the truck, and that they would get it
>done as quickly as possible. The customs agent had already cleared all the
>paperwork, so there were no problems there.
>
> The ship docked in Baltimore on January 4th. Many phone calls back and
>forth, it's now the 10th, and I'm told the camper has just been put on the
>truck, and it WILL be at the port in NY/NJ on the morning of Friday the
>11th. I plan on my brother picking it up that afternoon, just to make sure
>they have some extra time, and leave orders for them to call me if there are
>ANY problems.
>
> Friday arrives, all looks good, no phone calls. My brother goes to the
>docks, and they can't find the camper. They call all over, calling each of
>their trucks on the road, and find nothing. Finally, they call Baltimore.
>It's still on the docks! "There was trouble with the hydraulics on the
>transport truck, so they had to unload everything." Now it's getting a
>little ridiculous - the 50 mile trip in New Jersey is taking as long as the
>transatlantic voyage!!!
>
> After quite a bit of haggling on my brother's part, the shipping company
>agreed to drop off the camper at my brother's house, which is 50 miles
>closer to Baltimore anyway. Dock workers don't work on weekends, though, so
>it can't happen until Monday the 15th. Time to wait. Again.
>
> Time for a new fly in the ointment - someone (still unknown) at the
>shipping company orders the delivery manifest changed so that it shows
>vehicle discharge at Baltimore. That paperwork hits the docks Tuesday
>morning, so when the truck arrives to pick it up, they have US Customs
>release papers all ready that say New York, but now the bill-of-lading says
>Baltimore!!! "The papers don't match, we're a bonded carrier, you have to
>straighten this out before we can move it."
>
> Many, many phone calls and one day later, Customs in Baltimore approves
>the New York papers, and re-stamps them with their Baltimore stamp. Now, the
>trucker is happy, customs is happy, all should be well. Except, the camper
>won't start when they try to load it on the truck. It's been almost 2 weeks
>since it came off the ship, and they only just NOW tell me that they had to
>tow it off the ship, it wouldn't start then either. My guess is whoever
>drove it on the ship, left the key on, and ran the battery flat. Easy enough
>you say, just jump start it? One problem - they can't find the battery. I
>explain where the battery is, and they still can't find it. They look at
>pushing it onto the carrier with a forklift, and realize that the front
>wheels are too narrow to fit the rails on the car carrier, even if it DID
>start. Excuse me, didn't they notice that LAST time, when the truck had
>hydraulic problems??
>
> By now, it's Thursday morning, 2 weeks since arrival in the US. The
>trucking company is charging the shipping company for the entire day wasted
>on Wednesday, and want to bring in a rollback flatbed to pick up the camper
>and get it to my brother's house. The weather forecast for Friday through
>Tuesday is for heavy rains, so I would like to see this happen as quickly as
>possible. Of course, it doesn't. It takes most of Thursday to get the
>official OK from the shipping company for the flatbed, and now it can't pick
>up the camper until Friday morning. I also discover at this point that
>contrary to what I'd been told all along, they never put a tarp over it
>while it was at the docks, so who knows how much rain got inside during
>those two weeks.
>
> Friday - finally. By 11am I've confirmed that it was picked up, and at
>about 5pm Eastern time, they finally arrive at my brother's house and drop
>it off, in the pouring rain. My brother gets it in the garage, where it can
>dry out, while I figure out the next step - how to get the replacement roof
>(that I bought in England, and is still there) and the camper to the same
>place at the same time, and how to get them BOTH from New Jersey to
>Nebraska!!!! But, that's ANOTHER story......
>
>
>Jon Arzt, Rootes Group Sanctuary (or so I've been told)
>Omaha, NE USA
>
>1957 Hillman Minx saloon (anyone want a REAL project car?)
>1958 Hillman Minx convertible
>1961 Humber Super Snipe saloon
>1966 Humber Super Snipe estate
>1966 Sunbeam Alpine
>1967 Sunbeam Funwagon (haven't decided whether to keep both campers or not)
>1974 Commer AutoSleeper (that even after all this, I haven't even SEEN
>yet!!)
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