Big Trip To Pick Up My 71 Cuda Project

[tony 73]

Cheers 1burgfish,  rang the shipper today and they can arrange insurance for when car is on the boat, $180 US every $7k value of car.

Thanks moparelwood, very kink of you to offer a place to stay. High chance we taking the high roads.

My parts list is coming together. Thought I would get seat covers from Legendary, but the 10-12 week wait is a speed bump. Rang Dante's and eventually had a win, Interior kit for $830 , last set of 71 legendary seat covers, carpet, and headliner . Get rear quarter 440 billboard as well.
Will get steel frame dashpad from Roseville
Seller is going to see whats at the Nats swap meet for  4 speed parts.

[moparelwood]

I don't know if you found everything you needed or if you need anything from year one. They have a 30%sale going on until midnight our time tomorrow.
2 Day Sale
30%* off until midnight Wednesday!
 YEARONE.com or call 1-800-932-7663
Use Code: CN6201

[tony 73]

Big thanks for the heads up on the sale moparelwood,  just spent $250 on lots of small items, emblems, glove box liners, blank keys, etc.

Lot of big items exempt but otherwise brilliant. Wanted to get the 440 rear quarter billboard but was a 1-4 week wait. May ask seller if he will receive it and then send on to me in NZ.

Cheers
Tony

[tony 73]

We have booked a rental car from Economy Cars for 2 day so we can drive to Mo-par City and back. Have booked into a Motel 6 on Sat. night. Plan to book truck and trailer from Uhaul next.

Any tips on finding good budget Accommodation on our trip ? do we try and chase Promo codes, join a loyalty scheme with a motel group ? Want flexibility so we can drive for shorter or longer depending on what there is to see on the way.
 Any help appreciated.

[1 Wild R/T]

We have booked a rental car from Economy Cars for 2 day so we can drive to Mo-par City and back. Have booked into a Motel 6 on Sat. night. Plan to book truck and trailer from Uhaul next.

Any tips on finding good budget Accommodation on our trip ? do we try and chase Promo codes, join a loyalty scheme with a motel group ? Want flexibility so we can drive for shorter or longer depending on what there is to see on the way.
 Any help appreciated.

I travel for a living so I book allot of hotels, on a number of occasions I've tried walking up to the desk to get a room & have been quoted a price much higher than the online price..... I walk outside, grab my phone & go to Trivago... Then go right back inside & get my room for half the price or less...

[tony 73]

  I like that plan mate, will try it.
Rental car booked for first 2 days so we can get to Mo-par city and back.
Had a Motel 6 booked for Sat. night and truck pickup place sorted. Then a spanner got thrown in, found out that the U-haul depot was not open on a Sunday , why didn't they tell me this. Had to find a depot that was open on a Sunday, turned out to be back across town, taxi fare be over$100 for both trips.
 Wife got on the net and did great job to find us a very nice hotel, with free shuttle and only $10 taxi to U-haul depot
Had chat to a guy here in Nelson who makes regular trips to LA and brings back cars, he also done a couple of USA road trips. Got some good tips.

[RCCDrew]

If you need a taxi in the future try Uber. My experience shows their prices to be about half of a regular taxi.

[tony 73]

Thanks RCCDrew,
 Friend and I are keen to catch any motorsport event on and there is a sprintcar meeting on Sat19th in Indianapolis . About 10-15 mile out of the city, so Uber might be the go.

[tony 73]

On my way to USA.

[tony 73]

WOW what an adventure. Been trying to start this story for last couple of weeks.

All starts with a plane ride, a 12 hr one. Arrived in LA 10am, forgot how big and busy the USA is, So many planes and so many people.
Took us 2 hrs to get through customs, made it. Got 8hrs to fill in so we went for a walk to find food. Told there was an IN and OUT burger  joint 15 mins away. The first of many burger feeds. We both were enjoying the summer heat, shorts and T-shirt.

Flight to Indianapolis left at 10pm and arrived 5.30am.  Getting tied now, sleeping on planes not quality sleep. We had rental car booked , plan was to head 4hrs NNW to just outside Chicago  to visit Mopar-City. We had trouble getting our Navman to work but that no excuse for our detour. We forgot the size of the USA and how many States have the same named towns . We found our selves heading NNE. 12pm and We found ourselves in city of Plymouth, still 4 hrs away from Mopar-City. We decided to return to Indianapolis , find a motel and recharge out sleep  batteries. Super8 motel ( 3/10). Found a cool Airforce jet museum on way back.

Up early and headed to Greensbury to meet seller Dave and my 71 Cuda. You will not meet a nicer guy . Car was as described and put a big smile on my face . We spent next few hours getting the front suspension and steering column in.

[Beekeeper]

What a great update! Glad that you were happy with the car when you saw it up close. You made a good choice in coming out here to finalize everything.

[AARuFAST]

Does any CC members recall a fellow from New Zealand that did the same thing with a Challenger about 5 or 6 yrs ago....... Shipped the Challenger and parts back in a shipping container.

[Beekeeper]

Does any CC members recall a fellow from New Zealand that did the same thing with a Challenger about 5 or 6 yrs ago....... Shipped the Challenger and parts back in a shipping container.

I do not but I do know a guy who helps arrange transportation of classic cars back to Germany. He always loaded the cars with parts and other stuff for various other people since you pay a set fee for the container so it made sense to load large or heavy items inside the cars to bring over things that would normally be too expensive to ship. I think it's a smart move.

[cudamadd]

Nice pics Car looks good 

[tony 73]

Cheers guys.

Prior to arriving I had made a Summit order of suspension parts and had them delivered to Dave. He had kindly managed to get 90% of the bush kit pushed in.Bryce gave him a hand to finish and assemble. Was told to get steering in so car would be easy to load and unload.Had a fun day , even managed to get addicted to Mountain Dew. I blame the humidity .

 Headed back to Indianapolis so as to visit the Indy 500 speedway and museum . So cool driving under the track to get to the museum . Most impressive, so many cars and memorabilia . Could have spent hours there.Brought couple of t-shirts. Lack of clean shirts was a high chance being a boys trip.

 Off to U-haul for our 5.30pm pick up of the truck and trailer. Was going to do this Sunday but getting lost on Friday changed our plans. Paper work went well, a drivers licence and credit card were the main requirements. Got a super low mileage truck so less chance of breakdown. On seeing the 15 ft truck we were both wondering what the hell I had got us into, way bigger vehicle than either of us had driven. Yard guy attached the trailer and left us to it. We did have one small problem, still had the rental car and only one Navman and both of us needed a co-pilot.  Put car on trailer , drive to Hotel near airport, unload car and return it to airport , then get hotel shuttle back to hotel. Easy, yea right.  Car front skirt get damaged on front of trailer so had to back it on. I was nervous about getting on   major road so had to fight Navman all the way to the hotel, and night fall was upon us. Think we finally hit the hay at 11pm.

  The BIG day had arrived, got away early to Greensburg, beautiful town, found a Walmart to get supplies ( food, chilli bin, tie downs), and then arrived at Dave's gate. He backed the trailer as I was still a rookie. Where to start  , so many parts hidden in every corner. Plan was to use 4 pallets . Engine/ trans on one, diffs on another , and 2 for boxes . Plus all other parts in the back where. ever they could fit.  MASSIVE day, arrived at 10.30 am and left at 10.30 pm. Loaded car in the dark with torches . Huge thanks to Dave and his wife for everything they did, new friends for life. Big thanks to my mate  who gave it 100% all day. 
  Had no where to stay yet so headed into town . Found nice hotel, guy on front desk must have taken one look at us and felt sorry for us, gave us Government employee discount. Shower and lights out. Didn't sleep well as I kept hearing noises outside thinking someone was stealing my car. Mind was racing with doubts .