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honda whisperer posted:What about bad condition / non running cars? Say I was looking for a straight chassis to build a track toy (89-91 civic for example). Any deals there? How much worse is it to import a car that isn't drive on / drive off? Ohio is a wasteland of overpriced rust buckets or mad tyte jdm brah just needs a distributor 250k miles garbage. Well I have not imported anything but you are looking at $3k minimum to get something here and that is if you practically get it for free purchase price. If a decent body is worth $3-5k I’m sure you could find something easily.
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Sep 24, 2017 06:04
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everdave posted:ARe y’all flipping or keeping or what? I mean for $3500-5k I do t see why I don’t need a diesel 4x4 in my life. But also I’m in TN any experience getting them from port to final destination? Also I would really love to find a niche flipping some and making a little bit of $ Like LoG I am doing a bit of both. Since I have my Acty I now keep sliding deeper and deeper into the alternative JDM side of things. the Hijet is for sale, the Rugger will be for sale (probably, my wife realllllyy likes it in pictures) and I might actually keep the 83 Acty and replace my 90 Acty, just depends on what it's like to live with. A majority of what I am importing is for flipping though, I'm just doing the AI brown diesel manual transmission wagon side of AI vs. the sports car side. For shipping Lord is in the pacific northwest which means his shipping costs from Japan are going to always beat anyone on the east coast. You being in Tennessee I'd have to assume shipping the vehicle directly to an eastern port (very likely Jacksonville) would still be cheaper than transporting a car from Washington where Lord is via truck, even on just fuel if you somehow had a truck + trailer ready to go. Then again, maybe not! The only personal experience I can relate to getting it from port to you is my Acty I bought from Japanese Classics. It cost me about $750 bucks to transport it from Richmond, Virginia to Sarasota, Florida. I'd minimally expect something around that cost from port to wherever you are in TN. The transport driver would also have to have international port access, not all transport drivers do. honda whisperer posted:What about bad condition / non running cars? Say I was looking for a straight chassis to build a track toy (89-91 civic for example). Any deals there? How much worse is it to import a car that isn't drive on / drive off? Ohio is a wasteland of overpriced rust buckets or mad tyte jdm brah just needs a distributor 250k miles garbage. I'd assume that sort of stuff would be done differently. If all you are looking for is a track car then you don't have to mess with legal-for-road-use import at all and instead would import whatever. I'm not at all familiar with that angle of attack but I know people do it. What I'm learning about is strictly the 25 year exemption legal in the USA stuff, and the import process related to it. The shipping is done via Roll on/roll off meaning the vehicles have to run, also meaning the transport is probably more expensive than shoving a maybe-non running chassis into a shipping container. KakerMix fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Sep 24, 2017 |
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Sep 24, 2017 07:15
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KakerMix posted:If a two-door, manual transmission turbo diesel w/ 4x4 Pajero is what she's after then you don't have many options normally. Over the last three months three 3.5 rated diesel Pajeros have sold at auction with prices that I can see. Thanks for all the great information! Since they have half a dozen in VA, we'll be able to check them out in person and test drive them. I'd also like to go over them with a fine tooth comb before picking one up since I'll be the sole mechanic on the thing. When you buy from a lot over in Japan, do you work with the sales people to get more pictures and a better idea of the condition of the vehicle?
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Sep 24, 2017 14:22
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Garage2Roadtrip posted:Thanks for all the great information! Be sure to check out their huge collection of Nissan Figaros and other weird stuff the guy has. It seems like a very fantastic place. For Japan lot buying yeah, I got a pack of high-res pictures of issues. Then when I bought it the broker took it to a mechanic to go over it and fix the issues I had with it, and that was that. Working by proxy is less-than desirable you really don't have a choice when in Japan.
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Sep 24, 2017 16:52
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KakerMix posted:Working by proxy is less-than desirable you really don't have a choice when in Japan.
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Sep 24, 2017 20:50
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InitialDave posted:Is that primarily due to the distance and language barrier, or the astounding Japanese ability to just invent jobs for people, preferably with a nice bureaucratic layer added in for garnish? I should clarify. I never actually spoke to the dealership as myself, it was always relayed through Yoshi @ Japan Car Direct. I'd say 'hey a thing' and he'd talk to the dealership, they'd respond back to him then he'd relay that back to me. I didn't get any indication that Yoshi had issues with the dealership but then again he lives there, speaks Japanese and is Japanese himself so there is probably a whole bunch I didn't see just on that alone. "By proxy" just means that it was always through Yoshi because he's in Japan and I'm in the USA and short of me going to Japan myself it's the only way to deal with it. There is a lot more bureaucracy in Japan, sure, but when it comes to vehicles I appreciate it because it means I can buy pristine examples of older cars.
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Sep 24, 2017 21:48
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KakerMix posted:There is a lot more bureaucracy in Japan, sure, but when it comes to vehicles I appreciate it because it means I can buy pristine examples of older cars.
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Sep 24, 2017 23:00
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There's a company in Vancouver that does this, Japanoid and as a result it's not uncommon to see Paos, Figaros, and various cute little vans around Vancouver. I think there's another company that specializes in Delicas and I see Delicas pretty frequently. I've thought the same thing as the OP, that there's a real good opportunity here for a side business. I'd do it except that I have zero auto mechanical skills nor do I know anyone who does, and I wonder if such a business would be non-viable if one weren't able to easily fix a few basic things oneself. I notice that Japanoid often has only utilitarian kei pickups in stock for sale so I wonder if selling to urban handymen became their main business model. It's fairly common in Vancouver to see landscapers and such driving little Subaru Sanbars around. I agree that I think Autozam prices are going to spike as soon as these things are legal in the USA. I should really try to grab one now but I don't have the money at the moment. I'd really like a Pao or Be-1 too.
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Sep 28, 2017 00:13
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There's a very pleasant pistachio green Figaro owned by a neighbor of one of my friends. It's in England, though. Not sure if they got sold their originally. I can't get down with the three-speed auto though.
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Sep 28, 2017 11:12
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They were sold here, apparently parts are interchangeable with the micra, a popular shitbox hatch that was available in manual so a conversion would be possible, if a bit of work.
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Sep 28, 2017 11:37
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cakesmith handyman posted:They were sold here, apparently parts are interchangeable with the micra, a popular shitbox hatch that was available in manual so a conversion would be possible, if a bit of work. They're mk1 Micra-engined so parts are pennies and you can manual swap them easy enough. They do rot like a motherfucker though.
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Sep 28, 2017 12:35
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Did they sell them here? I'm not sure I've ever encountered one that wasn't an import. Most JDM-origin designs rust like a bastard. Rustproofing is not a strong point, it was the same when they first started bringing stuff over here in larger amounts in the 70s. That didn't really justify people taking an attitude of "Jap crap" though, most contemporary stuff was just as bad. Vauxhalls of the period especially, most who remember them will tell you that you could hear them rusting on a quiet, damp day. Back to the Figaros. SR20DETs will fit in Micras. You know what needs to be done.
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Sep 28, 2017 13:01
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Never sold in the UK, Figaros were the most common imports of the 3 Pike cars; Figaro, Pao and Be-1 (which I've never EVER seen in person). According to the internets the Pao was actually produced the most some 50k cars in a 3 year run, Figaro 20k and Be-1 10k, both single year runs. The S-Cargo was ~10k and I've seen a few of those.
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Sep 28, 2017 13:22
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I'm wrong, yup.
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Sep 28, 2017 13:35
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Never sold in the UK, Figaros were the most common imports of the 3 Pike cars; Figaro, Pao and Be-1 (which I've never EVER seen in person). I suspect all the S-Cargos ended up in NZ becasue they were common as muck when I was growing up. A local guy has one where I live now (Australia) and I always mean to ask him about it. It just doesn't seem like something that was easy to get here
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Sep 28, 2017 15:35
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I see S-Cargos in Vancouver pretty often. People get them for company cars for hauling around stuff in the city. There's three ex-company cars on sale on craigslist right now. https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/search/sss?query=scargo&sort=rel I've never seen a Be-1.
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Sep 28, 2017 17:30
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^ I'm convinced they're a myth.
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Sep 28, 2017 18:41
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Olympic Mathlete posted:They're mk1 Micra-engined so parts are pennies and you can manual swap them easy enough. They do rot like a motherfucker though. Weren't all Nissan Pike cars essentially re-bodied March/Micras? The Be-1 (still my favorite one probably because it isn't as popular), Figaro, Pao and S-Cargo are just Micras with fancy bits on top, or so I thought I had read elsewhere. Olympic Mathlete posted:^ I'm convinced they're a myth. I badly want a yellow Be-1 with stock wheels and a 5 speed. Kinda hard to find although they do come up, and go for pretty cheap because everybody is hard for the Figaros and Paos instead. It's also difficult to find ones that still have their stock body color wheels, it's like the same thing that people here in the US do where they take an old car, resto-mod it and throw out the stock wheels and stick on some awful garbage.
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Sep 28, 2017 23:41
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There's a guy in Houston of all places with a BE-1, I think... https://www.instagram.com/p/BZRlbdUnesa/
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Sep 28, 2017 23:47
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MetaJew posted:There's a guy in Houston of all places with a BE-1, I think... Hell yeah, looks like it's a 5 speed too. That's what I want.
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Sep 28, 2017 23:57
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KakerMix posted:Weren't all Nissan Pike cars essentially re-bodied March/Micras? The Be-1 (still my favorite one probably because it isn't as popular), Figaro, Pao and S-Cargo are just Micras with fancy bits on top, or so I thought I had read elsewhere. It's difficult to find exact details but it's generally assumed (due to sharing the engine) that they're all March/Micra chassis cars. I do want a Be-1, they're so cute.  :3
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Sep 29, 2017 08:38
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Yeah there are heaps of S-Cargos in New Zealand. In fact I saw one for sale the other day for like $4k or something. Hilarious little cars. Don't think I've seen a Be-1 though.
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Sep 29, 2017 09:20
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Red_Fred posted:Yeah there are heaps of S-Cargos in New Zealand Yuck. Snails are gross.
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Sep 29, 2017 14:34
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I found pictures of the van that was on craigslist that got me all started  It being left hand drive but looking like a Daihatsu means it has to be a non-Japanese export but it's quite difficult finding information.
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Sep 29, 2017 16:28
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KakerMix posted:I found pictures of the van that was on craigslist that got me all started I know it's actually a garage, but the way they have the room set up with a TV and rugs and couches and such makes me think someone just has a tiny van in their basement the way some people would set up a pool table. Bibendum posted:Looks like a typical shady American used car dealership to me. Complete with generic Costco rug and balding middle-aged dude discretely watching porn at his desk while waiting for customers. Minus the "waiting for customers" part, that's basically a description of the standard American upper middle class basement, too. Magnus Praeda fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Sep 29, 2017 |
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Sep 29, 2017 17:23
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Looks like a typical shady American used car dealership to me. Complete with generic Costco rug and balding middle-aged dude discretely watching porn at his desk while waiting for customers. Edit for content: Place down the street from me just got an AZ-1 in. Looks like a real mess but I gotta go see if I can fit in it at least. 
Bibendum fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Sep 29, 2017 |
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Sep 29, 2017 17:58
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NitroSpazzz posted:https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1988-suzuki-alto/?utm_source=dailymail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-08-28 BaT now with a Beat: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1991-honda-beat-7/
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Sep 29, 2017 19:55
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Bibendum posted:Looks like a typical shady American used car dealership to me. Complete with generic Costco rug and balding middle-aged dude discretely watching porn at his desk while waiting for customers. lol that thing isn't legal yet, what is it doing in the US? It's possible Homeland security waved it through but it is not October yet. Naughty naughty. EDIT The AZ-1 is afaik one of the smallest kei cars to sit in KakerMix fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Sep 29, 2017 |
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Sep 29, 2017 20:28
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1972 Toyota Publica Pickup - wonder how much it'll go for. One of these days I will fold and buy something cool. 
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Oct 2, 2017 18:16
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BlackMK4 posted:1972 Toyota Publica Pickup - wonder how much it'll go for. One of these days I will fold and buy something cool. I see you your 72 Toyota Publica and raise you 73 Mitsubishi Lancer   My heart though, it belongs to this.      1984 Mitsubishi Delica. 4WD. Turbo diesel. 5 speed manual. Dark green w/ brown accents. Maroon cloth interior. Air Conditioning. Goddamn. I can not escape the siren call of JDM vans. I might seriously bid on this even though I'm supposed to be on a buying freeze.
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Oct 6, 2017 07:47
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KakerMix posted:I see you your 72 Toyota Publica and raise you 73 Mitsubishi Lancer gently caress yeah dude, colour's perfect too.
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Oct 6, 2017 09:56
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KakerMix posted:1984 Mitsubishi Delica. 4WD. Turbo diesel. 5 speed manual. Dark green w/ brown accents. Maroon cloth interior. Air Conditioning. Goddamn. I can not escape the siren call of JDM vans. I might seriously bid on this even though I'm supposed to be on a buying freeze. It's got pretty bitchin' stickers, too.
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Oct 6, 2017 17:45
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KakerMix posted:
that roof looks no beuno, and it looks like heavy corrosion on wheel wells.
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Oct 6, 2017 18:26
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Lord of Garbagemen posted:that roof looks no beuno, and it looks like heavy corrosion on wheel wells. Yeah the auction sheet translation is: quote:interior dirty/scratched, undercarriage rust and corrosion, ceiling liner sagging, no A/C belt, windshield chip, scratches and dents as on diagram. So it looks like the wheel wells themselves are fine it's all the bits underneath that are probably bad. Rust is one thing, but corrosion yeesh. I'm debating even bothering to have an inspection done. Might just pass. Really not digging the 'no A/C belt' bit too, just going to assume that all the AC stuff is garbage. Nissan Be-1, here is a white one in the configuration I'd like, with bonus fabric retractable roof. A/C and 5 speed. It is missing it's front wheel covers (the black discs) which is odd, and probably not the easiest to get a hold of OEM-wise. Even without the translation I also see the AC isn't operable.    It goes up for auction in 4 hours, has a starting bid of $80 USD and isn't being run by USS so should have a clear indication if it sold and for what price. Autozam AZ-1, 1992 so either October, November or December build month. Looks in good shape, but they usually all are. What's weird about this one is the car itself is red (and my personal favorite configuration without the spoiler) but the interior is blue. Either it was a blue car painted red later or the seats were replaced with blue ones at some point. AZ-1s were only red or blue with color-matched interiors at the start. Aftermarket wheels, looks to be aftermarket exhaust.    Up for auction in 3 hours, not-USS so again, should get a clear indication if it sells or not. Re: That Delica I'm getting an inspection on it anyway, it's too neat to not. We'll see what the inspector says. DOUBLE EDIT Inspector came back, white smoke in exhaust. Coolant is full and clean, and the inspector couldn't smell coolant in the exhaust. Said the smoke is only under load and not idle, and didn't get worse as it warmed up. That plus the AC belt being gone (probably because the compressor is seized, why else would a belt not be there?) is just too much for the minimum $2500 bucks on top of whatever the purchase price would be. KakerMix fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Oct 7, 2017 |
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Oct 7, 2017 00:43
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Results are in: Nissan Be-1 Sold for $1720 Autozam AZ-1 Bid went up to $3750, did not sell. The Delica did not sell, nor does it look like it received any bids at all. There is a real chance that the cost for it, whenever it sells, is going to be very low.
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Oct 7, 2017 06:36
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KakerMix posted:I see you your 72 Toyota Publica and raise you 73 Mitsubishi Lancer I want to take this to Lancer meetups and see all the Evo assholes get all confused.
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Oct 7, 2017 07:43
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Talk to me about buying a car and driving it in Japan for a couple of weeks before shipping it out. I believe it would only be possible if you had the help of a tame dealer or similar to "register" the car, and then there's things like insurance to deal with, too. I'm pretty certain when MCM "bought" their Mira and drove it in Hokkaido for a couple of days, it was on the basis of something sorted by the dealer, but I don't think they've ever explicitly given the rundown on how the mechanics of it worked. InitialDave fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Oct 7, 2017 |
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Oct 7, 2017 11:20
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My Dutch friends just pretend to not speak English and hand over their Dutch driver licenses when they get busted for speeding here in the USA and always just get sent on their way cause the cops are lazy. I am sure the Japanese cops though have a form for what you want to illegally do to impound the car and foreigner.
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Oct 7, 2017 12:33
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Elephanthead posted:I am sure the Japanese cops though have a form for what you want to illegally do to impound the car and foreigner.
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Oct 7, 2017 13:09
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KakerMix posted:
Right so I learned something new. Sometimes it can take hours to have a result show. This bastard sold for $8130. Eight thousand one hundred and thirty united states dollars. Granted it was unique and weird but goddamn. My bid limit was no where near that.
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Oct 7, 2017 16:03
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