Help Needed in Wilmington/Long Beach Cali Area... bought a Stellar Bue Sports Hood!

[SURF RUNNER]

Help Needed in Wilmington/Long Beach Cali Area... bought a Stellar Blue Sports Hood!

I really wanted an OEM sports hood from a salvage yard - finally finding a Stellar Blue hood was icing on the cake. This one was $300 plus shipping and looks to be in excellent condition. As you probably know there are some advantages to buying a complete used hood. You already get the scoop and all of the other pieces that you have to buy from Toyota to complete an aftermarket hood. In addition you get the heat shield/liner and the tubing necessary for the washer fluid system. OEM hoods are also crash tested and built with crumple zones. An aftermarket hood without these safety features could potentially decapitate you in a head on crash. On this hood the Stellar Blue paint looks exactly like mine - even if it doesn't match exactly due to fading it should be very close, plus I don't have to repaint and have the paint shop try to blend the color in on the fenders - this can get expensive.

Shipping quotes from Wilmington, CA to College Station, TX are running between $100 and $200. The salvage yard won't box or ship the hood for liability reasons (probably because the hood is somewhat difficult to box).

Is there someone in the Long Beach area that would be willing to box this hood Thursday (12/4) or Friday (12/5) so it will be ready for the shipping company to pick up Monday (12/8)? I would be willing to PayPal someone $100 (or whatever you think is fair) to compensate you for your time. Maybe someone has a son or daughter who wants to make a little extra money for Christmas. All you would have to do is pick up a box from a dealership, body shop or aftermarket shop - most hood boxes will do. Obviously I would want the hood wrapped in something and packed with styrofoam. I will be purchasing insurance, but these blue sports hoods are so rare I want to make sure that this one makes it intact. This is the first Stellar Blue Sports Hood I have seen since I started looking about 9 months ago.

If someone is interested in helping me please call or text me at DELETED.

Thanks,

Greg

 

[Quadsbc]

Expect to pay 200+ in shipping. A proper packaging would include a wooden box around the hood. I'd say 8/10 hoods will be damaged in shipping I've seen I first hand. The back corners near the windshield take the brunt of the shipping companies careless employees. Insuring a hood is useless, it's too easy for the shipper to say it wasn't packed correctly and deny the claim. I'd take the risk and ship it no insurance.

 

[SURF RUNNER]

If 8 out of 10 hoods are damaged during shipping let's hope I'm in the 20% club!

 

[Dezert4Runner]

Unfortunately, Quadsbc is right about a small wooden crate being the best way of shipping something like this, which are not cheap to have made. On a regular basis I watch UPS and Fed Ex use the bigger boxes on the floor of their trucks as steps to reach boxes on the top shelves. "Shouldn't damage what's inside if it's packaged well" is the way they justify it (as I watch the boxes start to crumple from their weight lol). Big flat boxes show up a little slimmer by the time they reach their destination. The thought of a hood in a cardboard box is just asking for trouble IMO, even with foam and paying extra attention to the corners it's still a big gamble.

That being said, I hope you catch a break with that gem. Good luck!

 

[JRZEE2000TR4LTD]

Roadtrip!!

 

[d0nkeyxpunch]

Roadtrip!!

Yeah, if you are going to be spending $200+ just for shipping, might as well make it a roadtrip out of it.

 

[SweetWaterSurprise]

Yeah, if you are going to be spending $200+ just for shipping, might as well make it a roadtrip out of it.

So what do you think that "roadtrip" will cost? Considering he's probably 1500 miles one way from LB Cali, if his location in TX is correct.

 

[Quadsbc]

More than 200 in fuel, plus food and hotels or eating pbj and sleeping in the back of the truck

 

[Kenworth]

Contact u ship or find a otr trucker that runs tx to Cali and back have them grab it

 

[SURF RUNNER]

I have a bid on U Ship going, but I still need someone to box it for me.

I would love to roadtrip to pick up this hood if I had the time off from work. I live for stuff like that. A year ago I got a free Southwest buddy pass to fly to NE Tennessee. I bought my 4Runner and drove it home - no big deal. After I graduated from college I lived in Los Angeles from 1989-1991 working in the movie business behind the scenes (production assistant, location scout, etc.). This was the tail end of a legendary era on the Sunset Strip. You could see up and coming bands at the Troubador or the Whiskey-A-Go-Go. I would love to go back to L.A. on a roadtrip. Cruising Sunset Blvd. and the Pacific Coast Highway would definitely be on the itinerary on such an adventure.

My internet research on shipping hoods indicates that shipping on Greyhound is one of the best and cheapest ways to ship a hood. Yesterday I got an estimate from Greyhound to ship it from their Long Beach, CA station to Bryan, TX for $105. The good thing about Greyhound is that they have limited freight space in the cargo bay at the bottom of the bus so no one is going to be standing on top of your hood. There could be damage from luggage, but I think that the risk for damage on Greyhound is less than for a commercial shipping company.

As far as the cost the only was I could get a Stellar Blue sports hood cheaper is to find one in Houston or somewhere close to me. From my experience about 90% the sports hoods in salvage yards are green, black or silver. These Stellar Blue ones are rare to begin with and this is the first one I've seen in a salvage yard anywhere.

If I had bought one in another color for $300 in Houston I would still have to get it painted at a paint and body shop. The components in the scoop would have to be removed and painted so they don't get "glued" in. The OEM stickers on the back would be removed as well as the heat shield/liner. There would be media blasting, sanding, prime and prep time. The paint shop would have to blend in the paint on the fenders as well. I don't think a reputable paint shop would do all of this for under $200, so you are still into $500 to $600 for this hood. If the used hood was damaged in any way it would obviously cost even more.

 

[Brentif]

I live in Long Beach and drive through the port area twice a day going to and from work (not far from where most of the dismantling yards are), but will be out of town until next Tuesday,. If you haven't figured anything out by then let me know. I think I have enough scrap wood at the house that I could probably build a crate for it.

I do have personal experience shipping a hood, and even though we packaged the sh*t out of it (box, bubble wrap and tons of foam sheet and peanuts, but no crate), and the corners at the back by the windshield were both broken (this was a carbon fiber hood, so it was more fragile that what you are getting).

-Brent

 

[Brentif]

After more thought I definitely have the wood and resources to build a crate if you do not find a solution before I come back on Tuesday. And actually Tuesday is great because I fly back in around lunch, and will be working from home the rest of the day so I could easily pick up the hood while they are open and get it home, then build a crate that night (yard is probably 5-10 miles from the airport, then another 5 home). All I would need to find would be the box to fit the hood, but I don't think that would be a problem since there are quite a few body shops between there and my house.

 

[SURF RUNNER]

Thanks Brent... It was good to talk to you on the phone and it sounds like you have a great plan. Brent is going to shrink wrap the hood, box it, spray in some protective foam, crate it, and then drop it off at Greyhound. Greyhound quoted me $105 for 47" x 60" x 8" with a weight up to 60 pounds for shipping from their Long Beach, CA station to Bryan, TX.

I'll reply here once I receive it and then post some photos with the sports hood installed. Hopefully some of the information on this thread helps the next person that needs to ship a sports hood.

 

[Brentif]

Hood is at my house now, picked it up this afternoon. Ill be building the crate tonight and have it dropped off at Greyhound tomorrow.

More pics to come

 

[SURF RUNNER]

Thanks Brent!

We decided that Greyhound is a great shipping option. I am not in a big rush to get the hood, shipping will be a little over $100, and Fedex and UPS guys won't be stepping all over it and throwing it around. In a bus the cargo bay isn't that large (compared to a freight truck) so the maximum width is 47" wide. The hood measures almost 45 inches from the windshield A pillars to the center of the grille, so there isn't much room to spare for this dimension. The maximum package size is 47" x 82" x 30". The maximum weight is 100lbs. We thought that this info might be helpful to other forum members shipping a hood in the future.

 

[Unner]

It's cool to see forum members helping each other like this. Makes me want to start looking for a black sport hood for mine as well. Hmmm...

 

[Scramble]

Too many negative nancys here. I could wrap that in large bubble wrap, put styrofoam corners on it, put in a double corrugated box & it would arrive undamaged.

Glad it worked out for the OP, I love my Sport Hood! (Mine will chop my head off in an accident) :bump2:

 

[Scramble]

If I had bought one in another color for $300 in Houston I would still have to get it painted at a paint and body shop. The components in the scoop would have to be removed and painted so they don't get "glued" in. The OEM stickers on the back would be removed as well as the heat shield/liner. There would be media blasting, sanding, prime and prep time. The paint shop would have to blend in the paint on the fenders as well. I don't think a reputable paint shop would do all of this for under $200, so you are still into $500 to $600 for this hood. If the used hood was damaged in any way it would obviously cost even more.

They don't media blast hoods, they can warp. All they are going to do is rough it up & spray it. So what if the scoop gets "Glued" in, why would you take it out?

 

[Brentif]

After some help from a few friends who work for beer, it is all complete. It will be at the Greyhound office tomorrow afternoon.

 

[SURF RUNNER]

Thanks! Looks great. Can you post the exact dimensions and weight here or text them to me? I need that info to call Greyhound, pay for shipping and email you a shipping label. If you don't know the exact weight you can estimate it. If the weight is a little off I can pay Greyhound for the difference after they weigh it at the station.

Great idea to angle in the hood to make it easier to get within the 47" restriction. I did not think of that... I was imagining a crate 8" to 10" high.