Advice on buying parts for your own use in Europe?

Kaim

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"Help the man on the hill", Finnish folk saying.

I would like to purchase a 1970 Chrysler 300 right front fender wheel opening molding and a good condition rear bumper (no dents and rust). How should we proceed here? I can't find those on eBay, and if I can, the parts are damn expensive. Any tips?

Air freight is very expensive to Europe, shipping by ship is cheaper. My buddy lives in Lake Worth Beach, Florida and can ship them.

In Finland, the base work (correcting dents and depressions) and chrome plating of the rear bumper of a full-size car costs about $1000. Isn't it cheap :).
 
Getting ANY kind of wheel opening molding shipped can be tricky! Sometimes, getting them from the OEM in dealership shipments was tricky, too. For your situation, over there, even putting the molding in a "case made of sturdy wood" might be good, but heavy.

I concur with the possibilities of MoparShop in Germany. You might also reach out to the www.bbtr.de people, too, for possibly enlarging your network over there.

In the USA, many atmospheric environmental standards have made it more costly for chromers to be in business unless they are pretty large. Basically, the old "body shop oriented" re-chrome bumper industry has vanished, mainly due to the use of soft bumper covers on new cars, since the late 1970s. Many smaller chrome shops, which usually catered to the motorcycle owners, have vanished, too.

Take care,
CBODY67
 
Getting ANY kind of wheel opening molding shipped can be tricky! Sometimes, getting them from the OEM in dealership shipments was tricky, too. For your situation, over there, even putting the molding in a "case made of sturdy wood" might be good, but heavy.

I concur with the possibilities of MoparShop in Germany. You might also reach out to the www.bbtr.de people, too, for possibly enlarging your network over there.

In the USA, many atmospheric environmental standards have made it more costly for chromers to be in business unless they are pretty large. Basically, the old "body shop oriented" re-chrome bumper industry has vanished, mainly due to the use of soft bumper covers on new cars, since the late 1970s. Many smaller chrome shops, which usually catered to the motorcycle owners, have vanished, too.

Take care,
CBODY67
Interesting, thanks CBODY67. There are still chrome workshops in Finland and Sweden, but they are decreasing. Recycling makes more sense than re-chroming, so I believe and hope some US state has a 300 or New Yorker rear bumper for my car.
 
Interestingly, there are many larger salvage yards in the US that are catering to older Chrysler Corp vehicles. Seems like there might be one in Georgia, USA? Plus some in the midwestern areas and the western states, too. Might also check the MANY C-body Facebook groups, too.

Take care,
CBODY67
 
if it makes you feel any better had the bumpers done last fall at Tri City Plating in Tennessee and they were $1000 each so your plater isn't exactly overcharging by US standards...I can't imagine what it would cost to ship something as large and heavy as a bumper to Finland
 
if it makes you feel any better had the bumpers done last fall at Tri City Plating in Tennessee and they were $1000 each so your plater isn't exactly overcharging by US standards...I can't imagine what it would cost to ship something as large and heavy as a bumper to Finland
I bought a bumper for Dodge in the spring. It was shipped from Florida to Finland in a sea container with other people's stuff. Freight forwarding and shipping cost about $150. Not terribly expensive. Sure, it's slow mode of transportation; shipping in late April and bumper at my house in early August.
 
I really don’t see any other option than try to find the bumper from US, and have it shipped to Finland via Lake Worth, FL. I’ve done that, cost was about what you mentioned. The bumper weighs in at least 25 kg, so it has to be wrapped up good, with many layers of cardboard.
There are several junkyards specializing in Mopars out there. Start going through them. Wildcat Wrecking in Oregon springs to mind.
 
I really don’t see any other option than try to find the bumper from US, and have it shipped to Finland via Lake Worth, FL. I’ve done that, cost was about what you mentioned. The bumper weighs in at least 25 kg, so it has to be wrapped up good, with many layers of cardboard.
There are several junkyards specializing in Mopars out there. Start going through them. Wildcat Wrecking in Oregon springs to mind.
Thanks 330dTA, I'll check this out. I have received quite a lot of "out of stock" responses to my inquiries. It can be concluded that availability is poor or I'm asking about the wrong places.
 
I bought a bumper for Dodge in the spring. It was shipped from Florida to Finland in a sea container with other people's stuff. Freight forwarding and shipping cost about $150. Not terribly expensive. Sure, it's slow mode of transportation; shipping in late April and bumper at my house in early August.
that's amazingly affordable
 
that's amazingly affordable
There are many people's goods in a same sea container, which makes shipping cheap. And if you get the parts, for example, in the trunk of a car being shipped to Finland (for example, a friend's car), shipping can be free :)
 
They pack the containers full with stuff, and the total cost of shipping is the cost of shipping of the container, not of the individual pieces. It used to be about $1500 per container a couple of years ago. (I don’t have an up to date info.)
 
These are the best bets that I can think of, regarding parts:

Wrecking yards:

Murray B Park, Tiffin, OH
(Ohio) - Perhaps the best source

Frank Parks, Somerville, GA
(Georgia) - Mopar parts only

Wildcat Auto Wrecking, Sandy, OR (Oregon) - Mopar parts only

Desert Valley Auto Parts, Phoenix, AZ
(Arizona) - Massive collection of cars

National Moparts, Beaverton, Ontario
(Canada) - Both used and NOS parts

NOS parts vendors:

Brad’s NOS Parts bradsnosparts.com
AMS Obsolete www.amsnos.com
Mopar Mall www.moparmall.com
Andy Bernbaum Auto Parts www.oldmoparts.com
 
These are the best bets that I can think of, regarding parts:

Wrecking yards:

Murray B Park, Tiffin, OH
(Ohio) - Perhaps the best source

Frank Parks, Somerville, GA
(Georgia) - Mopar parts only

Wildcat Auto Wrecking, Sandy, OR (Oregon) - Mopar parts only

Desert Valley Auto Parts, Phoenix, AZ
(Arizona) - Massive collection of cars

National Moparts, Beaverton, Ontario
(Canada) - Both used and NOS parts

NOS parts vendors:

Brad’s NOS Parts bradsnosparts.com
AMS Obsolete www.amsnos.com
Mopar Mall www.moparmall.com
Andy Bernbaum Auto Parts www.oldmoparts.com
Kiitos/Thanks 330dTA!

Murray does not have the parts I want and I have already contacted Wildcat.
Murray actually has a rear bumper but it was in the same condition as mine.
I'll check the list above :)
 
May I ask who was the Finnish chrome plater you were going to use? Loimaan Kromaus?

I got a budget quote of 4000€ from Dala Krom Ab in Sweden, for rechroming both the front, and rear bumper for my ’70 NYer. Haven’t done anything about it yet. (Bad times.)
 
May I ask who was the Finnish chrome plater you were going to use? Loimaan Kromaus?

I got a budget quote of 4000€ from Dala Krom Ab in Sweden, for rechroming both the front, and rear bumper for my ’70 NYer. Haven’t done anything about it yet. (Bad times.)
Yes, it was Loimaan Kromaus. They said that the cost of chrome plating one full size bumper is €800 - over $1000 depending on the base work.

We living hard times. Certainly the quality of Swedes is traditionally good.
 
Yes, about a year ago. I thought there would be some Chrysler 300s or New Yorkers in the backyards of the houses, but nope. Also, inquiries to scrap yards have not yet yielded the desired result.
 
A lot of vendors on FB state that they will not ship, pick up only. Many vendors take cash only, and some explicitly refuse to use PayPal ot equivalent. Those restrictions make it for us overseas things very difficult.
 
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