shipping my 180 to the states

[johnnyballs180]

okay, so here's the deal...

i'm in okinawa, japan, and i have a '93 180sx, sr20det redtop. i've looked and looked, and to be honest, i'm not sure what i'm looking for. i've never really been in the states, much-less owned a car there, so i don't know how that all works out.

i'll probably be going to washington state.

i've looked up some shipping companies, and it'll be a few grand to ship.. but the customs and legalities are what i'm worried about.

what do i have to look out for? i want my car to be street-legal. a couple people have recommended just taking the car apart and shipping the guts, not the shell... which might be what i'll have to do. if i bring my motor over, does it have to be inspected, or pass any tests? even here my car fails almost EVERYTHING, especially emissions, which i heard was a battle in the states.again, i'm going for street-legal.

thanks a lot in advance!

[driven17]

ive never shipped or anything over seas, but i do no that some states are very harsh on emissions like california and there are some that dont really care. But, im not sure about washington. Im sure there will be someone coming along with more info

and i also know there are ppl on nico with 180's that have been imported.

[gtc_240sx]

I do not know about inspections..... but if u come to FLorida..... There is no emission regulations at all...Hand full of r34s are here

[johnnyballs180]

okay, so, anybody out there have a 180 in the states? i'm also not looking to start selling kidneys and fingers to pay for all of this. i've heard things like, even the windshield has to be replaced on most japanese cars. which is kind of funny.. and gay. i think i would rather stretch some saran wrap over the car and call it good.

if nothing else, anybody know how to bring a motor over? forget emissions.. do all the fluids have to be drained, things disassembled, etc.? it's not like i'm going to stuff a pound of weed in the intake plenum or something, but i hate taking things apart.

[Rudelude22]

Since we have enough 240 here it will pass the crash test. Emissions if Washington is really strict you will have to hook it up. One of my buddys thats in the military said they only get inspected like once and thats it in washington. Check Washingtons DMV, there are plenty of places on the internet that tell you how to do this now. Stop being lazy and go read, and yes you will most likely have to drain all your fluids.

[johnnyballs180]

i'm not just being lazy, i just don't know what i'm looking for. nico's part of my research. i figure, since there's a lot of people with engine swaps, somebody's gotta know how to ship one.now why in the hell would somebody ship an engine from the states to here? that's why i don't know how the shipping thing works.. nobody does it in reverse here.stop being a d!ck.

and thanks. i didn't think to check the WA dmv, but that's definitely a good place to start.

[SR24DET]

Im not sure how to ship it here with out it costing alot but there are ways around everything. If you ship you entire car here, it will cost alot and it will spend a good amount of time in customs. At customs they will rip you car apart to inspec for anything hidden. This isnt always the best thing. Another thing is if you rip it apart and ship over the pieces, they will also tare down parts of your motor. Also they dont put it back together. They just kinda put the bolts back in the holes and give it to you. My buddy has imported 3 SR20's and instead of buying them imported, he made a deal with some jap dude and they shipped it here. When he imported some JDM rims, they even took the tires off, to make sure nothing is hidden.

I talked with a guy that imported a skyline and he got it back torn to pieces. The pics made me sad. But he fixed it right up.

Im not telling lies either, this is what has happened. If I were you, sence you are moving to a very northern state, I would ship my car to canada. They dont have all those strict laws like we do. Then I would fly there, and drive your car across the boarder. That wouldnt even be a long drive.

[s13_maJiK]

Vin swap....Illegal but hey 180's and 240's look oddly familier and police won't be able to tell the difference.

[Quality_Salvage]

Vin swap....Illegal but hey 180's and 240's look oddly familier and police won't be able to tell the difference.

Cops always looked at the back of my car (to identify it) when they write me a ticket. And right hand drive my just stick out like a sore thumb. Unless you always have a passenger. Move to Alabama. No mufflers, no cats, no emissions.

[nzmoman]

you need to contact some of the importers. I know that a lot of engine importers have been having troubles getting full cars into the states. They are having to completely disassemble the car in the country of origin (that means, cut up in pieces and not motor in the front clip). Maybe someone in Washington or Cali will let you buy into one of their containers?

[gregfarz78]

Is a 180sx legal in the US well yes and no, if you want to spend all the money to DOT legalize it and get a state issued VIN then yes. Its probably not as hard as a skyline b/c the 180 is basically a 240 with a different engine. My advice is call up the DOT of the state you want to move to, you'll probably have to talk to a few people before you get someone intelligent enough to answer your questions. Personally I don't think its worth all the trouble I'd strip the car down and put everything in a container, buy a clean 240 when you move to the states and swap everything over from your 180.

[johnny butt]

it's not like i'm going to stuff a pound of weed in the intake plenum or something, but i hate taking things apart.

how is the **** in japan?

Anyways,

Im not telling lies either, this is what has happened. If I were you, sence you are moving to a very northern state, I would ship my car to canada. They dont have all those strict laws like we do. Then I would fly there, and drive your car across the boarder. That wouldnt even be a long drive.

I would look into going this route as well. That way, it would potentially cost less, be easier, and you could possibly stop and get that pound before you get back to the states.

[rsdans240sx]

Since we have enough 240 here it will pass the crash test. Emissions if Washington is really strict you will have to hook it up. One of my buddys thats in the military said they only get inspected like once and thats it in washington. Check Washingtons DMV, there are plenty of places on the internet that tell you how to do this now. Stop being lazy and go read, and yes you will most likely have to drain all your fluids.

strict emissions? Not at all in fact there are only a couple of counties that have emissions at all.

[Crautz240]

I do not know about inspections..... but if u come to FLorida..... There is no emission regulations at all...Hand full of r34s are here

you could drive just about anything on the streets here in florida and not have to worry about a damn thing....gtc_240sx were in kissimee are you??

[johnnyballs180]

i HATE the idea of taking everything apart.. but it looks like it's my only real choice, and still a pita.i'm sure most of you can relate.. you pour your heart and blood into a car (not to mention your wallet), and when it's gone, that sucks.

okay, so i've checked lots of your guys' ideas.. physically possible, yea probably.. logical and reasonable, no.

no matter what, my car's going to be raped and taken apart by a bunch of grease monkeys and people with white gloves... this is ridiculous..

i spent lots of money on the car, and i had a good time and i learned a lot............. that still won't justify selling the car, to me at least.

what i DO know is that shipping the motor and goodies is easier. draining the fluids is nothing but a little bit of time and a little money. custom crating, transport, and customs is what comes next.

in guam, we had a 4age 20v shipped directly from japan.. no hassles. not to mention everything is a$$-backwards there anyway, but still. the motor plus everything else was a thousand bucks. i've already got my motor.. so just shipping then..

do most of you guys who have sr20 swaps buy them through "importers" or do it one-on-one with someone? if somebody can bring a thousand of these motors to the U.S., there's gotta be a way i can do it without selling my body.i think i'm okay, but i could never make a lot of money whoring myself. i'd die of AIDS too soon.

next, i'm going to do some research, and see if i can't get a hold of some of the import businesses. i've never bothered looking at them before (because why would i?), but i've seen their ads somewhere. hopefully they have contact info.i'm going to start on this right away. i'm on lunch right now so it'll have to wait till i get off of work, but if ANY of you have any more good ideas, please... ideas are all i have to work with right now.

i super appreciate your guys' imput so far.. except for Rudelude22, your post still bothers me. You don't know anything about me.

..even though the research revealed it wasn't practical to ship the entire car, at least it narrowed down my options.

thank you all so much.

[GIJOE69]

why not just buy a cheap 240sx out here and ship all your parts piece by piece? container is expensive

[carmo]

If you're in the military, do they have a program for shipping employee cars. I see cars here in Virginia with Hawaii plates and Naval base stickers. I know that's not country to country but it's an idea.

Oh! How is the weed in Japan? And, how are the laws on it? Is it expensive?

[johnnyballs180]

carmo, see bottom.

oh yea, TOTALLY. i don't know how people in the states feel about the laws and regulations regarding cars... cars in general... but i gotta say, it BLOWS. i can understand wanting to save the planet, and prove to the world not everything is our fault, that's okay.. but jesus, the prices for everything.i went to the DMV in guam a couple times, and that's the only DMV experience i've ever had.

...........and is the only one i'll ever need. i would wait in line A for an hour and a half, finally make it to the window, just to be told by the butthole-of-a-desk-jockey with a crappy tie, that i needed to go to line B. by this time, it's lunch so EVERYBODY'S at the DMV.. and half the DMV mofos are on lunch too...so, fourty minutes later, i make it to the window at the head of line B. then come to find out, i don't have the appropriate paperwork.

that's like being a little kid and going to disney land and having Mickey try to touch your weewee.

it just isn't cool.

ANYWAY, werd on the container thing. i'm thinking i'm just going to take everything worth taking off of the car and shipping it, including engine, transmission, diff, harnesses, my rear view mirror, and possibly my windshield wipers.why not? they're friggen new!lol

anybody interested in a JDM cigarette lighter?just kidding... i'm taking that too.

again, i really thank you all for the input. it really wasn't what i was hoping to hear... but kind of what i expected.

here's how it goes down here... assuming the car's already here:

by the car. transfer the title (cheap). get insurance (sometimes cheap).

done.

now, for testing, if you have a regular 'ol shagin' wagen, you're fine. JCI is every two years, and they check out the car, make sure everything's fine. these are garages who do this and sign official paperwork and all that. you look between 300 and 1000 dollars, depending on the car type, if anything's wrong, or if you paid them off to simply lie.

my car's a piece of cake. pay 700 dollars and they give me a clean bill of health... even though my car's illegal as $hit. it doesn't really matter what happens down the road.. if you passed JCI, you're home free.

i think it's pretty simple here, but maybe i'm just not used to the states. it seems confusing.. different places require different things, you have state and federal.. i'll get the hang of it.

at this point i'm pretty much ranting; there's not much else to be said.

except i wish i liked hondas.. cuz i heard you can't find enough of them there.my sister in law drove a honda. a few years later i see some dumba** in the same model, all "pimped" out.



i hate them. different strokes for different folks, i guess..but still.i hate them.

i also got pwned by a couple.. but that just adds fuel to the fire :P

i'm not military, i work for the chair force though. except there's no chair involved in my job.. hahaand if you can find it, the weed's primo. also about a hundred bucks a gram, if you're the average joe. 50 bucks for bunk crap if you're dumb. otherwise it's a +if you get caught, your life is pretty much over. for many years at least.i've had all kinds here and in guam, and i gotta say, nothing beats the stuff here.which... most of which... came from seattle. hahahaha

for the record, i'm not officially stating anything, and anything stated previous or in the future may be heresay...or something else to that effect that makes sense.

[nightsauce]

im sorry for your losses. taking apart the car is gonna be a sad deal :| not to threadjack but how much can you get an rb25 out there?

[johnnyballs180]

yea, i'm already feeling the paini can only imagine when i really DO have to take everything apart. at least this way, i can build up my motor in the states while driving the POS transplant car. here, you can only have one vehicle per licence holder. i think this only applies to people in the military or U.S. government. i can't build my engine the way i want to, since i have to use my car to get to work and all that.

an rb25.. hermm. you want turbo, right?off the top of my head, i don't know.. but i'm going to search right now and find out!

okay, this is a roughestimate.. you're looking at about $2000 - $3000. a little pricey though.. check out zeroyon.com. most of them are from here, and there's probably a lot of engines for sale too.

[burntricer]

there has to be a way.in canada there are tonnes of imported vehicles, dealers and ways to do it, contact one of them? maybe have them buy your car, and then you buy it back off them for shipping plus a lil more for their pocket...fly to calgary/vancouver/st johns, wherever the point of entry is, and drive it home?

just a thought?

[silviaS13lover]

if your mad sprung over having an sr 240 etc. theirs a shop here in washington that i work at parttime called up garage. they inport sr,ca,rb,yotsa halfcuts and mad jdm parts and install them too. not sure on importing on from japan, but people here get gtr's silvia's, etc threw canada. gl

[nevertheless]

[NismoDriver240]

Vin swap....Illegal but hey 180's and 240's look oddly familier and police won't be able to tell the difference.

If you're shipping parts with a plan to re-assemble a vehicle it's already illegal. You might as well VIN swap it. And take as many other VIN ID's around the car off as you can. Then ship it to canada and drive in.

[got chub]

i say get someone on here that is parting a s13 and get all the vin numbers off it and put them on your car and come one over.

[johnnyballs180]

how exactly does the VIN thing work? i mean, let's say i did swap for somebody else's VIN.. does that mean when i ship the car over and customs looks at it and looks at the VIN, they'll find that the car is already registered through somebody else? that the car's already legal and passed all the tests? and NismoDriver240, somebody sent me a link to a page on NICO that talked about shipping skylines over.. i did read that taking everything apart and shipping it piece-by-piece was illegal, but i only want to ship parts that i can swap to a 240. that's still legal, right? it's not like i'm trying to build my car again over there (though that'd be nice..). i'd rather be safe than sorry..i'm gonna try to figure out for myself the VIN thing, and see what swapping actually does for me.thanks for the input!

oh, and here you go, nevertheless. doesn't really have anything to do with shipping my car, but..

[aaronscomp]

thats a sick car i think i may have seen it before back when i lived in oki but i could of swore a chick owned it back when i was there

[johnnyballs180]

some kid had my car before i bought it. he got his licence taken away, so his mom drove it instead. that's probably the chick you were talking about.

i'm glad it was his mom driving it, because teenagers get stupid.

lol

[GIJOE69]

woah! thats cool a mom driving a S13 Turbo? damn she must be a MILF? you have any pictures of the mom driving?? J/K!!!!

[johnnyballs180]

she actually looked pretty good... hahaha

you know, guys, i'm not so sure anymore what i'm gonna do. i paid 4500 for the car, i've put a lot of money into it as well.. if i just take the motor and goodies, very very few people would want to buy just the roller. actually.. i don't even know if it'd roll after i'm done with it!lolbut even still, i couldn't get much money out of it. i'd still need to buy another 240 there in the states, plus shipping the motor and crap too..

*sigh

i'm so bummed. i can't win either way. money IS an issue..

what would you all do??