Border crossing

[My imp]

After having a long talk with my father, who had been in trucking most of his life, the exchange of parts across the border is no more legal than the trafficking of drugs across the border. It would have to be set up as a legal business. All rules, regs, taxes, licenses, etc, would all need to be procured. Smuggling is smuggling. Just the jail term is shorter for F M J parts than heroin. I'm not sitting in jail so you can have shinier headlight rims, or I can get new T Top seals. I get caught at damn near everything I ever did. So for me, it's easier not to do it, than sweat it. I will continue to try to find a loophole, but from what he says, if I even accept gas money, I'm accepting a fee for delivery. That (bare minimum) carries commercial plates, insurance, passport, plus every damn fee both sides of the border can impose. I'd rather pay all the fees, taxes, etc.. than have to deal with the repercussions. But by then, the cost of doing business would probably exceed what we can get delivered commercially. If anyone has a suggestion, I'm all ears. I'm retired on disability, so I have the time. I'd much rather work. I just need a job that fits my individual circumstance. A nice Air ride Bostrom, a healthy stereo, & Miss FunBags in the passenger seat (taking applications), sounds like a good job description! lol

 

[Mr.Lopar]

that's where shipping comes in

 

[My imp]

Gee, I wish I'd said that!lol

 

[Jack Meoff]

They've effectively made it an absolute joke to buy stuff over the border and ship it up here now. I was going to buy that washer reservoir from Eric till I found out it would cost more than what he wanted to ship an empty plastic bottle here.
Mind you the US and Canadian corporations pay jack to import/export stuff to and from Mexico and China...go figure.

 

[My imp]

That's just what it is; a joke! Just a few folk trying to save a few dollars, turns into a criminal enterprise. If you start doing it illegally, your stepping on the big boys toes. To some extent, I see their point. If they're paying tariffs, taxes, fees, & everything else a govt. can dream up to extort for export, why shouldn't we? It just plays into the rich get richer....... Is anyone interested, or, more importantly, does anyone else have the time to invest trying to set up a network to deliver parts to the auto shows nearest the border? I can't do it alone. I've found too much erroneous information online about many topics, this is one that could create some serious problems for people involved. I may not have everything, but one thing I cherish, is my freedom. I don't want some politician looking for reelection making an example out of me. I'm not trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. I'm living proof of Murphy's Law,"If anything can go wrong"......... There HAS to be a way we can pull this off. If we can keep cars that're almost 40 yrs old running, I'm sure we can figure out a way to get parts back & forth! I'd love to take a Rampage, put the drivetrain from my LeBaron convertible, & use that thing to run parts. Anytime I've seen them for sale, there's always a reason why I don't buy. It usually has something to do with price vs condition. No matter what, it's still an El Omninochero, a hacked together pickup. Rare or not, if the panels are flapping in the breeze, the engine seized, interior is shot, you don't have something that's worth a fortune. I don't know if the guy made it or not, but I saw one with a cap on it. That's a perfect parts hauler!

 

[Jack Meoff]

Sure wish this guy was selling his.
This is on my way to the trailer....it's freakin' mint.

 

[kkritsilas]

My Imp:

I cannot speak for US guys coming up to Canada and buying parts and returning with them, or US guys bringing parts up to Canada and selling them here. I have no knowledge of that.

For Canadian guys buying and bringing parts back from the US, there is a $750 personal exemption if you stay in the US for over 48 hours (it may be 24 hours, or 72 hours, it does change from time to time). If a Canadian guy went down to a US car show, he could bring back $750 worth of parts. The value would be set by a bill of sale, and barring that, the Customs guy will set a value based on the part (you don't want him to do this). If you go down with a buddy or two, it would be $750 for each person. Just have your reciepts handy, don't try to hide anything from the Customs guys, and you would be fine. Most customs guys are not bad, they just want to do their jobs. This is if you are bringing in parts for yourself, if the Customs guys think you are bringing in commercial quantities, there could be issues.

Kostas

 

[My imp]

I wonder if this would also pertain to a "club or organization"? That way, all of us could do the trade thing. Do our little bit to be better neighbors. Unless we're talking engines & such, the values would be under $750 on all but the most rare, hard to find parts. We have a list of most of the major shows, it actually sounds do-able. Good heads up, thank you. Just watched the "Great Planes" episode about the XB-70 on the military channel! lol don't worry, I won't hold my breath until the B-58 gets an updated episode! Maybe we need to find the parallel universe, where everyone owns Chrysler products, & GM is the outcast company fighting for respect! Where Booger & Skeeter build Hemi's every week & the Chevy guys say, "How hard would it be to build JUST one LS motor? Friggin' Hemi's!" lol

 

[kkritsilas]

I think that the politicians who stick their noses (on both sides of the border) into military matters are doing the military a great dis-service. It doesn't matter if it was the cancellation of the XB-70, the dumbing down of the B-1A, or on this side of the border, the cancellation of the CF-105 or the current paralysis over the F-35. Lawyers and politicians don't know what they are doing, so they should stay out of it.

Do you ever wonder what a plane like the XB-70/B-58/CF105 would be capable of with current engines and the on-going aerodynamic refinements, along with the possible weight reduction due to the use of modern engines, electronics and carbon fiber structural elements?

The XB-70 is what prompted the Soviet Union to come out with the MiG-25 Foxbat. The potential of the XB-70 really threw the Kremlin into a tizzy.

Back to the original topic, It is a personal deduction. So I don't know if it would apply to a club or organization. If the quantities are not outrageous, the border guys will usually let stuff through. If a couple of guys from Canada were to come down, they get $750 each. That should be enough, especially if the parts are old/used, and not for current cars.

Kostas

 

[slant6billy]

This one with the 331 blown hemi

 

[Jack Meoff]

Whoa!

 

[My imp]

I think that the politicians who stick their noses (on both sides of the border) into military matters are doing the military a great dis-service. It doesn't matter if it was the cancellation of the XB-70, the dumbing down of the B-1A, or on this side of the border, the cancellation of the CF-105 or the current paralysis over the F-35. Lawyers and politicians don't know what they are doing, so they should stay out of it.

Do you ever wonder what a plane like the XB-70/B-58/CF105 would be capable of with current engines and the on-going aerodynamic refinements, along with the possible weight reduction due to the use of modern engines, electronics and carbon fiber structural elements?

The XB-70 is what prompted the Soviet Union to come out with the MiG-25 Foxbat. The potential of the XB-70 really threw the Kremlin into a tizzy.

Back to the original topic, It is a personal deduction. So I don't know if it would apply to a club or organization. If the quantities are not outrageous, the border guys will usually let stuff through. If a couple of guys from Canada were to come down, they get $750 each. That should be enough, especially if the parts are old/used, and not for current cars.

Kostas

The Mig25 was created to catch an already existing supersonic bomber. A little thing called the B-58 Hustler. They always try to ignore it in the history books, for whatever reason. I hate to keep whipping a dead horse, however, is the reason behind the Hustler snub the same reason Chrysler gets snubbed? All the things that GM is given credit for, that Chrysler actually did. Like the infamous 1 hp per/1 cu in. The 283/283 wasn't the first. The 354/355 HEMI WAS. I guess you could technically say it wasn't a true 1 to 1, as there was that 1 extra hp to be distributed amongst those 354 cubes. They also said that it was a limited production engine (key word being production), & therefore didnt count. So was the 283/283. It wasn't available across the board, they just sold more than the 354/355. The record is for the 1st production engine to put out 1 to 1. No matter what little * you put on the end of it? Chrysler, not Chevy, manufactured the 1st 1 to 1 engine. The SR-71 is given credit for being the first plane to make extensive use of titanium in its construction, along with honeycomb construction, etc... All of which were used on the Hustler years before. I've eheard the Hustler was a one trick pony, had a high accident rate, was expensive to build, maintain, & fly. As I've always said, "Excuses are like arseholes; everyone's got one. And they all stink!" The Hustler (not a fighter, interceptor, or attack) was the first plane to fly 2 Mach in sustained level flight. We went from 1 Mach fighters to 3 Mach experimental bombers? If you watch any of the aviation shows, the Hustler almost seems an embarrassment. The mere mentioning of the plane (like Grand Funk Railroad) gets you shunned from the aviation (music) community? My next door neighbor got his license in'73. All you heard on the radio was GFR Closer to Home album. WMMS had the practice of playing album sides. GDR, Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, The Who, & all the other hard rock acts of the late '60's, all are in the hall of shame, except one. GFR!

 

[My imp]

View attachment 5059View attachment 5059 This one with the 331 blown hemi

That is Sofa King Cool! I'd never get stopped at the border trying to deliver parts!!! lol I could deliver parts like Domino's Pizza, in 30 min.'s or less!

 

[NoCar340]

I always wanted to do an earlier Rampage with a Shelby Charger front clip on it. I've since seen it done, and I was right. It's downright groovy.

 

[tim berry]

I got used fun bags and a dislike for politicians

 

[My imp]

Always had a dislike for polititions, always LLLOOOOOVVVVEEEEEDDD fun bags. New or used! Hey, know what an 80 yr old has between her fun bags, that a 20 yr old doesn't? Her navel!

 

[kkritsilas]

If you watch the Great Planes episode on the XB-70, in some of the scenes with the XB-70 flying, there is a B-58 flying chase. It is probably one of the few planes that could keep up with the XB-70 (at least until the XB-70 hit afterburner). In some of those scenes, you can really see how big the XB-70 actually was. The B-58 looks quite small next to the XB-70, and the B-58 is NOT a small plane by any stretch of the imagination.

My book on the XB-70 stated that the stainless steel honeycomb that was used on the XB-70 was first used on the B-58. A lot of the manufacturing techniques for the stainless steel honeycomb were brought over from Convair.

MiG25 was specifically targeted at the XB-70. Soviet Union already had Mach 2 fighters that could keep up with the B-58, but nothing to catch the XB-70 should it have ever gone into volume production. That is also in the Great Planes video. I don't agree with the Mig25 being based on the ideas of the A-5 Vigilante, though. While there are similarities, the A-5 was a ship board bomber, the MiG25 was pure high speed interceptor. If there was ever a one-trick pony, the MiG25 was it. It essentially had only one thing going for it, speed. Just like the SR-71, it was a single purpose airplane, no dogfighting capability, no ground attack capabililty, just straight out speed. And in the end, the MiG25 just became a reconnaisance plane, just like the SR-71. I think the MiG 25 did steal some ideas from the B-58 though, being made mostly of stainless steel instead of titanium or other high temp. exotic metals.

Kostas

 

[alf44]

i saw that show also, not much into planes but what a awesome plane that xb-70 was

 

[My imp]

It, like the B-58 were too far ahead of the technology of their day. The 58 was subjected to the lengthiest test program of any plane before, or since. It still made it on SAC runways for 10 years (that's another excuse they used, was that it didn't stay in service very long), which is average. I don't know why? The XB-70 never made it past experimental phase. Too costly, too complex, whatever, would've made a hell of a successor to the B-58. So would've the original B-1. President Carter killed it, President Reagan brought it back & neutered it as the B-1B. But missiles were the up & coming thing. I'm sorry, but I want a human being steering that bomb to a target, with the option of calling off a strike at the last second. I know about self-destruct, I also know that electronics aren't the most reliable things either. Whose to say that some dictator won't line a couple hundred civilians in front of the target as human shields? Satellites are good, but not movie good. I'll take a crew any day!

 

[kkritsilas]

The unacknowledged part is that the killing off of some (most?) projects was basically politically driven. They had worked a lot of the technical issues with the XB-70 by the time the second prototype was being constructed. I was under the impression that prototypes are built to find and fix bugs before regular production stars (but, hey what do I know?). If the XB-70 had been allowed to go into production, it would have allowed the US to make further advances in Mach 3+ aircraft, and given the US a solid lead in large supersonic aircraft. As it is, the only countries that have ever fielded a large supersonic aircraft are Britain/France with the Concorde and the Russians withe the TU-144 (Concorde competitor) and the Blackjack/Backfire bombers. I would put forth the idea that if the XB-70 had gone to production, that the US would have eventually had an SST. The late 1960s research flights of the XB-70 were investigating some of the issues for that purpose.

The XB-70 was an expensive program, no doubt. But the expense of the XB-70 development program was tiny compared to the expense of the B-1 program, which wouldn't have been required had the XB-70 gone into production. It would have made the B-2 unnecessary. Which would have been the cheaper way to go, long term?

Missiles have their place. But in no way do they replace a manned bomber. There is no reason that a manned bomber could not be used as a missile launch platform (as the B-52 is being used now), nor is it a given that the area of operation will have a heavy concentration of SAMs (see the Gulf war, Iraq war, etc.). And in the case of the Gulf War, the infrastructure to operate those SAM missiles was destroyed in the first few hours of the conflich by the EF-111s and EA-6Bs. With that out of the way, manned bombers could operate freely, as the B-52s did. B-52s are still effective, but getting real old.

Kostas