I ordered a Top Secret CF hood from AHHVTEC (Duc - Spugen) in California. I was late for the group buy price but because Duc was a bit late in getting some info to me, he was nice enough to sell it to me at the G.B. price anyway. He also sent it to my home when the shipping company was going to charge extra for this. They prefer to send it to a commercial address. So, a double thanks to Duc for being so accommodating and eating the extra shipping charges.

-Anyway, a few days after the hood was picked up by the trucking company from Spugen, I was phoned from Seattle to confirm some details.
-The trucking co. then transferred the box to their Canadian counterpart who has an office in Calgary.
-One week after the hood left Cali, the hood arrived in Calgary and I got another phone call to tell me what I needed to do.
-The box was sent to a bonded warehouse. All documents were delivered to Canada Customs office in N.E. Calgary where I had to go and clear it.
-I went to C.C. after the weekend and did what I needed to do. They calculated the duty and G.S.T. based on the invoice value. After I paid the $67.00, C.C. faxed a release to the bonded warehouse. (The accept cash, cheque, credit card.)
-The next day, the trucking company phoned again to arrange for delivery to my door.
-The day after that, this showed up at my house:
(Note the size of the thing in relation to my front door and my winter boot. It weighed 35 lbs.)

I only accepted delivery once I determined that the box was not damaged. This is what it looked like inside:
(The hood was wrapped in many layers of bubble wrap. Key places had foam taped to the edge to help cushion all the bumps along the way. The hood's pointy ends were bolted to pieces of plywood to prevent damage and cardboard edging was used to stabilize the hood inside the box.

Here is the top view of the hood:

A close-up of the top view:

 

Here is the underside view:

Close-up shot of underside.


I'd always wondered what was involved with buying something large from the U.S. and having to clear customs as a private citizen so I thought I'd post about it. Usually, stuff gets sent by UPS or Postal Service or FedEx and they do the customs brokerage for you and you pay them to do it. I've also always wondered how these things were packaged as well some different shots of the hood. So here you have it.

 

Thanks for the post. I never knew how much one had to go through when shipping out of the country.

Thanks!

Duc

 

get the dremmel out dave. There will be some spots that need cutting for the hood to fit with the SC. I'll try to take a pic of the underside of my hood tomarrow.

 

Congrats on the hood, I've got the same one from Duc! It also came packed just like that.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by tenblade2001
get the dremmel out dave.

 

Glad you like it xviper!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xviper

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by AHHVTEC

 

Dave that hood looks great!