MG F New zealander trying to source A hardtop sidescoops and Body modifications

Shipping one to New Zealand is simple but the price is the killer. I ship MGB OD gearboxes to the USA and the cost is around (£290, it changes with the exchange rate) to ship one toNew Zealand is £533 today. I haven’t either weighed or measured a hardtop for shipping but assuming it will fit in a crate 150 by 120 by 75 cms and weighing circa 50kgs including the crate the the cost rises to £2200. The reason for this is that shipping costs are calculated using a combination of weight and volume and with a hardtop you are shipping a lot of air. To get any insurance cover against damage it would need to be in a sturdy crate. However you could pack the empty void with other items and the rate may not increase very much or even not at all. With the gearboxes the weight is right at the limit for DHL, FedEx and UPS, if the weight goes over the 70kg level the cost rises out of all proportion.
If you can find someone with space in a container who would send it for you then it would only be a few pounds.

Shipping is very simple these days, the normal time from collection to delivery to the USA is three days, the quickest ever was two days and five hours. I normally use DHL , all the customs declarations are made electronically when booking the shipment. The USA customs know what is coming before it lands (just like API) and normally clears customs within a couple of hours after landing. The distance from the point of entry is the determining factor in the length of the rest of the journey. I have now sent over forty gearboxes, none have ever arrived damaged, none lost and not one has taken seven days.
I wouldn’t use Parcelforce under any circumstances, they are totally inept. I recently had a CW&P from Germany sat in Exeter or six days while I waited for them to inform me how much duty and tax I had to pay. I actually called them and said “you have had it for six days, when on earth are you going to email me to collect the taxes “ If this had only happened once I would accept it was an error but virtually every time the same thing happens. Every one is blaming Brexit for the delays but my experience is who you ship with determines how easy it goes. Here endeth my rant.

Politics politics sadly the PO (as was) covered all services combined but was an arm/tool of the Government and as such was batted about as those in power played with their toys. Now we have 3 entities PO counters (HMG), Parcelfarce (IDS) and Royal Mail letters (also owned by IDS) only one of which is making money. I predict in the very near future RM will go bust and be renationalised (you think it's dear now) Parcelfarce will be rebranded IDS and continue. Poor old counters who lost there reason to exist (think tax discs, DHSS etc) will be left to wither on the vine because the cold hard hand of Government sees no role for them. Currently few of us have access to a physical bank branch nearby for things like banking cash, cheques, change etc perhaps they could become the peoples bank, silly me they did that (Girobank) many years ago and it got sold off.
Believe it or not but politically I'm right of middle and can't see a party deserving of my vote, I want the none of the above box on the ballot so I can at least see a reason to vote.
NURSE HIS OUT OF BED AGAIN
PS Parcelfarce is not a misprint it was what the letters side of the business always used when referring to the parcels side, how times change.

Deepfat, as you say the whole Royal Mail saga is a sad affair. Sadly I cannot see how the letters side of the business can exist as it is, we live in a rural area and postman/woman drives a small van around delivering letters to every door. In the USA in country villages they have mail huts where there are dozens of mail boxes where people go and collect their mail, no house to house delivery there. On the other side of the coin I work on a house building site where the Postie can deliver to over two hundred houses in a fifteen minute walk. We receive virtually everything by email these days, even my tax return is an online only option. As for the counters side of the business I do see some hope, I use them for paying cash into my online only bank account, it has no branches anywhere, it doesn't issue cheques and to pay one in I use my mobile phone. Unlike the Giro days when there was a futile attempt to launch a bank, they will probably evolve into multi bank outlet. Parcelforce is a different matter, if it smartened up its act it might survive but DHL, DPD, Fedex, UPS and a whole load of others who deliver in unmarked vans and even cars seem to have the market sewn up.