Ruby carburettor sought for a chap in Spain... and a pork pie too now!

[Nick Lettington]

Oh dear... my efforts to help you José to get his ORT(ish) seven up and running seem never ending. He now needs a carburettor... a Zenith 26VA I believe. 

Anyone feeling benevolent with one that is likely to get the chap out of trouble? He can pay... but apparently not the £150 plus of a newly refurbished one. 

Anything considered.

[Nick Lettington]

Thank you Robert for stepping forward. 

The list grew a little longer today as a pork pie stop and tail light is also needed... can anyone offer a (scruffy but functional) cheap one for the chap... despite being Spanish, parsimonious seems to have translated quite well!

[Chris KC]

Nothing wrong with a little parsimony as long as it doesn't cost too much. 
It's good to hear José is embracing the core values of the A7 world...

[Denis Sweeney]

Nick, I have a spare Ruby Pork Pie lamp of which I have attached a PDF of some pics. 
I am not sure it is in full working order, but does appear to be complete, perhaps missing a wire or two.  I repainted it many years ago but later found a better one which I fitted with LED's that is now installed on the back of my Ruby.
The one in the pics is just sitting in a box up in the rafters above my garage and your friend is welcome to it if you think it will do the job.

Cheers Denis S

[Nick Lettington]

Denis, that is fantastic.

I'll send you my address in a personal message. I will send it with the carburettor (and a lift pump I'm letting him have for a song once I have replaced the diaphragm!). I'll happily pay you for the postage.

Many many thanks

[Reckless Rat]

For information, remember that post brexit, any parcels you send into Europe will be subject to customs duty and VAT. Not sure about what the sender has to do when going UK to EU but it would be best to check beforehand.

A pal of mine got a shock recently when registering a UK registered car in France. Despite it being over 5 years old and 90K miles he had to pay a 10% customs charge on their estimated value of the car plus VAT, which came to just short of 4000€.

Beware - you can't just give something an arbitrary value, you have to provide documentation as to its worth!

Your pal in Spain with the Ruby-esque could be in for a shock...

[Chris KC]

Recks is right, but it's not just the tax. I've recently bought two minuscule items - small enough to easily pop into a letter envelope - but the price of shipping from France and from the U.S. respectively was several times the value of the item itself, regardless of the lack of size/ weight. I'm fortunate to know a couple of gentlemen here who have estates in the colonies and who kindly agreed to have the items posted there, for hand carriage home on their next visit. A one-off is one thing, but if José intends ordering items from the UK regularly he'd do well to seek out a kind soul who travels that way frequently.

[Hugh Barnes]

They may not need to travel to Spain, of course, just within the EU will do...

[Nick Lettington]

Thank you for the words of warning. Jose and I have already walked the minefield of post-Brexit postage. The first item I sent was a starter motor that didn't even make it out of the country. When returned it had a label attached telling me to send it by road only and a nice letter inside explaining they couldn't scan it so it couldn't go airfreight... I tried to find a road courier, but resorted to stripping it and laying out the parts so that the scanner would let it through. By now Jose had realised he needed an ignition switch too... The second time it escaped the UK, together with a second package containing a luggage rack, horn push and a collection of BSF spanners I was given to pass on to a new owner. using Parcelforce Worldwide I was able to create all of the necessary customs paperwork and generate invoices that satisfied Aduanas e Impuestos Especiales and both made it to Jose's mate Juan who lives near the mechanic. (Jose lives on an island in the Canaries, another level of complication altogether). Duty coughed up, he now has some of the bits he needs and some he wanted. I think he's paid something close to 50% on top of the cost of the items in postage and taxes... but what choice does he have?

I haven't added up my time spent trying to help the chap, but its running into lots and lots, bordering on too much. I can totally understand the reluctance of some of our cherished suppliers not to send stuff abroad. it's a nightmare.

This time round, I'm sorting out a lift pump from my garage*, a carburettor and a pork pie. I'll have to be sure to describe it as an ST38 or I'll probably end up extradited and rotting in a Spanish gaol over a meat related misunderstanding...

...and it all started because I thought his cut down Ruby looked sad with a bodged windscreen. it looks more like the real thing now and those who thought it would be difficult to fit an ORT screen to a Ruby obviously forgot this is a Spanish car - home of some remarkable transformations!

Luckily the bank didn't let him borrow money to by these fellows for sale on the islands already... I'd have had to block him I think!

   
   
   
   

This one is a bit special...

   
   


*this reminds me I need to order a replacement diaphragm.