Rodger
True Classic
I had been looking for a nice rust-free hood for my '79 restoration for quite a while as mine had developed a lot of rust bubbles along the seams. When the car was new, it was my only car so it saw a lot of winter salt in the snowy weather in Boston and Germany. I had been talking with @Brett for a while as he was thinning his herd and had a couple of shells he wanted to get rid of. He promised me one of the hoods, if he ended up parting out one of the bodies. I had hoped it would happen before my last driving trip from Olympia to Arizona, so I could grab it on the way by, but he wasn't quite ready yet. Finally, in January, he let me know it was mine, I just had to come get it. I have still been flying back to Washington once a month for business, so I figured, I will at least get the hood from him and then figure out how to get it to Arizona. I flew into Portland, rented a car and drove to his place and got the hood, as well as a nice rear trunk lid.
Being somewhat frugal, I really did not want to deal with shipping such a large item, which would probably cost me more than I paid for it. Since the hood is fairly flat, and I still had a few airline trips coming up, I was wondering if I could take it as oversized baggage, if I could find a box to put it in. I usually fly Alaska Airlines so I went to their website and checked their info for oversized baggage. They will take up to 113" total dimensions, which is H x W x D, and up to 70 lbs. I went to the local Home Depot thinking maybe they had like a mirror carton to put it in. Turns out, they sell several different sizes of boxes to move flat screen TVs in. They come with these foam corners that are perfect for keeping the hood centered. The hood measures about 46" x 52". The extra-large size box is 48" wide and telescopes much larger as needed to accommodate the TV. Perfect! I also bought a couple of the smaller ones and used those to box up the trunk lid for a test run. No problem with that one. I brought a couple of the foam corners back to use along the edges of the hood and the ones that came with the box for the corners. HD also includes a huge piece of bubble wrap in the box. The total dimensions as finally packed was only 103"!
I was still a little nervous that for some reason they wouldn't take it, because I don't know what I would do with it if I got to the airport and they wouldn't take it, but when I did my test run with the trunk lid, I checked with Alaska baggage and they said no problem, they take all kinds of big things from bicycles to kayaks, vaulting poles, etc. So, I checked it today, with no problem. Woo hoo!!
Being somewhat frugal, I really did not want to deal with shipping such a large item, which would probably cost me more than I paid for it. Since the hood is fairly flat, and I still had a few airline trips coming up, I was wondering if I could take it as oversized baggage, if I could find a box to put it in. I usually fly Alaska Airlines so I went to their website and checked their info for oversized baggage. They will take up to 113" total dimensions, which is H x W x D, and up to 70 lbs. I went to the local Home Depot thinking maybe they had like a mirror carton to put it in. Turns out, they sell several different sizes of boxes to move flat screen TVs in. They come with these foam corners that are perfect for keeping the hood centered. The hood measures about 46" x 52". The extra-large size box is 48" wide and telescopes much larger as needed to accommodate the TV. Perfect! I also bought a couple of the smaller ones and used those to box up the trunk lid for a test run. No problem with that one. I brought a couple of the foam corners back to use along the edges of the hood and the ones that came with the box for the corners. HD also includes a huge piece of bubble wrap in the box. The total dimensions as finally packed was only 103"!
I was still a little nervous that for some reason they wouldn't take it, because I don't know what I would do with it if I got to the airport and they wouldn't take it, but when I did my test run with the trunk lid, I checked with Alaska baggage and they said no problem, they take all kinds of big things from bicycles to kayaks, vaulting poles, etc. So, I checked it today, with no problem. Woo hoo!!
