Mecaparts

[JohnW]

Thanks John, I've ordered 8 cal kits for Steve and I, at least that will get something moving. The discs I might still be okay considering the car has only done 37,000 miles and they look thick enough.
There isn't any real play in the front end, the steering boots are stuffed like all the rubbers, I might be able to get away with ball joints and tie rods. I just want to do it once if you know what I mean.
The current problem maybe that stage 4 lockdown might mean we have to close so how are they going to deliver?

I've a spare pair of steering gaiters too.... So, new tie rods, inner Silentblocs and gaiters are easily arranged. The spare ball joints I have were fitted new about 30,000 km ago and I added grease nipples because they dried out and got crackly. They're fine - I only replaced them because it was dismantled and I had new ones in the stash. Anyway, shout if I can help. I've fitted the later type tie rods so will never use the things. If the front suspension is out of the car, I'd check those upper Fluidbloc bushes for lubrication - I've just written an article about them - curious things and NOT Silentbloc..... The inners of the Fluidbloc bushes pop out (NOT the outers being pressed out of the wishbone) and you can see whether they are OK or not and add some heavy silicone grease (Dow Corning's Molykote 111 is what I used).

 

[Leconte]

Hi again David,
Just got an email from our local MP with a link to the Stage 4 Industries document. It lists under "Transport, Postal and Warehousing" that "Vehicle Repair, servicing and maintenance" businesses can be "Open for On-Site work" with a Covid-Safe plan.

The document is on the DHHS site: Stage 4 Industry restrictions

Cheers Leconte

 

[David Cavanagh]

Hi again David,
Just got an email from our local MP with a link to the Stage 4 Industries document. It lists under "Transport, Postal and Warehousing" that "Vehicle Repair, servicing and maintenance" businesses can be "Open for On-Site work" with a Covid-Safe plan.

The document is on the DHHS site: Stage 4 Industry restrictions

Cheers Leconte

Yes I've been studying that list and it's badly worded. Very confusing. We are not a repairer we are a trade parts supplier. It's says the repair industry can work but parts wholesale cannot. So a mechanic can work on your car but can't buy parts.
So going by us being a trade supplier not retail or wholesale I believe we come under the same description as Bunnings who are only open to the trade.
All the other people in our industry have come to the same conclusion so we will be open until someone says no.

 

[David Cavanagh]

I've a spare pair of steering gaiters too.... So, new tie rods, inner Silentblocs and gaiters are easily arranged. The spare ball joints I have were fitted new about 30,000 km ago and I added grease nipples because they dried out and got crackly. They're fine - I only replaced them because it was dismantled and I had new ones in the stash. Anyway, shout if I can help. I've fitted the later type tie rods so will never use the things. If the front suspension is out of the car, I'd check those upper Fluidbloc bushes for lubrication - I've just written an article about them - curious things and NOT Silentbloc..... The inners of the Fluidbloc bushes pop out (NOT the outers being pressed out of the wishbone) and you can see whether they are OK or not and add some heavy silicone grease (Dow Corning's Molykote 111 is what I used).

Your not going to believe this but I got a letter from the Australian customs office yesterday saying they had a parcel from France for me. They want import duty because they believe it's over $1000 worth which it is. Now they want me to produce an invoice showing the amount and considering that would be with the parcel this will be interesting.
Lesson for future, lots of small packages under $1000

 

[JohnW]

Your not going to believe this but I got a letter from the Australian customs office yesterday saying they had a parcel from France for me. They want import duty because they believe it's over $1000 worth which it is. Now they want me to produce an invoice showing the amount and considering that would be with the parcel this will be interesting.
Lesson for future, lots of small packages under $1000

On balance, that's good news! I had this old memory of no duty on parts for vehicles over 30 years but there's something else about it niggling away. You'd be buying quite a lot of things to have "lots of small packages" kept just under $1000. I wonder which date they use to calculate the A$ value. Anyway, shout if anything you desperately need is missing. I'm looking forward to this car.

 

[geckoeng]

Dave and John,
At present, small parcels, with post under Eu550.00. It may cost a bit more in post, but just documentation handling with Customs cost me AUD150.00, and they charged about 20% on invoice value. And it take a good few days for parcel release.

And don't expect the supplier to break down parcels, you need to send your quote requests individually. and treat each request as an individual parcel. Only time you group all together is payment.

AAaahhh and reason for time to get from east to west, talking to TNT/Fedex man yesterday, nearly all traffic is by rail, even AuPost parcels.

Caught once, never again !!!
Ray

 

[JohnW]

Dave and John,
At present, small parcels, with post under Eu550.00. It may cost a bit more in post, but just documentation handling with Customs cost me AUD150.00, and they charged about 20% on invoice value. And it take a good few days for parcel release.

And don't expect the supplier to break down parcels, you need to send your quote requests individually. and treat each request as an individual parcel. Only time you group all together is payment.

AAaahhh and reason for time to get from east to west, talking to TNT/Fedex man yesterday, nearly all traffic is by rail, even AuPost parcels.

Caught once, never again !!!
Ray

Thanks Ray.

 

[David Cavanagh]

Geezus that was an ordeal. Each item comes under a different tariff and they want to know what's in it to work out the import duty. But we got through, paid them fist full of cash and it's been released for delivery so we'll have some parts soon.
We all know the Governments are corrupt but this seams weird. Thousands of boxes come through every day and yet someone decided that my box could be kidnapped and held for ransom. Just reminds me of the old gangster days of the twenties and thirties when a shop keepers store would burn down if the gangster didn't get his protection money.
My box, I've paid for and paid the postage to get here but someone at customs says lets get a stack of cash from this bloke.

 

[Haakon]

Geezus that was an ordeal. Each item comes under a different tariff and they want to know what's in it to work out the import duty. But we got through, paid them fist full of cash and it's been released for delivery so we'll have some parts soon.
We all know the Governments are corrupt but this seams weird. Thousands of boxes come through every day and yet someone decided that my box could be kidnapped and held for ransom. Just reminds me of the old gangster days of the twenties and thirties when a shop keepers store would burn down if the gangster didn't get his protection money.
My box, I've paid for and paid the postage to get here but someone at customs says lets get a stack of cash from this bloke.

It used to be more sensible.... blame Gerry Harvey and his corrupt mates in the LNP for making this harder and having to pay gst on everything ordered in...

I got lucky recently on a parts order I realised after I ordered was well over $1k - but it was sent in 4 separate boxes and didn’t get caught! Phew!

 

[Fireblade]

Geezus that was an ordeal. Each item comes under a different tariff and they want to know what's in it to work out the import duty. But we got through, paid them fist full of cash and it's been released for delivery so we'll have some parts soon.
We all know the Governments are corrupt but this seams weird. Thousands of boxes come through every day and yet someone decided that my box could be kidnapped and held for ransom. Just reminds me of the old gangster days of the twenties and thirties when a shop keepers store would burn down if the gangster didn't get his protection money.
My box, I've paid for and paid the postage to get here but someone at customs says lets get a stack of cash from this bloke.

What gets up my nose is having to pay import duty on a part that is not made, never was made, and never will be made by anyone in Australia.

 

[JohnW]

What gets up my nose is having to pay import duty on a part that is not made, never was made, and never will be made by anyone in Australia.

Quite agree. Influential whingers like the Harvey man caused the GST business with ebay and I can't recall about the import duty rules. Having allowed much Australian industry to close down, sending the jobs overseas, we mugs have job and skill losses AND pay these imposts. I'm not well pleased although I'm glad you've got through the mire David! I don't think his whinging has had the slightest effect on people buying things online for convenience though!

In the day, Dufor made plenty of Renault suspension bushes though. They seem to be quality items. I have a spare pair of Dufor half-shafts for the 4CV in the cupboard too.

 

[schlitzaugen]

What gets up my nose is having to pay import duty on a part that is not made, never was made, and never will be made by anyone in Australia.

Or imported through dedicated channels.

Free money for the government!

 

[REN TIN TIN]

Any consignment worth more than AUD1000.00 is subject to a duty assessment.
If the item(s) are duty free or covered by a tariff concession or are made in a country with which Australia has a free trade agreement, then you only pay the entry fee for the duty assessment. If the goods are dutiable the you have to pay the import duty as well which is usually 5%.
Anyone can apply for a tariff concession if they believe there is no locally manufactured equivalent and once the tariff concession is granted (regardless of who applies) that item can be imported duty free by anyone provided the customs broker quotes the correct tariff or tariff concession numbers. The onus is on the importer to make sure they don't overpay duty, not the exporter or customs.

If it get's up you nose " having to pay import duty on a part that is not made, never was made, and never will be made by anyone in Australia" then someone, anyone, can apply for a tariff concession if there isn't one already.
Or more likely, there is already a tariff concession in place but the people doing the duty entry can't be bothered of fail to quote the TC number. Given the thousands of items coming in each day no one spends much time on a duty assessment for a small consignment. They'll likely just guess the tariff numbers, they get paid the same and per job if there's duty or not so do they need to turnover as many jobs per day as possible.
As they could get fined by Customs if they underpay duty and not if they overpay, they will err on the side of caution when doing duty assessments.

 

[JohnW]

Any consignment worth more than AUD1000.00 is subject to a duty assessment.
If the item(s) are duty free or covered by a tariff concession or are made in a country with which Australia has a free trade agreement, then you only pay the entry fee for the duty assessment. If the goods are dutiable the you have to pay the import duty as well which is usually 5%.
Anyone can apply for a tariff concession if they believe there is no locally manufactured equivalent and once the tariff concession is granted (regardless of who applies) that item can be imported duty free by anyone provided the customs broker quotes the correct tariff or tariff concession numbers. The onus is on the importer to make sure they don't overpay duty, not the exporter or customs.

If it get's up you nose " having to pay import duty on a part that is not made, never was made, and never will be made by anyone in Australia" then someone, anyone, can apply for a tariff concession if there isn't one already.
Or more likely, there is already a tariff concession in place but the people doing the duty entry can't be bothered of fail to quote the TC number. Given the thousands of items coming in each day no one spends much time on a duty assessment for a small consignment. They'll likely just guess the tariff numbers, they get paid the same and per job if there's duty or not so do they need to turnover as many jobs per day as possible.
As they could get fined by Customs if they underpay duty and not if they overpay, they will err on the side of caution when doing duty assessments.

That's interesting - thanks Mr RTT. I wonder whether any of our local folk have applied - Caravelle Imports back in the day for example. There's very little for rear-engine Renaults now made in Oz. Repco once made sleeve kits for example but that's decades ago. Do you happen to know how to search for tariff concessions - is there some public database out there?

 

[schlitzaugen]

Also, if the duty has been applied already, what can you do? I mean we only find out whether we have or not to pay duty when the parcel is here and we have to pay for it.

 

[REN TIN TIN]

Also, if the duty has been applied already, what can you do? I mean we only find out whether we have or not to pay duty when the parcel is here and we have to pay for it.

Usually the courier or Aus Post will tell you there is a charge for customs duty which you'll have to pay up-front and you can query it at that point. But you'll probably have to know the tariff number the goods were assessed under and probably have to do your own search for a tariff concession or Free Trade Agreement. No European country has a free trade agreement with Australia to my knowledge but the US, China, Japan, Thailand, Malasia, New Zealand, etc. do have free trade agreements but that probably doesn't help with French cars. Goods have to be made in the county holding the free trade agreement to qualify as duty free, not just sold by the country and made elsewhere.
You can apply for a duty refund if you believe that duty was charged incorrectly and you've already taken delivery of the goods.
But (and there's always a but), there is a cost in applying for a refund, depending on the broker it's usually over $85.00, and the refund application fee might be more than the duty you paid. In a lot of cases it isn't worth the effort trying for a refund as the amount of duty paid would be less. There is also a cost in applying for a tariff concession, which you have to pay win or lose and the process could take months or years. If a tariff concession is granted they they are usually backdated to when the application was first made so you can apply for a refund of all duties paid on the item from when Customs say the TCO takes effect. Tariff concessions are often very specific in their wording so would usually only cover only the item for which the TCO is sought. e.g it might be say, a steering wheel, 16 inch, 2 spoke leather rimmed, with boss. If something is not exactly the same as the TCO description the TCO will not apply.

For us back-yarders (mostly) best to keep your consignments below AUD$1000 value if you can then everything passes through without issue.
Be aware that Australian Customs use their own currency conversion rates when going from Euro or other currency to AUD, not necessarily what you or your credit card company used. Customs is usually based on RBA rates. Duty is levied on the FOB value of the goods, i.e. doesn't include the freight so if your seller list the freight separately on the invoice you might get it duty free. e.g. if you buy something that costs $1000 but that includes $200 courier/freight fee have the invoice show the goods are $800.00 and the freight is $200.00 and it should then be assessed as duty free. It doesn't work to inflate the freight charge to some unrealistic amount, Customs have seen it all before and know what freight should cost. If you make a false declaration be prepared for a world of pain.
Companies that regularly import goods from overseas would (or should) know about any tariff concessions or free trade agreements so will get goods duty free if possible.

 

[David Cavanagh]

Yay finally my box of parts for the R8 Gordini have arrived from France. Almost exactly 2 months to the day since I ordered them.

 

[JohnW]

Very nice. Are those a pair of new drive shafts I see?

Good you have them at last David.

 

[COL]

I received my last two copies of Mille Miles last week, this is a Bimestriel magazine, so maybe La Postie was in lock down and not delivering.

Anyway its good to see that parts and magazines are coming through.

 

[bazzamac]

I received my last two copies of Mille Miles last week, this is a Bimestriel magazine, so maybe La Postie was in lock down and not delivering.

Anyway its good to see that parts and magazines are coming through.

Good to see you have your mags Col. Have not got mine yet.