hello all, I found a collection of D2s and D4s in Canada and was wondering if it would be worth importing them to Perth, anybody with any experience doing this or any advice would be greatly appreciated. I understand that partial disassembly and thorough cleaning woul be involved, but with COVID going on I'm not in a position to go over and do that job. Maybe there are shipping companies that specialise in cleaning them up and shipping them?
thanks in advance

great summary Neil, gotta agree 100 percent...unless you have money to burn, the hassles and expenses alone would make this a no go....

Yes, good advice. I have another collector friend in Canada who will take a few items in that collection off my hands but still have a 3 j D 2 with a belt pulley that’s in good shape over there, probably better to let it go to another collector than go through the hassle. If any body is interested in a 3j and a moline GVI located in Alberta, let me know.
Thanks

Yes, good advice. I have another collector friend in Canada who will take a few items in that collection off my hands but still have a 3 j D 2 with a belt pulley that’s in good shape over there, probably better to let it go to another collector than go through the hassle. If any body is interested in a 3j and a moline GVI located in Alberta, let me know.
Thanks

Wombat is the expert on importing Cats from the USA, but in my humble opinion it's not worth it for common machines like D2 or D4 because the cleaning costs can be ridiculous here in Oz, most Yanks have no concept of what "clean" means for Aussie Quarantene Inspectors and I've heard several stories of Aussies paying big money to a Yank for "thorough" cleaning over there, only to discover a filthy machine when it arrived here.

Clean is a vague term to most, I own a steam cleaner and still spend a few rounds with it to get some machines to my satisfaction. It never happens on the first round.

The Australian Inspectors here in Oz know where to look for dirt and baked on crud, and will force you to keep dismantling the machine at the inspection facility till they think there is not one spec of dirt remaining, while all this is going on you are being billed "storage" fees, plus extra cleaning charges at hundreds of dollars, plus every extra inspection is hundreds of dollars.

If Quarantine don't think you have got the machine clean enough, they can and will force you to re-export it back to it's port of origin in Canada or the USA, or to a cleaning facility at Singapore. Plant seeds are another big No No, and anyone who has cleaned the radiator on a old Cat will know it is almost impossible to get a core clean of baked on crud and stuck grass seeds while the radiator is in the crawler.

My neigbour liked to import restored John Deere tractors, brought in a lot over the years, till a couple of years ago he met his match at the Quarantine Inspection facility, the Inspector was insisting his tractor must have baked on dirt under it's beautiful 2 pack paint, and was going to force him to sand blast all the paint off the tractor so she could be convinced there was no dirt!!!!!!

Meanwhile, somehow the drug importers still manage to bring in thousands of tons of drugs like ice and cocaine every year, and enough illegal handguns to arm a small army.......