Chassis Parts Online

Friday 6-5-26

Friday in the CPO shop. Today I have a crossmember to box up this morning. Then it's lower arms and then some crossmember upper arm mounts and related pieces. I also have to get the new bender bending pieces. I have a bunch of lower arms tubes cut and ready to bend. Plus I have a bunch of DOM tube full sticks outside ready to come in and be cut and bent.

But let's talk boxing first. No not in the ring, but in the shipping room. I used to have a 10x16 shipping room. Not at this shop. Here I just have a table in the shop bay for the moment. At some point I'll build one in the awning area at the back of this shop. For now the table in the shop and boxes in the spare bedroom. Same place I'm using for an office typing this now. The awning area in the back of the shop is 40x16. So I'll make a shipping room/office there. Then the rest will be storage like a normal house garage.

So for boxing, I have a bunch of boxes. The Crown Vic lower arms ship in an 18x18x4 box if they are for bags and an 18x18x6 box if they're for coilovers or struts. The Crown Vic upper arms ship in a 12x10x4 box if they're the adjustable version. The non adjustable ship in a 12x12x4 box. What I do there is use cardboard sheets to cut an extra 12x12 or 12 x10 bottom piece, one for in between the arms and another on top. Then I cut strips about 3.75" tall for lining the inside of the box. Some things get an extra couple layers inside the box. The way UPS handles parts, these heavy steel parts would go right through a box alone. They have to have plenty of extra cardboard and packing to keep them from moving around. I never have parts get delivered with parts coming out of the box. This also means the parts inside the box don't bang around on each other and get to the customer beat up and scratched up.

So the crossmember is one of the hardest things I have to box up. It's 29" long and about 7" wide. It's also an odd shape. So what dfo you do about that? try finding a 30x11x7 box. Nope, no need looking. I'm sure I could have them made. But at what cost? I'm just a one man shop that may use 100 of those boxes a year at the most. No the answer is two boxes. 15x11x7 and cut the end out. Fist put the bottom together with tape and then cut the end out. Then use that cut out end in the bottom as a second layer. Fits perfectly between the tabs inside the box. Then the cut out from the other box fits inside the top. No wasted cardboard at all. So I use wood glue to glue the ends inside. Wood glue works great on cardboard and dries fast. So I'll go cut two boxes and glue the bottom first. I'll sent two crossmember center secions in there for weight. Then go work on someting else. Then come back and take two 30x20 cardboard sheets and bend them at 5.5" and then at 7" and then cut 2" off the remaining piece. Then bend the 5.5" down and glue it down inside the box. Now we have two layers of cardboard. Then I do the other side gluing each piece as I go.

Then when I put the crossmember in there on it's side I wrap more cardboard over the ends and flanges where it's likely go go thru the box. Then I pack it with heavy brown paper so it's stable inside the box. Then close up and tape the entire oustside of the box. Edges and ends all together. Then label and tape over the label so it doesn't come off. Then I don't worry about it. UPS has insurance free up to $99 value. I do not buy the extra insurance. UPS never loses or damages a package. All the money I save would build any lost or damaged parts. Like a city self insuring. But now you now how well items are packaged here at CPO. Where we undr promise and over deliver. As I proceed thru this week I'll keep making crossmember boxes buy cutting and gluing while I do other things in the shop. I'll have a bunch of boxes stored up and ready as I make crossmembers in batches. Peace

** CURRENT LEAD TIME 4-6 WEEKS **

I am now building in batches so these times will come down quick for main line items like upper and lower arms and crossmembers and related parts.

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