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Bringing An Overlander Back Home

Yes. F is for "export RHD" where C is for domestic American use. I didn't know they did those that early. My experience in Australia was always with Holden and Toyota, never with Jeep. My love of Scramblers came after moving here.

That's very handy.
 
Chamba said:
Yes. F is for "export RHD" where C is for domestic American use. I didn't know they did those that early. My experience in Australia was always with Holden and Toyota, never with Jeep. My love of Scramblers came after moving here.

That's very handy.
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Yes. F is for "export RHD" where C is for domestic American use. I didn't know they did those that early. My experience in Australia was always with Holden and Toyota, never with Jeep. My love of Scramblers came after moving here.

That's very handy.
 
Title bonds are cheap and easy, I have had to do quite a few. IIRC, the new title might say "bonded" on it, maybe :shrug:
 
Ron84cj said:
Other than the top, the turn signals on the fenders instead of the grill, and being right hand drive, what's different? If it's still an amc 6 cyl with the same emisions stuff, why would they buck about it? It's basically just a right hand drive scrambler. The skyline GTR doesn't meet USA safety specs from what I understand. So that makes sense. But I really don't think it will be a problem in this particular case. What did Jerseyjeeps do when he titled his?
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I was just messing with one this weekend, yes, just like a postal, except for the stuff you mentioned. Also, I think the rear door might swing a different way. Some, maybe all of them, have full carpet, too. They have the shifter/parking brake/dash like a postal, too. And special decals.
 
I never had to do a bonded title and I brought in at l least 15 land cruises from Australia. I'd be shocked if you had to do that. Generally, in my experience, bonded titles are used where ownership is in question. In your case, ownership is proved by your rego document and bill of sale.
 
Chamba said:
I never had to do a bonded title and I brought in at l least 15 land cruises from Australia. I'd be shocked if you had to do that. Generally, in my experience, bonded titles are used where ownership is in question. In your case, ownership is proved by your rego document and bill of sale.
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IF you have the items you mentioned.
 
spankrjs said:
I was just messing with one this weekend, yes, just like a postal, except for the stuff you mentioned. Also, I think the rear door might swing a different way. Some, maybe all of them, have full carpet, too. They have the shifter/parking brake/dash like a postal, too. And special decals.
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Yup, postal have rear door hinges on the left side and it swings towards the center of the street in the US. Australia overlanders hinge on the right and swing towards the curb. (Down under, that would be swinging to the center of the street, making it easier to load the cargo.) So postal are a combination of left hand drive barn door with right hand drive cowl. There are some left hand drive world cabs that swing like the postal do and were/are on left hand drive chassis.
 
Working through the registration process, I have an appointment for a VIN inspection with Dallas County on April 3rd morning. In this inspection, they study the VIN plates and run the VIN to ensure the Jeep isn't stolen. Should be no problem as they look perfect, and it has a US-VIN from being produced here in 1983. The county only performs these inspections every two weeks and was already booked this week, so I have to wait. In the meantime, the Overlander needs new tires before it will pass the Texas safety inspection so I'm getting new Goodyear Wrangler Radials in the next few days. Then, I will go for the state safety inspection. If all goes according to this schedule, I will be going for Texas title and registration either the afternoon of 4/3 or sometime 4/4.

Next post will cover the touch-up items that I'm starting to work on.
 
Jeep Addict said:
I never titled mine. I just drive it outlaw style!
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That's what is great about our state. You don't need no stinking emissions test, no stinking license, no stinking title, and no stinking insurance. Oh and no stinking badge ! :)
 
Dallas County Sheriff's Auto Theft unit inspected the Overlander today. All went well, and I was impressed how quick it went. I drove in at 9:15 for a 9:30 appointment. They had me headed out by 9:40.

For ag4ever and others interested, the process went really smooth. They direct you where to park, you get out of the Jeep, and an officer asks you a few questions. The first thing he asked me was if I had a title. Uh oh. Had to say no but explained that it came over from Australia and showed him the bill of sale, Aussie registration, and the import papers. He asked me to go wait in their office as he went under the hood and inspected VIN. About 15 minutes later, he came in the office and handed the paper work to the clerk. Clerk had one vehicle in front of me and called me over next. She said everything looked good, gave me the Texas form VTR-68-A for titling purposes and reminded me it expired in 30 days. Based on the form, the officer found an original VIN and ran it through NCIC/TCI which "came back clear no stolen." The clerk then asked if I was getting a bonded title, and my heart started racing. I replied no and was working with a bill of sale and foreign registration. She said I should be fine since it was a foreign import. End of inspection. Next stop: Dallas County to apply for title and registration either today or tomorrow.
 
Great! I have a feeling mine will be a little more tricky. Don't have a copy of import papers or aussie regs.

Fairly certain I will need to go bonded.
 
ag4ever said:
Great! I have a feeling mine will be a little more tricky. Don't have a copy of import papers or aussie regs.
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At best, the officer glanced at my papers for 10 seconds and didn't keep them. No way it was long enough for him to memorize the VIN. The clerk never even asked for them. I definitely do not think they matched up anything to the papers. Just found the VIN and checked it. Agreed, you will most likely need a bonded title, but you should not have any trouble getting through this VIN process.
 
Jeep Addict said:
That’s so awesome. I should’ve moved to Dallas.
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Or Austin (not sure on that one) or Houston (not sure on that one) or San Antonio (not sure on that one) or Marble Falls (getting warmer) or anywhere else in Texas.
 
DeLuke said:
This is not a rumor and it still happens today. The fed government takes the import stuff very serious. It crushes illegally imported cars, video records it, and publishes the recordings to deter the practice. Seems a little punitive if you ask me. IIRC, the two most confiscated and crushed cars are the Land Rover Defender and the Cooper Minis and the Nissan SKyline GTR ranks up there. I certainly understand the Defenders, but I'm not sure about the UK-spec Mini since you can get a recent US-spec Mini. To each his own.



Yep, I have researched the bonded title process a little, too. It would be the end solution but just cost more and entail extra hoops.
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Belizeit said:
I remember hearing some rumors/stories 30-40 years ago about some fancy cars (Porsche) being imported and not meeting safety standards and getting crushed. That would not happen with this jeep since it met those standards when it was manufactured
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It does happen. My first Overlander I got from Australia never made it out of the North Carolina customs port. Something about the paperwork not matching what it was "supposed" to be. My second one got through with zero difficulties, however. As far as I know, the first one never left the port and is either rotting there or crushed. After about 18 months of haggling with the US Customs Agency, the Australian govt and the shipper I finally gave up.
 
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