Buying stuff from India

Ive never bought anything from India, only from the USA but the principle is the same. I got caught once because an ebay seller valued the goods at £200 which I paid about £15 for, So its important that the sender fills out the customs declarations correctly. More here.

Dan

I think you will be charged V.A.T., at the veryleast, if not customs duty. My daughter sent me a birthday present, from New Zealand to the U.K., last year. It cost me nearl £30 (of which Royal Mail charged £8 for collecting payment!). This for an unsolicited gift. If sent to Spain it would have cost nothing. So much for equality in the E.U.

Previously michael_addison wrote:

Evening folks,

Another member and I are considering buying a couple of mudguards from India.

We know about the various comments people have made but can anybody who has bought from India tell us what happened regarding Customs duties ( I think they are nil for a couple of mudguards less than £135 in value) and the dreaded VAT.

Thanks , Mick

hi.

just bought rear slimline mudguard from india paid £95 including postage,took about 15 days to arrive and no import taxes to pay.quality is quite good,18swg mild steel with holes drilled,cable clips fitted and strengthning plate for numberplate on isnside,needed some slight adjustments, will also need tidying up before spraying.

andy.

Andy:

Can you advise us of your supplier?

Thanks

Mike

i bought off ebay, seller was royal crusaders, seller info has name of pummy.8081.just checked and they are still for sale at £69 plus £35 p + p.

try contacting seller to make sure he has stock and also try knocking him down on price,it never hurts to ask.

as i said before will need cleaning and filling before painting but far less work than refurbishing an old one.

Hi Andy,

I am the other member that`s considering purchasing an Indian mudguard with Mike Addison. Would it be possible for you take some photographs of the guard. I am especially interested in the positions of main bolt holes to the frame, the lifting handles, and the position of the number plate holes. If you have the guard off the bike it would be helpful if you could photographed any reinforcing plates and wiring clips.

If you could send them to my email address: efoulkes@hotmail.com I would be very grateful.

Regards

Eric Foulkes

the mudguard is at work so will take photos tomorrow but probably wont get time to upload till tuesday.

there are two slots at the front for bolting to frame then a recess for the swing arm(whch appears to be beaten in rather than pressed), a hole for bolting to the seat(which didnt line up on my bike so welded up and redrilled) then two holes for numberplate which needed opening up slightly and now fit the enclosed plate bought from norvil also a larger hole for rear light cable.there were no holes for the grabrails which suited me as i have made my own grabrails so could mark and drill in situ.

if you dont have access to welding gear to fill holes it might be worth asking ebay seller to supply mudguard undrilled.Before i bought i asked seller a few questions and he replied promptly and i got the feeling he wasnt just a middle man and could customise mudguard to suit buyer.

i think with good preparation it would be ok to chrome,by the way can anyone recommend a decent chrome plater as i need tank badges doing.

hopefully photos will answer all other questions.

andy

Thanks Andy.

With regard to the tank badges as far as I know they may be difficult to chrome due to the material they are made of (Mazac) but a friend I know had some done so I will give him a call and let you know how they turned out.

Eric

Previously andrew_hall wrote:

the mudguard is at work so will take photos tomorrow but probably wont get time to upload till tuesday.

there are two slots at the front for bolting to frame then a recess for the swing arm(whch appears to be beaten in rather than pressed), a hole for bolting to the seat(which didnt line up on my bike so welded up and redrilled) then two holes for numberplate which needed opening up slightly and now fit the enclosed plate bought from norvil also a larger hole for rear light cable.there were no holes for the grabrails which suited me as i have made my own grabrails so could mark and drill in situ.

if you dont have access to welding gear to fill holes it might be worth asking ebay seller to supply mudguard undrilled.Before i bought i asked seller a few questions and he replied promptly and i got the feeling he wasnt just a middle man and could customise mudguard to suit buyer.

i think with good preparation it would be ok to chrome,by the way can anyone recommend a decent chrome plater as i need tank badges doing.

hopefully photos will answer all other questions.

andy

hi andy

I recently had a front mudguard and tank badges rechromed the mudguard was excellent but the tank badges surface was rough and when stripped and buffed became pitted and show through the actual chrome was ok, but it was the condition of the badges that caused this not sure what else you can do as its impossible to find new badges by the way approx £40 to chrome the badges

regards

Trevor

hi eric

just sent photos hope they are ok.

did you get a chance to contact your mate about those tank badges? have 2 sets i have spent ages getting pits out and think they are ready to go.

Mazak items can be 'reclaimed' by using plumber's solder in the pitting. As the badges are made from "Unobtanium" you might consider a DiY plating kit from Gateros. Here's a customer series on restoring a Mazak classic car handle - . I've got several of their kits to do 'Replica Chrome', Zinc, Copper and metal/rust electrolytic cleaning.

Many years ago, when the price of slimline badges rose off the planet, I viisited a plastic sign company down in Portsmouth. They told me that they could do a set chromed plastic replicas. All I had to do was provide some good examples and cough up £1000 in advance for tooling costs. The good news being that....if I gave them an order for a production run, of at least 50, then the price might come down to just £50 a set.

My plan was thwarted by a) lack of ready cash, b) nobody had a spare set of badges that were'nt in a bad way. & c) a lack of member interest.

Not to be beaten, I borrowed a rough set, of badges, from a mate and used them to make female mould out of first plasticine and then later plaster. These moulds were then used to make fibreglass badges.

Having only basic gear, I could not replicate the superb finish of early Commando fibreglass tanks but with careful filling and fettling soon got a reasonably good surface ready for a Chrome paint finish. This part of Plan B did not work as the badge surface was too porous and swallowed the paint. Probably because of the lack of a gel coat.

However, all was not lost as perseverance with many coats of black spray enamel paint got the badges to a state of acceptability and when mounted on a Post Office Red tank actually looked very good.

I am wondering if, in this modern age of 3D printing, badges could also be reproduced?

Previously andrew_hall wrote:

hi eric

just sent photos hope they are ok.

did you get a chance to contact your mate about those tank badges? have 2 sets i have spent ages getting pits out and think they are ready to go.

Hi Andrew,

First of all apologies for the late reply.My friend used the following company -Silvabronz, Unit 16 &19b Caker Stream Road, Alton, GU34 2QFHe tells me that he cleaned them up as best as he could and he wasn`t too fussed about the finish. they cost around £80 to chrome but the company said the only way to get them like new would be to chrome them a number of times but in between remove the surface chrome until until the holes were filled with chrome. As you can imagine this would be a very expensive fix due to the chroming costs.By the way I have a guard with no holes in it on the way form IndiaRegardsEric