Ok so let me get this right…
You spend countless hours, days, months or more searching for your perfect car. You find it, you build it and then you… sell it?
Luckily for me, it’s scenarios like these that provide ample opportunity to get touched inappropriately in an airport. But that’s just part of the fun- I also get to hop on a plane, peek through my lens, press a few buttons and more importantly get a look at another side of car culture.
This time I get to have a look at what Southern Florida has to offer, though this trip started way before that- especially for these two vehicles…
Initially built for display at Import Convention in 2019, the launch of these vehicles heralded the many great things to come for Garage Fresh in the coming years- from the success of the GarageFresh HQ Store to GF Industries to now GarageFresh International.
Now three years later in 2022, allow me to re-introduce you to the artist formerly known as Prince… the Datsun Sunny Truck or as we all know it in this form, Hakotora. Simply put, its a classic Datsun 1200 pick up or “box-truck” as it’s called in Japan with the Skyline C10 front end conversion.
Built from ground up, the Hakotora has been my all-time favourite GarageFresh build to date with low expectations of that ever changing. The aggressive white body panels matched with the classic bronze Volk TE37V… simply timeless.
Tastefully modified, this Hakotora bears just enough grunt to match its aggressive demeanor. However, on the other end of the spectrum of classic JDM, there’s the most luxurious vehicles of its time- the Toyota Crown Super Saloon. A much different approach for a different type of enthusiast, the Crown sits flat thanks to its air suspension set up and that’s about it. Simple, but baller nonetheless.
An aggressive timeline however, meant these vehicles were being refreshed up until minutes before they were loaded into a container to travel from Trinidad to Florida to start their new lives… and of course there was one last photo shoot before they left.
Locked and loaded…
After an intricate series of paperwork, inspections and more the vehicles were sealed in a container and on their way.
Now you may ask, why export?
For these vehicles, they have exceeded the 25 year mark since date of manufacture and according to the U.S Department of Transportation they can now be imported as vintage vehicles, which opens up the market to receive some of Japan’s finest. Can you imagine in just a few years the Nissan R34 is going to be completely legal to own in the US?
Within just two weeks of ship date from Trinidad, these vehicles were registered on the road in the U.S and cruising about Southern Florida looking for their next photo op…
…and photo ops they had…
Have a cool rare JDM Vehicle that you’d like to export to the United States, but don’t know where to start?
GarageFresh International is here for just that, for every step along the way from meeting prospective buyers, to paperwork, shipping and registrations.
Get in contact today via services@gfindustriestt.com with your contact information and photos of the vehicle.
Noteworthy points:
– Vehicle must be 25 years or older (from Date of Manufacture)
– Must be rare and in good road-worthy condition or must have parts readily available for restorations
