UPS dropped/damaged one of my vintage restorations!

[creia]

UPDATE:
UPS picked up the engine from my buyer and took it to their inspection facility in Sylmar, CA. They want to inspect the box and the packaging materials and methods used. I was told that could take "up to" 8 days before they ship it back to me for my inspection and determination of how much damage the engine has.
Michael

[KE4AVB]

Looking for every way to make it your fault....not theirs.

[creia]

UPDATE # 2 - UPS has inspected and "approved" my packaging materials and methods. They have also "approved" my request for damage compensation. The engine is currently in route from their facility in Sylmar, CA to my local UPS Store in Arcadia, CA. Stay tuned for the next update...
Michael

[creia]

UPDATE # 3:
I picked the engine up from the UPS Store. Now it is time to thoroughly inspect it to determine the extent of damage and present my claim for reimbursement to UPS.
Michael

[creia]

UPDATE #4:
I took my first look at the engine this morning. (So far) not too bad at all. I will need a new cylinder head (fins bent), cylinder head top tin (bent), engine stop switch (bent) and spark plug (tip broken off). To go along with this the cylinder head and top tin will need repainting. There was no physical or paint damage observed whatsoever anywhere else on the engine block including the coil mounts, recoil shroud mounts, shroud, or carb/tank assembly. , etc.

I performed a compression test (90PSI) and leak down test (5-10% depending on which of my testers I use), which is no change from the "Pre- UPS damage" readings I took. The recoil handle pulls out nice and smoothly, the valves are going up and down and there are no weird noises heard when I turn the engine over.

Soooooo..... The question that begs to be asked is this: With what (little) damage I have found on the EXTERIOR, is it even justified/needed to open up the engine and perform an INTERIOR inspection? I have not actually test-ran the engine - YET

I welcome and appreciate your opinions.
Michael

[bgsengine]

Nah I think you'd be fine just going with your cosmetic fixes, if it didn't damage recoil housing at all, it probably did not see a major impact (spark plug took the brunt of it, would be my guess) all I'd worry about is taking a close look at head bolt threads while taking it apart and before assembly, and double check your carburetor & air cleaner mountings (just in case) but if muffler isn't bent or dinged from the drop, then carb is probably fine too.

[bertsmobilerepairs]

Well having been in the industry for 30 years, I will go the other way
I have opened up countless packages before picking them up to find they were mostly damaged before they left to clients premises.
And of course whenI check the con note, the extra freight insurance box is always ticked .
On top of this I have gone out of my way to show customers how to package properly
If it rattles when you shake it, it is not properly packaged .
The one that comes to mind was a consignment of antique fine crystal wine glasses , valued at over $ 250,000 so required extra transit insurance
Without moving the box I opened the top and found 1/2 of them already broken
The wash up of it was the props supplier had put them all into the boot of their car & gone home rather than packing them properly in the photo studio
A couple of speed bumps latter all, all of the ones they used for the shoot were broken.
The transit insurer sent me a bottle of very expensive congiac that year for christmas
In the time I was contracted to a magazine publisher I went to the effort of showing the staff how to package for local, interstate & international freight .
This included taking them for a sin round the black in the back of a 4 ton pan so they would realize just how rough it is in the back.
That was the last time they just used a couple of sheets of bubble wrap & "fragile " "Handle Like eggs" or "top Load only" stickers .
Business manager complained about the extra time and the cost of the extra packaging , but she did admit that damages claims had dropped over 90% since I started .
And my reply was how much less time do you spend trying to plicate cranky suppliers , she never complained again.

[KE4AVB]

Well I always insure my packages for the replacement cost and they are always package well. Unlike the stuff I get through Amazon which I very surprise it even arrives at times. I had only a few claims, most times for completely missing packages. This missing inbound packages are the shipper and their carrier responsibility so I just file the need paperwork on my end and they send me replacement orders.

It isn't like Fedex, UPS, or USPS trucks just dump a whole load packages in some remote location. OH wait they have done so in Alabama and Tennessee, USA in the last few years. Drivers just didn't want to deliver them. Or end up in some major accident.

[bertsmobilerepairs]

If you know some one with a pantech truck.
Ask him to take you around the block while you sit in the back
After that you will be amazed that anything arrives in one piece at all
Almost none of them have a sliding load wall so as you load to the roof from the front to the back stuff will always fall down no matter how well you try to secure them
And you can't load from the floor up otherwise you have to walk over the freight already in there to do the 2nd , 3rd, 4th layer & so on, way too dangerous to both driver & the freight.
Next go to a sorting depot at 7pm & see how things are handled
While you might pay $ 50 freight cost, the pick up driver & delivery driver would be very well paid if they got $ 5 a piece so you have to just keep shoving them in or you go broke .
Fedex is the exception as their drivers are on hourly rate so they have the time to be able to properly secure the load before they go to the next pick up
Then there is the trans shipments, usually done in cages and usually done with the cage closed so everything gets dropped into the cage.
Add to that time is money & the total load is unknown so they get put in the cage as they come off the belt . Most drivers do try to put the heavy stuff on the bottom & the light stuff on the top.
Thus at the belt, the light stuff comes off first so ends up being under the heavy stuff in the crates
Then the cages get loaded 2 high in the racks on the interstate truck for the dash to the next sorting depot .
And a single shipment can come off a truck, go on a belt then back onto another truck better than a dozen times in a big country like the USA

[creia]

UPDATE # 5:
I ran the engine today for the first time since UPS dropped it. It started, idled, and ran just fine, HOWEVER.....
It now has a (minor) oil leak which it did not have before. Oil is dripping from the bottom of one of the cylinder head bolt threaded holes next to the exhaust port. (It is bolt # 7 if you have the Briggs repair manual with head bolt tightening sequence graphic)

Background- Compression is very good (90PSI) and it passed the leak down test very well with only 5-8% leakage. I ran it with the same cylinder head that got damaged (3 bent head fins on top). All I did was remove it and retorque it to specs. I reused the (new at the time) metal/asbestos head gasket that I had originally installed when I restored it. Would applying some "anti-sieze" paste on the offending/leaking head bolt seal it up and stop the dripping?
Anybody have an idea why it is now leaking? I cleaned it off 3 times , but it is still dripping. I am thinking about installing another cylinder head I have with a new metal/asbestos gasket. I always true (flatten) the cylinder head contact surface before installing by using 600 grit sandpaper attached to a piece of 1/4" glass.
Thanks for your interest and opinions.
Michael