1976 Chrysler Town and Country Damaged in transport help needed

Hello, I have my Beautiful 76 Town and Country here in Australia now BUT somewhere between laving PA and getting to me it has had a forklift shoved under the rear end and they have damaged the rear frame and made a large gouge in the fuel tank.
Of course I am told by the transport company ( A & A Car Carriers out of CA ) and the shippers that no way did they put a forklift near it. Seems it just did not happen yet I have very obvious fork damage ( I have hundreds of hours of fork experience so I know what I am looking at )
I am clutching at straws here but asking in case there is a slight chance that anyone say anything anywhere that might help me prove who did it.
I know it was not the shipper in Australia, they have the footage to prove it. The shipper in LA does not keep footage from weeks ago when they had it in there care but I am still working on them.
The transport was supposed to be door to door on the same truck ( Red truck and trailer when it left PA ) but since it left PA just hanging on the top deck at the very rear it must have been unloaded and loaded to get other cars off.
I am woundering if by any chance someone who was on the road say anything at all that might help me nail the scumbag who did this to my Beautiful wagon.
Scum like this needs to be culled out so they can not keep doing it! It could be your Wagon next!

 

If I had to guess, it's like no one wanted to take the time to load the truck so that deliveries would be such that no vehicles would have to be unloaded to unload the one under delivery. You look at some of the American car shows on TV (such as "Fast 'n' Loud, as well as others), and they are not above at least trying to use a forklift to unload a car. You need to get the wagon to a body shop and have them clearly document the damage, with photos of course, and you need to contact the seller to find out if anyone inspected the car before it was loaded on the truck, or was with the car as it was loaded, as 'proof' that the wagon did not have that damage when loaded up.

 

Yes documentation is important. Also the seller's word. If The seller says it was not like that the last time they saw it, it must have happened in between. Persistence usually works in these cases. Get the highest ranking person in the transportation company and wear them out. Calling everyday, maybe twice a day.They should have insurance. Maybe approach it like "I know it probably wasn't your people, but it wasn't me and it wasn't the seller so, somebody in between is responsible." I just won a battle with Toyota about my wife's car burning oil. 3.2 quarts in 2,200 miles or something crazy like that. They tried to tell me that the engine was too far damaged for the issued recall on faulty oil rings to be applicable. Well, the engine IS damaged... only because of the faulty rings. "Catch 22" they actually told me. The car has 120,000 Long story short, I called the head of customer service and the head mechanic twice a day for about a month and a half. Wife got her motor completely rebuilt for nothing. They did try and sell her 4 new spark plugs for 80$ And that was without labor cost the lady said, as a friendly gesture. Sometimes I think the world is comprised entirely of crooks and cowards. No one is ever accountable anymore. Man up! Own your mistakes!!! We all make em so it's usually no big deal, unless you start trying to weasel your way out of a sticky situation. GOD BLESS IT! Ugh... now I'm gonna go beat the neighbors dog! (Joking.)let us know how it turns out. Sorry about the headache

 

I'd bet on the dock workers in Los Angeles to be at fault....

 

That's my initial reaction also. But without proof good luck. All I can say is document everything!!!! If you think you took enough pictures, double them! And keep making phone calls.

Did you have your own insurance on it during shipment? If so I would at least talk to them about how they would handle the shippers insurance company.

 

If the car wouldn't start and drive you can be sure it was moved by a fork truck.
I've seen it at auction yards and have seen those sorts of damage done. They don't go out of their way to do it but it happens.
Too many hands involved to pinpoint the culprit and that's assuming the damage wasn't pre-existing.
Good luck with your claim, doesn't sound too promising as it will hard to compel the shipper to pay from another hemisphere.

 

Good advice Grizz. Was your Toyota one of those effected by the cats disintegrating and the matrix going into the cylinders via reversion?

 

It was faulty oil rings. Just now found out that the ABS module has gone bad. Apparently this is also a common problem but the crooks at Toyota have avoided a recall. What's better is the part costs about 650$ from Oreilly's and takes about twenty minutes to install, the dealership wants 2700$ to fix it.

 

Do some searching for ABS re-builders, you'll save over O'Reilly's.
Also check if it will need coding once installed, the dealer would love to bend over a do it yourselfer for that.
I've sent out Bosch 5.7 /BMW modules which for a while were failing with alarming regularity to a guy that did them for ~$300. Module Master, I think Gavin was the guy's name.
Not sure if he does Japanese or not but I'd trust them if so.
https://modulemaster.com/rebuilds/product-category/brakes/abs-modules/

 

Cool. That's good to know. I don't think it requires resetting any computers to do that module. But I'll find out soon enough

 

I have asked a lot of questions and am now quite sure that the only place the damage to my wagon could have been done was when it was transported from PA to LA.
It was not damaged when it left and both the shipper yard in LA and here in Australia proved it was not them, so the only thing left is what the hell happened to it while it was being transported??
My guess is that it moved ( remember it was hanging on the edge of the top deck ) and the rear wheels went back over the edge. The lower deck would have been full so they used a fork to lift it back on. No proof but nothing else makes sense. Also the fork tine mark above the damaged rear frame could only get there if the wagon was up in the air, otherwise the fork tine just could not get to the angle required to get up there and make that mark ( years of fork experience )
Boy it would be nice to know what lowlife did it but it will never happen.