Today I received this email from Peter Krone in Germany. He kindly offered a solution to locating parts but there still remains the question of shipping. I replied that it's relatively easy to create an account with UPS ( it's free ) and then you can initiate shipping. IE: provide the weight and dimensions of the package along with the from/to address and UPS will provide the shipping label, pick up the package and deliver it to it's destination. I have plugged in various numbers and found the costs to be very high. Ranging in price from $800 for a 45x23x8 26 lbs to $225 for a 6x6x6 5 lbs package. If anyone has any suggestions for an alternate method of shipping please share you ideas.
Good news for all owners of an Airstream Westfalia (aka James Cook in Germany)
Hi John,
many westyowners asked me if I could help in acquiring parts in Germany. Now I can offer you a 50% solution. I convinced my favorite Westy shop to offer a new service for locating parts.
„Manfred Ermel Freizeitmobile“ is run by Manfred, a former Westfalia employee how knows the James Cook like nobody else. I use his service since 2012. He has many parts on stock and knows people at Westfalia and other resources. If anybody can locate parts, it’s him. Here is a link to his website
https://www.ermel-freizeitmobile.de/aktuelles/ (scroll down and you see a video of 58 James Cooks, shot by me
Manfred installed a new email address just for your parts requests and his son Marius will answer your emails in English. So far this service is just about the information about those parts. What exactly you might need and where to buy it.
westy@ermel-freizeitmobile.de is the new address.
The remaining 50% of the solution is all about shipping. Manfred cannot provide a shipping service. Not for the parts, he as on stock and certainly not for others. He is busy fixing Westies ;-)
Your help is needed!
Do you know a way to pick up parts in Germany? Can you order DHL, UPS etc. to ship parts from Germany to the US? Shipping inside Germany (and maybe inside the European Union) should be possible if you know somebody who can cover the rest.
Please reply to me and tell me what you think about this approach.
Thanks
Peter