Thank you, Arsenii!

Excellent thoughts. Fortunately, Tannin has an excellent video on how to remove the cluster, and how to pack it. Your understanding of the physics of shipping is excellent.

I followed their counsel about sending the unit to Tannin: I double-boxed the unit, making sure it travelled inside the inside box sitting upright, and was immobilized from any movement by a tight cushion of plastic bags and bubble wrap. Immobilized also the inner box with heavy cardboard all around between it and the outer-box. The whole package could not move inside [as your intelligent measures also would produce the same outcome].

The problem is the variation in the way the package is handled.

I wrote all over the outside of the outer box instructions "Fragile:Glass inside"; and "This side Up". along with arrows on all four sided. Also wrote "Fragile Instrument. Cluster, Do Not Drop" on all four sides.

As I mentioned, in the past I've worked for FedEx.

Here's the problem: Variation in the training, desire to help, and skills of the many people who will touch this package along the way.

Some are highly professional and respectful of the warnings, some will not take time to notice it, and a few, usually disgruntled employees, may even ignore all of this. Some will drop or throw it even. They are under a lot of pressure to get the thing there on time and may not be well-trained or supervised.

UPS is a great company and an old company with high standards. Still, the mishandeling can occur as it obviously did in my case.

Thanks for your interest and attention to detail!

 

Oh, sorry, I was actually curious about Tanin Auto packaging practices. I've never worked with this company personally, so I have no way of knowing if all the shipping casualties described can be attributed to a carrier alone, so I thought it's probably somewhere in the middle, hence the previous post. There is a pretty simple rule - if a mistake can physically be made, it will be made, the way aviation became as safe as it is today is by keeping backups even for the backups, making it impossible for any one event to cause an accident.

 

Per UPS/FedEx/USPS their standard is at least 2" gap or space on every side. The box must meet the crush specifications and have the certification stamp and it has to be taped in a certain way, with a certain width packing tape. If an item is in contact with cardboard they won't pay out. Then depending on the item we either use paper fill or packing peanuts. Then we wrap the item in either small or large bubble wrap. 90-92 LS400 clusters we actually double box first inside a 17x9x9 with bubble wrap and peanuts and then place the smaller box inside an 18x12x10 with more peanuts. Looks like we will need to extend that to the 93-94 LS400 clusters as well going forward. USPS and Fedex are terrible. We stopped using them for gauge clusters back in 2013 or 2014 because there was a 10-20% damage or lost package rate. We use UPS exclusively.

As far as the part and labor pricing goes. It's not easy finding 20-25 year old Lexus parts or speedometers. Due to this fact, we fly back and forth across the country and manually pick and buy every Lexus gauge cluster we find from the west coast to the east coast. We then bring them back to home base and salvage and rebuild what we can. There are no new replacement parts for a lot of gauge cluster parts and if we can't manufacture it then we have to track used original parts down. That's part of the reason we are one of the few, or only places that will touch 1990's Lexus clusters. That's a small glimpse into how we price our repairs and services. It's a love for Lexus and helping people keep these cars on the road over pure profits.

 

The excellent detail shows you’ve earned the respect of Club Lexus community by hard work and attention to detail. Thanks for the insights and revealing part of your system of profound knowledge that keeps us driving with a smile.


Well Done

 

That fully answers my question.

As a side note, any plans on modifying the Clusters by retrofitting newer style motors into the old enclosure, keeping the appearance but making them not nearly as fragile? There will be a point when there are no spare parts anymore, seeing how delicate those can get..

 

Excellent service by Tanin Auto Electronix by processing very quickly my claim with UPS for damage to the unit in return shipping. Package already on its way back to Tanin: Well done, Tanin Team!