How to ship a giant fiberglass statue

Congratulations! You've found that giant fiberglass statue you've always wanted and worked out payment arrangements. Now comes the tricky part - how the heck do you get it home?

Our muffler man Big George in a TX warehouse

This is a question we've asked ourselves many times and also been asked many times. Unfortunately, the short answer is, "It sorta depends."

One thing we've found in our collecting of fiberglass giants the past dozen or so years is that finding one even remotely close to where you live is akin to winning the lottery. Out of our current crop of 16 statues the only one we've found in our own town ended up being our smallest statue. In that case it was a piece of cake. We drove across town, threw it in the back of our station wagon and were home in an hour. Total cost - about $5.00 in gas.

Skunky Brewster - our local find.

In most cases transportation comes down to that classic dilemma of choosing two out of three options:

• Fast
• Good
• Cheap

Let's assume your statue's shipping needs are similar to the majority we've experienced. It's somewhere between 6' - 20' tall, weighs between 60 - 300 pounds, and you'd like to get it home as soon as possible.

For us, we've determined that there are three realistic options for getting your new treasure home. We'll break those down below with our thoughts on what we like and don't like about these options.

A&W Papa Burger transport 2007

Using your own vehicle or a rental vehicle - the DIY method

This is the method we've used the majority of times and prefer if at all possible. Anything within 1000 miles of Portland, OR we tend to either drive our own (or a rental) and pick up the statue ourselves. Of the options we mentioned above this one works out to be fast and good. In some cases we've bought a one-way plane ticket to the nearest airport. picked up a rental truck in that town, loaded up the statue and then headed home.

Harbie the Seal. 1800 mile round-trip. Rental truck.

Lately we've preferred renting simply to cut down on mileage and other wear on our own vehicle. If it's a small statue like Harbie in the photo above, a pickup rental from Enterprise made the trip easy. One tip we have is to make sure the rental has a mileage allowance that fits with your trip - getting home and finding out you owe more than you budgeted stinks.

For large statues we've used both U-Haul and Penske. Both are available in a variety of sizes and most don't require a special license to drive. We recently completed a 4300 mile trip (dodging bad weather) in a 26' Penske. We have found that Penske prices can vary based on time of the month, location, and inventory at preferred rental location. We'd also suggest the optional insurance as most personal auto policies won't cover a rental truck, and if you're like us you don't have a ton of experience driving a gigantic truck cross-country. Also be prepared to get around 10 miles-per-gallon regardless of truck size.

26' Penske - these things are huge!

One of the many reasons we prefer the DIY method of statue shipping is you're able to make sure the statue is wrapped, loaded, and secured in a manner that you feel comfortable with. You've more than likely spent a fair chunk of money on the statue and in many cases even more than the statue itself to transport it so the last thing you want is someone flinging it in the back of a truck and letting it bounce around for several hundred or several thousand miles.

Some important things to be aware of when you're going the DIY route include:

Make sure you have sufficient help to get the statue in the truck. We've been stuck trying to wrangle one with just the two of us and frankly if not for the kindness of a stranger passing by the statue would have won that battle.

Bring a ton of moving blankets and ratchet straps. You can never have too many straps! If you need to lay the statue down be sure and lay blankets down first as the road vibration will wear away paint in any area that's touching a hard surface. Also, anywhere you wrap a strap around the statue make sure there's a blanket or other soft fabric under the strap.

This only works at 20 mph or less.

Will the statue be secure at night? If you're driving a box truck with a padlock on the door you should be fine. Just make sure any motel you choose has a lot large enough for your truck. If you're driving a pickup or towing an open trailer you'll have to decide your own comfort level. We always look at it in how quickly someone could steal the statue - smaller items tend to give us bigger concerns. On our last Harbie trip we spent one night with the statue getting a few less-than-perfect hours of sleep in a well-lit and well-traveled rest area. Do be prepared to wake up and find people standing next to your truck taking photos. A bit surreal to wake up to something like that...

If you're driving a 26' truck be prepared to have a much narrower range of fuel and dining options. We found that due to the height and huge turning radius of the truck many normal gas stations were a no-go. The same goes for many restaurants along the way. The easiest way was to just plan on fuel and food at your truck stop of choice. Also in most cases it was easiest to get diesel by going through the semi-truck pump island. If you're not used to these trucks, brace yourself the first time you fill up that 70-gallon tank.

Be prepared to be one of those trucks going 20 mph up any kind of hill. We just turned on our flashers and plugged along.

Wrapping up the DIY method we personally do feel it's the best option if at all possible. It's not cheap, but as you'll read below there really isn't a way we've found that would fall into that category with any kind of predictability.

uShip or something similar.

For those of you not familiar with uShip, it's a service where you list an item (size, weight, pick up and destination, etc.) and shippers bid to transport it. Over the years we've heard and read countless reviews of the service and to sum it up: it may go awesome or it may end up in swearing and tears. Using the two out of three formula from earlier, it actually breaks the mold in that it could be any of those three things as long as you put the word "sorta" in front of it.

We have used the service one time in the shipping of our muffler man from Texas to Oregon. We'd rate that experience as less than positive. For starters, be prepared for bids much higher than white-glove professional moving companies. Also, when we used the service we were not able to contact any bidder until we accepted a bid. After finally accepting a bid for a "blanket wrap in enclosed trailer" transport, we agreed upon a pick up date. We got a text when the shipper was onsite and loading our statue, but several hours later we received a call from the seller saying he had concerns with our shipper. Not the news you're hoping for. We finally reached the shipper on the phone and it turns out he had accepted other shipments and had filled his trailer before picking up our statue. He assured us he could make it work and would let us know when he was on the road. The photo below is the one he sent us to let us know all was good.

Not what we had discussed

Upon receiving the photo we quickly realized we had vastly different ideas of "all good." To begin with, we had paid extra for enclosed transportation - strike one. To secure this fiberglass Jenga he had cranked down numerous straps across the legs which in turn proceeded to crush the torso like an egg - strike two. We had a predetermined delivery date so we could be present for delivery. That date changed numerous times with the final delay caused by the shipper stopping at his house for several days before making the final trip to our place - strike three.

We know some of you have had great experiences with the service and that's fantastic. Our issue is that unless you're working with a shipper you know or one that comes personally recommended it's too much of a gamble. These statues are big, bulky and very fragile and it's too easy to damage them if you're not familiar with handling them.

Professional moving services.

This method is one that we're not as familiar with outside of a couple local moves. These providers range from established moving companies to companies that specialize in high value fine art and artifacts. Quotes we have received for a single large statue have been anywhere from a few thousand to many thousands of dollars. If you've bought a very expensive statue and your budget allows, this may be an option to consider. Services can include removal of the statue, packing and crating, warehousing and more. If this is something that works for you you can start by doing an online search for "fine art" or "artwork" moving services. You can generally find numerous reviews for each company.

The joy of watching someone else do the work

Misc. methods.

Occasionally you may find a small statue that the seller is willing to ship via a commercial freight company. Something we learned after the first time was to be sure and discuss their packing methods before the item ships. Our first shipped statue was from a dealer that had sold several fiberglass pieces so we just assumed all would be well. The item was shipped from NJ to OR. Below is how the statue arrived. To this day we have no idea how it made it here.

Somebody order a head in a box?

Our next statue that was shipped commercially came beautifully wrapped and secured to a pallet. You just never know.

We hope this post helped take some of the mystery out of wrangling these guys around the country. Just keep in mind that you'll need a bit of help, a little creativity, a sense of adventure, and a desire to own a piece of history.

Once you get them home you'll forget about the lack of sleep, the bleary eyes, the sometimes jaw-dropping amount of money it cost to get them transported, and eventually you'll even forget that weird guy you saw at the truck stop in Texas.

We'd love to hear your tips and stories regarding moving these guys around. Let us know in the comments how you got yours home.

Mission accomplished

Jeff & Kelly
Vintage Roadside

Muffler Men restoration updates!

We wanted to give a quick update on the current restorations of our two Muffler Men. Well, actually one Muffler Man and one disembodied head.

First up is Big George. Thanks to the amazing folks at Miles Fiberglass here in Portland, Oregon we're thrilled to announce he is now 100% sound again! He came to us with very severe damage to his torso after taking a fall back in 2010.

One of the numerous large tears in the fiberglass.

The team at Miles repaired him from head to toe and he's now ready to move on to painting. You can see in the photo below the numerous large tears that needed to be repaired both externally and internally. They also reconstructed his waist line so he could be bolted together again.

 Note areas of large repairs.

 We'll post an update as soon as we get him to the paint shop. We're currently in the process of selecting colors.

Roll me over!

Next up is our orphan Muffler Man Bunyan head. We actually picked him up last fall and he's been undergoing a complete restoration the past few months. The story of this one is that an antique dealer bought it from a picker who obtained it several years ago. At the time the picker got him the body still existed but was "too large" to also save. That person was not able to confirm if all these years later the body still existed. We're guessing it sadly ended up being scrapped. We've not been able to locate any photos showing a Bunyan with this paint job. The photos below will give you an idea of what a complete wreck he was when he arrived.

Paul in "as found" condition.

His problems were many, starting with the fact that at some point someone decided it would be awesome to glue gobs of pillow batting to his hair, eyebrows and beard. This created a giant mess that took endless applications of paint stripper and hand sanding. Next up was the paint job that appeared to have been applied by hand. Not with a brush, but an actual bare hand. They had also chosen a lobster red for a skin tone. Perhaps they were going for "First sunny day of the year Paul."

Paint stripper in action.

Once the numerous layers of paint had been removed we could get an idea of the underlying damage. The two areas needing the largest repairs were a large crack running from the front of his cap back into his head and a large tear at the base of his neck. We're guessing that when the head was removed from the body it was done less than carefully.

This large crack had been previously "fixed" by applying duct tape over it.

Like many jobs the preparation has been by far the largest part of getting Paul back to his handsome self. Many hours of stripping, sanding, fiberglass application, more sanding, filling in small imperfections etc. We're currently in the primer stage but hopefully you can see how great he's turning out.

We knew that rugged lumberjack was hiding under there!

He should be all painted up by the end of the weekend and we'll post a few "after" photos so you can see how he turned out!

If you need us we'll be over here sanding away,

Jeff & Kelly

Vintage Roadside

The Tastee Freez Twin - a unique piece of advertising history

It's been an eventful month for our vintage fiberglass mascot collection with the arrival of Big George the Muffler Man and our newest addition Eff.

Eff settles in with some of the A&W Burger Family
 

What's an Eff you ask?. Eff was actually the male half of the Tastee Freez Twins - mascots used for a time by Tastee Freez. Eff has chocolate hair and waves jauntily with his right arm while his sister Tee has strawberry hair and greets everyone with her left arm.

Tastee Freez featured the twins in a series of comic books as well as other products. The most common items are the salt & pepper shakers which are still somewhat easy to track down.

Here's a lovely set recently offered on Etsy by NewportRoad

As you can see Eff does still bear a resemblance to his 2" salt shaker self, but turning him into a 7.5' statue takes him to an entirely different level. :-)

Surprisingly adding Eff to our collection was a 9-year process. We first became aware of him several years ago when Debra Jane Seltzer posted photos of a collection of fiberglass statues she visited in South Carolina. The statues were located at a business that sold concrete lawn ornaments, and after a bit of digging and were able to find a phone number. Unfortunately for us when we called we were told he wasn't for sale. We were disappointed but could tell the owner truly enjoyed having him.

Photo courtesy of Mark Blackwell

So, we called about once a year just to check in and see if he was possibly available and each year we were told politely he was still there but not for sale. Then in 2013 the phone number we had no longer worked. We thought maybe they had closed up shop and we resigned ourselves to the fact it wasn't meant to be.

Being us (i.e. completely obsessed) we still thought about him and wondered where he ended up. Finally around the end of last year we did another online search and found a different number for the shop. We called and found out that they were indeed looking to wrap up the business and everything was now for sale. The bad news was that Eff had been sold.

In February of this year a friend of ours was visiting family in South Carolina and just happened to be quite close to the shop that once owned Eff. We asked if he'd be willing to swing by and see what was still there. That afternoon he sent us several photos including the one below:

Photo courtesy of Mark Blackwell

It's him! Eff was still there! We immediately wrote Mark and asked him to find out if he was available, and if so to please let them know we'd like him. He was, and Mark was able to facilitate the adoption process for us and we were on our way. 

Obstacle one was that now that Eff was ours we needed to somehow get him from South Carolina to Oregon...quickly. Enter Jacob the Carpetbagger from North Carolina. Jacob was kind enough to drive down and meet Mark to take Eff back to his house while we arranged shipping.

Photo courtesy of Mark Blackwell

 

Jacob loaded up Eff and took him on a little road trip back to North Carolina (check his his road trip video here) with one particularly fun stop along the way:

Eff says hello to his former employer. (Photo by Jacob Krecj)

Eff stayed with Jacob for a couple weeks while we worked out the best way to get a giant ice cream boy statue shipped across the country. The UPS Store in Asheville, NC ended up being a tremendous help and about a week later we were picking him up here in Portland.

It turns out that Eff is not only unique in the looks department he's also quite unique in the world of advertising statues. At the moment there are three Tastee Freez statues known to still exist - ours, one other Eff and one Tee (sporting a unique set of clothes.) We'd love to find a Tee for Eff but that may be a bit like finding a unicorn. He's next in line for a complete restoration and we can't wait to see him in a new coat of yellow and chocolate brown.

Estelle says goodbye to Eff...

In closing we'd like to once again offer our sincere thanks to Estelle, Mark and Jacob. Without them we'd still be pining away for Eff. Thanks again guys for making "Operation Tastee Freez" a success.

Jeff & Kelly
Vintage Roadside

Vintage Roadside adds a Muffler Man to the collection!

Big news friends! We're thrilled to announce the Vintage Roadside fiberglass family has grown with the addition of one very large new fella - Big George.

Some of you Muffler Man fans may recognize Big George from the Sterling McCall Classic Car Museum in Round Top, Texas. He was purchased by Mr. McCall in the late 1990s and stood in front of his museum until one unfortunate day in 2010.

According to his former caretaker he received a call one morning letting him know "the Big Guy was down." He had been placed on a raised section of the grounds (image) and sadly became a victim of overnight winds. He fell face-first, in what must have looked like the world's most awkward cliff dive, breaking his fall on the sidewalk below with both his outstretched arms and his forehead.

The results of his tumble are evident in the damage to both armpits, smaller fractures across his chest, tears at his waist and a non-lethal head wound.

Big George was then taken apart at the waist and moved to the Museum's storage warehouse. In the following years the Museum's collections were auctioned off and sadly Mr. McCall passed away in 2013. In the Fall of 2015 a friend let us know that the family was considering finding a new home for Big George. We tried to make contact but weren't able to get in touch with the family. In February we decided to give it one last shot and luckily we reached one of Mr. McCall's daughters. She put us in touch with the caretaker of the collection and he was kind enough to send us a set of detailed photos.

After discussions with the McCall family an agreement was made and we became the proud new parents of Big George.

We do have one bit of caution to other potential Muffler Men owners - be prepared to find your perfect Muffler Man no closer than 8-10 states away from wherever you're located. Before landing Big George we had "almost" landed one in South Carolina, Georgia, Texas (different statue) and California. Being in Oregon we knew immediately the California one wouldn't work out - way too easy! While finally locating one is certainly the largest part of the challenge, shipping a 20' statue home is also a major part of the process. We ended up going the uShip route and in the end he arrived here in Portland.

The two questions we've been asked are: "What's next for him?" and "Where can we see him?"

A complete restoration begins for him next week which will probably take somewhere around 3 months. We have also had several inquiries from local businesses interested in having him on display. Our number one priority is to get him restored and back out in public view. Portland has never been home to an International Fiberglass Muffler Man and we're so excited to bring one to town. As soon as we confirm placement we'll be sure and let you all know. We can't wait to get a photo with him either. :-)

If you're a local Portland business and are interested in having Big George at your location or event please contact us regarding availability here. For over 50 years now these roadside giants have drawn a crowd.

In closing we'd like to once again thank the McCall family for passing him on to us, and to all of you who have been so supportive of Vintage Roadside over the past 10 years.

Jeff & Kelly
Vintage Roadside

P.S. We've also recently added two other pieces to our vintage fiberglass mascot family - a rare Tastee Freez Twin as well as the head of a Bunyan model Muffler Man. We'll post about those two next time out.

Vintage Roadside adds to their fiberglass family!

We're thrilled to announce a new addition to the Vintage Roadside family of vintage fiberglass mascots - Harbie the Seal!

We have quite an affinity for fiberglass giants who began their careers in the 1960s as the mascots of places like A&W,  Texaco, Yogi's Fried Chicken, Harbor Gasoline, Uniroyal Tire Stores, and the miniature golf course down the street. As many of these finished up their careers they were either re-worked to advertise something different, or in many cases sadly destroyed due to their size. We like to think of our collection as a "retirement home" for these one-time icons of advertising.

The Harbie the Seal statues once greeted customers outside of select Harbor Gasoline stations in the southern California area. In his outstretched hand (flipper) he held a ship's lantern. These Harbies had spent the last 30+ years living quietly in a canyon above Beverly Hills, California and cared for by a wonderful couple Mac & Natalie.

Beverly Hills Harbies

After months of planning to bring them to their new home the entire road trip "adoption" process ended up happening in just 53 hours! (Keep in mind they were located roughly 1100 miles away.) Here's a rough timeline of how it all fell into place:

Sunday - We get confirmation the pickup we need for the trip is available!

Monday afternoon - Trip called off due to unrelated issue. Bummer...

Monday evening - Trip back on! Elation...

Tuesday 1:00 pm - We leave Portland, OR for Beverly Hills, CA. Random stops for old neon signs and at truck stops for both food & amusing gift shop ideas make up a large portion of the drive.

Wednesday 11:00 am - We arrive in Beverly Hills, CA. Traffic resembles the opening to the movie Office Space and the temperature is already nearing 100 degrees.

Wednesday 11:15 am - We hike up the steep road to the Harbies. We leave the truck at the base of the road as it resembles something seen on Ice Road Truckers - Deadliest Roads. We begin digging the Harbies out of the hillside. Temperature now feels close to 147 degrees. We receive occasional advice, questions, and fond musings on the Harbies from neighbors.

Wednesday 1:00 pm - We have successfully and safely extracted the Harbies and carried them down the hill to the truck. We load them in the truck and drive down the street to lay in the shade of a local park to let the effects of heat exhaustion fade to a more manageable level. We count ourselves lucky we aren't rousted by security as we look like we were dunked in a tank of 12 types of dirt and sweat. Amazingly the water fountain is actually chilled - thumbs up for Beverly Hills Parks!

Wednesday 1:30 pm - We need to make a non-Harbie related meeting. We drive the giant truck with two smiling seals through Bel Air and Hollywood. Pointing ensues.

Wednesday 4:00 pm - We leave the area headed for I-5 north. Amazingly traffic has not improved in the past 5 hours.

That really was 2 giant seals you just passed on I-5

Wednesday 10:30 pm - We stop to eat at a Denny's somewhere along the way. Jeremy proceeds to eat a sandwich that started life as a grilled cheese and is then stuffed with macaroni & cheese as well as a hamburger patty...you can't make this stuff up.

Thursday 4:00 am - After this many hours awake we begin to realize just how Hunter S. Thompson wrote those books. We stop at a rest area to sleep for 2 hours. We awake to an entire tour group surrounding the pickup gleefully posing with the Harbies for photos. In a sleep-deprived state of mind Jeremy makes the mistake of exiting the truck into the mass of people. I briefly consider sacrificing him and quickly driving away.

Thursday 7:00 am - 1:00 pm - We come up with the concept for an all-new event...Trucker Oasis! We spend hours discussing every detail of a 3-day event that will celebrate and honor everything related to being a trucker as well as those that embrace the trucker lifestyle. Also at this point we've stopped counting the number of people pointing as they pass us. Looks of open-mouthed puzzlement have quickly become our favorite reaction.

Thursday 4:00 pm - We arrive back where we began our road trip. Clear thinking will return in approximately 36 hours.

Huge thanks to our friend Jeremy for making the trip! Without his help this whole crazy trip wouldn't have been possible!

To all you you that passed us along the way and gave a wave, a thumbs-up, or snapped a photo or two we'd like to say thanks! It's kind of a boring drive up I-5, so hopefully we made your drive a little more memorable.

And, if you know of a fiberglass mascot needing a new home let us know! We're always ready to load up the truck and head out. We've been saving a spot for a Muffler Man right over there by Papa Burger. :-)

Jeff & Kelly

Vintage Roadside

P.S. You can see more photos from our trip at our Facebook page located here.