what the best way to ship a hood from indiana to cali?

 

First off, imho, don't use UPS. I have received way too much damaged stuff from them. If you're a business you might have better luck. If you want to limit potential damage, take it to a proffesional packer then go with fedex or dhl. Just a note, I was going to order a new hood for a civic from a seller in Wisconsin, with a really good price of $110. I cancelled the order when I found out the shipping was going to be $250 to Cali. That was $360 total.

 

Fedex is a lot cheaper than ups on something that size. Greyhound is a lot cheaper but takes longer. Have it packaged by someone that has one of those spray in foam machines cause sure as **** some fool will step on it!

 

I got my new-to-me hood shipped to me here in Colorado from a Z parts dealer in the midwest (Nebraska, I think, zparts.com? can't remember...). They used either Consolidated Freight or USF Reddaway, two of the bigger truck freight carriers. The shipping was cheap, like $50 or $60. They wrapped the hood nicely with foam and such, built a crate out of 1x4 and 1x2, and cardboarded the outside. I had it in less than a week from ordering. Having gotten stuck FedEx-ing a transmission to Moab, UT, I'd have to believe the truck freight companies will do just as nice a job for a lot less than the usual parcel carriers. And they're very easy to work with these days, competition's tight in the trucking industry with all the consolidation:
http://www.usfc.com/ltl/home/index.jsp
or try freightquote.com
Good luck,
Dave