Welp, I'll be moving to Norway in January or so to start a new job. Might even be pushed to February now, the paperwork is taking forever. I guess it's a lot of BS to bring an American over to Norway to live and work.

Any Norwegians on this board?

I'll be living in Stavanger area, which is filled with a lot of oilfield scum Expats from UK and America, so I don't think I'll have much trouble since I'll be "just another expat".

Any experience or advice about importing my '71 El Camino? I assume I'll have to fix quite a few things on it before I could ever import it, they would cry about the little 2" rust hole in the frame I'm sure, and the rusty quarter panel bottoms and floor would probably invoke some ire too.

I thought about bringing my Grand National over, but that would be $16,000 USD for the VAT at least, probably more in the end once all the other fees are calculated. Not worth it. Veteran cars over 30 years old are much cheaper and easier to import, so it's gonna be the '71 or the '47. I'll have to have the '71 sent somewhere here Stateside to get fixed before I send it if I do that.

It'd be cheaper to just get another El Camino and send it over, but it wouldn't be my El Camino that I've had for going on thirteen years through thick and thin. I'll be making enough money there though that it'll seem cheap to fix it anyway, the NOK is definitely stronger than the USD right now, so that'll help.

Guess that's it my soon to be Euro neighbors. I'll probably be hitting all the American car shows I can within a 200 mile radius... err... let's see that's uhhhhh.... oh ya, 322 kilometers. :D

Good & bad ? Great you'll make some killer bucks, sad you gotta leave the states to do it!!
Don't forget and leave you ELKO over there they don't need to import any more of ours!!!
I wish you luck and I hope you have time to play while your there, and hope you don't have dail up!!:poke:
Any idea how long you will be there?
Need someone to baby sit that Grand National????:nanawrench:
Good luck
Donny

Lived in Stavanger in the '80s,yes I'm former Oil Patch Trash.Beautiful area,climate was OK.Most everyone spoke a bit of English,people were real nice.Had no trouble getting around,most everyone had relatives over here.The beer is seriously effective! The women beautiful.It wasn't easy getting a work permit,I know the hassle.Getting the car there will be far more trouble than getting you there,import duties and such.Lighting will probably have to be changed to euro standards,yellow turn signals and the like.A few American car support clubs there.Try googling them,they could update you.They had to import them somehow.AAA might be helpful for international contacts also.I had an International drivers license,never used it tho.Always took a taxi.Most locals did too,I think the vehicle licensing fees were a bit on the exorbitant side.Price of fuel will be CRUSHING,per liter.All drove Mercedes,or other make, diesels..yawn.Diesel fuel way cheaper.Lots of SAABs and Volvos,of course.Offstreet parking highly recommended,streets are very narrow.Wide,long wheelbase vehicles might encounter difficulties.Everything there was expensive,heavily taxed.No trash,no crime,very clean country.I'd return in a heartbeat.Just a few things I recall.Have fun over there,I did.

Hey Vic, congrats on the new gig. Hope everything goes as planned. In the 90's I worked for Aker Maritime in Houston and had a chance to work in Norway for a year. Having 3 small kiddos, I decided to pass. Now that they are grown, i'd jump in a heartbeat. Who ya working for? My son in law works for Aker Solutions and travels to Norway every month. Keep us posted..

I did 9 weeks in Norway on major NATO manouvers in 86 and was enthralled with the place. Was surprised to see a fair number of Detroit irons on a sunday on learned there are a number of American car clubs there. The batch I saw were in the Narvik area, about 200 KMs inside the arctic circle. Everything from Vettes to chevelles and Mopar stuff , and I remember one nicely done up Stang. Weather that far north is surprisingly mild due to the prevailing patterns of the gulf stream. I often wish I had a chance to go back over.

So far it seems like everyone who's gone to Norway has liked it, so I am feeling better about it now for sure. They offered to fly me over there before offering the job to me, but that was right when they interviewed me and my passport wasn't current. Now I'll just be going there without having ever been before. When I moved to California at least they flew me down and let me see the area I'd be living. I didn't like it, but that job transfer was hard to pass up too. This one I'd be a fool not to take, even if just for the career advancement.

Good & bad ? Great you'll make some killer bucks, sad you gotta leave the states to do it!!
Don't forget and leave you ELKO over there they don't need to import any more of ours!!!
I wish you luck and I hope you have time to play while your there, and hope you don't have dail up!!:poke:
Any idea how long you will be there?
Need someone to baby sit that Grand National????:nanawrench:
Good luck
Donny

I dunno if it's good or bad, it's a good paying job with people I've worked with before, so that part should be good. Living in Norway though... I think not so much, but you never know, I might love it! They've signed me on for a three year contract, and if I like it there of course it could be longer. GN is probably getting sold, once it thaws out, it's hibernatin' out under it's car cover and a few feet of snow now. I don't really have an attachment to it, unlike my Elky, the GN is just a car, which is a good thing.

Lived in Stavanger in the '80s,yes I'm former Oil Patch Trash.Beautiful area,climate was OK.Most everyone spoke a bit of English,people were real nice.Had no trouble getting around,most everyone had relatives over here.The beer is seriously effective! The women beautiful.It wasn't easy getting a work permit,I know the hassle.Getting the car there will be far more trouble than getting you there,import duties and such.Lighting will probably have to be changed to euro standards,yellow turn signals and the like.A few American car support clubs there.Try googling them,they could update you.They had to import them somehow.AAA might be helpful for international contacts also.I had an International drivers license,never used it tho.Always took a taxi.Most locals did too,I think the vehicle licensing fees were a bit on the exorbitant side.Price of fuel will be CRUSHING,per liter.All drove Mercedes,or other make, diesels..yawn.Diesel fuel way cheaper.Lots of SAABs and Volvos,of course.Offstreet parking highly recommended,streets are very narrow.Wide,long wheelbase vehicles might encounter difficulties.Everything there was expensive,heavily taxed.No trash,no crime,very clean country.I'd return in a heartbeat.Just a few things I recall.Have fun over there,I did.

Yeah, I've been researching for a while now since they interviewed and the taxes seem to be outrageous compared to what we have in America, but they're paying enough I won't have troubles. Everything is expensive there. Cars are even crazy expensive. I'll probably just buy a TDi Audi or something that gets 45 MPG and then work out how to import my El Camino, if it's even worth the hassle. It might not be, I don't think I'll have much, if any, parking, Stavanger is pretty small and crowded. My boss-to-be drives a Chevy G30 van though, so it can't be too bad, or mabbe he just avoids the small parts of the streets.

Hey Vic, congrats on the new gig. Hope everything goes as planned. In the 90's I worked for Aker Maritime in Houston and had a chance to work in Norway for a year. Having 3 small kiddos, I decided to pass. Now that they are grown, i'd jump in a heartbeat. Who ya working for? My son in law works for Aker Solutions and travels to Norway every month. Keep us posted..

I'm going to be with the same company I've been with off and on over the last decade or so, Halliburton. More accurately the Sperry Drilling Services division of Halliburton. Doing a very specialized job that is mainly only done in Alaska (which is why I have the experience already) and Norway. Monitoring and correcting drilling operations as they drill by removing and correcting for the interference from underground anomalys and the Earth's wildly fluctuating magnetic fields at that Northerly latitude.

I did 9 weeks in Norway on major NATO manouvers in 86 and was enthralled with the place. Was surprised to see a fair number of Detroit irons on a sunday on learned there are a number of American car clubs there. The batch I saw were in the Narvik area, about 200 KMs inside the arctic circle. Everything from Vettes to chevelles and Mopar stuff , and I remember one nicely done up Stang. Weather that far north is surprisingly mild due to the prevailing patterns of the gulf stream. I often wish I had a chance to go back over.

That's what I have been seeing too, a lot of American cars there already, it might be better and easier for me to just buy something there and leave my El Camino parked here. I might just do that. I'm definitely going to be hitting up all the American car shows even if I don't have a car myself!

Hi from germany!
If you want to see detroit iron from all over europe, you have to go here:
http://www.bigmeet.com/
Itīs probably the largest meeting all over the world. In scandinavia is a huge US-Car community and most of the people meet there.
Itīs about 900 Km from Stavanger, that should be no problem for your Camino. Otherwise: take an aeroplane :new_usa:.

How's the fishing over there?:beer:

Hi from germany!
If you want to see detroit iron from all over europe, you have to go here:
http://www.bigmeet.com/
Itīs probably the largest meeting all over the world. In scandinavia is a huge US-Car community and most of the people meet there.
Itīs about 900 Km from Stavanger, that should be no problem for your Camino. Otherwise: take an aeroplane :new_usa:.

Hey cool! I had heard of that meet many a time, but did not know there was a website and all. It's not too far either. Right on. Thanks Peter.

How's the fishing over there?:beer:

Fishing is probably the second biggest industry over there apart from the oilfield. I dunno about lake and river fishing, I'd bet there's plenty of that too! Old co-worker who spent some time there said they even put salty brine fish on pizzas! Ew.

Hey cool! I had heard of that meet many a time, but did not know there was a website and all. It's not too far either. Right on. Thanks Peter.



Fishing is probably the second biggest industry over there apart from the oilfield. I dunno about lake and river fishing, I'd bet there's plenty of that too! Old co-worker who spent some time there said they even put salty brine fish on pizzas! Ew.
Have a great trip and get your elco over there every country needs them. We have enough oil here if they would let us take it.:beer:

Paperwork, paperwork damnit... Looks like March now. :???:

Finally got all around approval from everyone involved in this. Man this took forever. Due in Stavanger, Norway on March 1.

It's like a 30 hour flight, that includes layovers of course, but still damn long flight. Stuck in coach the whole flight, and I'm a big guy, man it's going to suck. :???:

Still haven't heard from any Norwegian El Camino owners, where are ya at guys? I know we have a few around.

Thinking I'm going to bring over my GN, can't be too many of those around there. It'll cost me a lot to import, but I think it'll be worth it to have something unique.

30 hours, ouch! Good luck, once you're there you'll soon forget about the trip. Seems long though, because I regularly fly from Switzerland to the east coast (NY and Washington) and that takes about 9 hours on a direct flight, and no more than around 12 if there's a stop over. Maybe you are counting the 6 hours time difference in there? Anyways, let me know if you need a good shipper, I imported my Camino last June from Minnesota.

You might be surprised to know that Norway's neighbor, Sweden, has about as many tri-5 Chevys ('55, '56, '57) that have been restored/modified as the US has. The FIRST tri-5 world show was in Sweden. If you ever get lonesome for old US cars, take a trip there.:poke:

And to think the US has over 300 million inhabitants, and Sweden 9 ...

Can this statistic be really true, that there are more restored tri-5 Chevys in Sweden than in all of the US? Sounds unlikely!

As for the length of the flight I was told 30 by the lady at the company who was booking it, they go the cheapest of the cheap on flights, so it is four stops and long layovers. I think it's around 20 hours of actual flying.

That Tri-Five number must be per capita, there's no way Sweden has more Tri-Fives than America!

Lots of American cars in Norway too with a lot of shows all summer long from what I can see. My boss to be even owns a Chevy Van and his kid owns a Trans Am... doesn't sound like I'll be missing them too much. Which will be nice.

European cars are, understandably, affordable over there, this might be my chance to try out an old European classic car for a change. Naaaah, probably not! :secret:

Been here one week to the day now, kinda liking it. More American cars than I ever thought there'd be. I dunno how they do it. I have a VW Golf right now and the roads are so narrow I feel like I'm going to go over the edge sometimes. The road I am living on right now is a narrow old farm lane with rock walls on both sides, it's insanely narrow. The other day I was heading out of it on the way to the store and a jackhole in a Ford Excursion was coming the other way, he barely moved over and never slowed down. I must have been a few inches from the rock wall, and he was only a few inches from me. Scary stuff.

Traffic here sucks too, takes an hour to go two miles to get home at night. Absolutely ridiculous. It's mainly because there are very few roads going to and from high population centers. The whole area grew up too fast for infrastructure to keep up. Also anyone who has ever said roundabouts are better than stoplights/intersections is crazy, at least here, the roundabouts are a free for all, big trucks and large vans are the worst offenders, right of way means nothing to them.

Liking it here, but hating the driving. I'm for sure going to have to move close to work, these people drive nuts! Also don't think I want to risk bringing over any of my cars, they'd end up smashed and cost a ton to repair in this faraway land!