First off I like your taste, esp the AMX - I always loved the styling of that car and that 390 V8 Nice!
Bringing a car is way easier that the other way around. You find your car in the state you're looking for. Try to buy a car closer to a state with a dock near it like NJ, FL, TX,CA etc. Obviously the Southern States or southern tip of CA is the best for getting that rust free car. If you find a car in another state away from a dock be prepared to pay for it to be shipped to the nearest dock. That can cost appx. $800 in itself.
Deal with a shipper that can handle all the paperwork with Customs exportation. Most agents will do this and include it in the price. Then ship it to the nearest port, usually that'll be Liverpool or Southampton. The cost depends on the way you ship it and the size of the vehicle. The cheapest is Ro/Ro. That's where the car gets stored in the ship along with other vehicles all parked together. The other option is container. That's where your car gets shipped in a container which is more expensive esp. if you want your car to be in a container by itself. Ro/Ro is only good if the vehicle is running condition. An old classic that you've set for restoring may not be.
OK, what's an estimate cost? Well if your car is appx. the size of a 60s Mustang and will be shipped Ro/Ro from Newark, NJ to Southampton, UK expect to pay $900 to ship.
Customs: You'll be bringing in the car for registeration in the UK permanently. Customs will want to see that you owned the car for six months prior to you living in the UK. A bill of sale will do. If you can prove this (they dont usally ask for proof) your car will duty-exempt. If you can't prove this be prepared to pay duty on the vehicle which is up to the Custom officer's discretion whether or not, say a 68 Shelby is actually worth $100. You will also need to insure the car prior to picking it up from the port. You're allowed to drive the car from the port without license plates to your house for ONE TRIP ONLY.
Registration: Once get the car home, you'll need to get it MOT'd Few things need to be done here. The headlights need to be realigned, you need a rear fog light added and amber directionals added to the rear of the car and the vehicle rewired to flash the ambers instead of the reds. UK regulations also dictate that the front lights need to be all one color so you cant have ambers showing on when you turn your parking lites on. These need rewiring as well. Once you've done that and passed MOT then you need to take your US title and go to the DVLA where you pay them like 200 pounds to register a foreign car. Since all cars in the UK before 1973 are road-tax exempt, you don't pay road tax, although they will issue you with a tax disc nonetheless. They will also issue you with a reg plate number (license plate number). You'll then need to get a place to make you US-sized license plates for your car.
If you need any more specific info or numbers for the DVLA, Customs or shipping agents in America, let me know.
