A dear friend bought a 150 very cheaply while in the US on holiday (!) and made a deal with a UK tyre distributor to ship it home in one of their containers along with the tyres. It arrived without further damage (he soon discovered why it was so cheap!) thanks to the packing effect of the tyres.
The most exciting part of his trip was driving the plane in a rented U-Haul van to the port in Miami. They passed a sign saying "All trucks must stop" thinking "that's OK, it's a van, not a truck". The lady Highway Patrol officer who pulled them over did not agree, and said she couldn't see why they were shipping "that pile of junk" to England. She was right.
PS. Excellent write up, thank you very much.