So there's a bug you can exploit right now for this ships. Ripped this off GAF
Do you know about the bug/exploit with Gek transmission towers? You can re-enter the code there and just ping a shit load of ship crashes from a single transmission tower and just go from one ship to the other without stopping to trade up ships. It only works on a Gek system for whatever reason.
Now just swing by all each pinged ship one by one. It doesn't matter what the ship looks like, you won't own it for long anyway. Just make sure the ship you're switching to is a +1 slot increase when transferring, every once in awhile the crashed ship might actually be lower.
As you transfer over, break down any upgrades from the old ship and transfer over as many valuable resources as possible (rare elements like Omegon. Also Nickel, Aluminum, Gold or Emeril which will be needed to repair or build Warp Reactors). For now, KEEP THE NEW SHIP UPGRADES INTACT. The upgrades on your current ship could possibly have an impact on the upgrades you'll find on the new ship. [note: this needs further testing, but I'd recommend waiting to break down upgrades on the new ship until you've found another vessel to swap]
After the transfer is complete, you'll only need Iron (for carite sheets, you'll need 6 for each ship repair), Heridium and Platinum (you'll need some to fuel the launch as well) to fix your new ship just enough so it call fly (only the Launch Thruster and Pulse Engine). These are widely available on almost every planet, so if you run out you can quickly farm. Once the repairs are done, you'll be ready to fly; head to the next pinged ship. Rinse and repeat the last 3 bullet points until you hit 47 slots.
For the final 48th slot, now would be a good time to get picky and choose a ship you actually enjoy. I took another 40+ minutes to find one I liked but if you don't care what your ship looks like, just pick whatever.
The ship transferring step of the process took me around 2.5-3 hours for 13 ship swaps with another 40+ minutes for cosmetic/vanity purposes. Again, YMMV but that 2.5-3 hours is small in comparison to the grind of tens of millions of credits. My final result
