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DVLA and Change of Body Style
#25
Your rules there in the UK sound similar to the ones here in NZ where it seems like it is getting harder and harder to get things through. Although there it seems like people attach far more importance to what the paperwork says? Here I am struggling to see if I can even get paperwork for my special. I started it just over 10 years ago and in that time things have changed multiple times it seems.

Part of the problem seems to be no one actually knows what the rules are. It seems a bit like those old choose your own adventure books where you have to make the right choices to navigate through to a happy ending. For modern cars or imports it's all fairly well laid out and clear. There is also good support for people constructing cars like modern sports cars or hot rods.

Pre-war type cars though it is all very murky. The VCC here has some documents that can help. A statement of authenticity and a document you can sign and have witnessed saying you have no paper work for the car. Than it seems like you have to go to LTNZ (our DVLA) and apply to them for them to decide on a case by case basis if they will even allow the car to be entered into the system. You need to do this before the inspection place will even look at your car. The form is a CA03 (https://vehicleinspection.nzta.govt.nz/r...t/alt-docs).

I had never heard of it before until the VIN place told me I needed to do that first. They sent me a copy of what I needed to fill in. Obviously an ancient copy since the instructions told you to send them a check for the processing fee ($184 NZ per hour and they don't say how many hours it takes!) when banks have now done away with cheques. I found the newer version on the LTNZ site. Interestingly if you search for it you only find the link to the document, I can't find anywhere that mentions when you need that document at all. So unless you know it is there you will never find it.

Talking to the VIN places gives varied results. Some seem to know the rules and others not. Ringing the low volume certifiers also varies as apparently they specialise in different types of vehicles. Some are into race cars, most into Hot Rods. The low volume constructors manual (now free online instead of the $200 they used to charge) is good if you are building a car from scratch like a hot rod or race car but not a lot of use for pre war stuff. If you try to take a pre war car through that process they will insist on all sorts of things that are hard to meet: Collapsible steering (although a drag link might count there), burst proof door locks, seat belts, lamps with standards numbers and so on.

The problem is in the wording which is typically something like: "...other than one built or modified before January 1992...". How they apply that seems to vary. If you have an existing vintage car you bolt a blower to that needs low volume certing then the lights are exempt, they just cert the blower. If you are building a vintage special from parts they treat it as a scratch built and will want to cert the whole car so all the modern requirements kick in. So you can't use original lights, or original door locks. And it really comes down to the person doing the cert. The last one I spoke to is a hot rod specialist and he was complaining that the 'vintage car people' were the ones doing dodgy things making the rules tougher for the hot rodders!

It's all a bit of mine field really. And getting harder all the time. Best bet seems to be buy a car already registered and rebody it. LTNZ have no interest in pre-war cars it seems. The low volume people are all about hot rods and modern race cars. The VCC is somewhat helpful but really the whole process isn't as clear as it could be.

I suspect the number of us doing things like this now is so low no one cares anymore. Be interesting to know how many vintage specials are being built these days. Can't be more than a few a year? So low when you talk to people who have done it before it was usually so long ago the rules have changed or the person or place they used is retired, gone or dead! Unfortunately in NZ we don't really have the same vintage car industry you have in the UK. Even finding a testing station who know enough about old cars is getting hard these days. Take it to the wrong place and they'll fail you since their only knowledge is moderns.

I figure by the time my Riley is done the rules will be all different again. Rather than compromise on the build I am making it as period correct as possible. If that means by the time it's done it can never be road legal then so be it, it can be a race car trailered to places.

I am talking to one of the experts in the VCC who is helping me make sure I am doing things the proper way to get my Austin 7 special registered and have all the right papers and so on in place so hopefully that will help and I can get it legally on the road soon. Hopefully I can post it up as a road legal carĀ in the 'What have you done with your Austin 7' thread soon!

Simon
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Messages In This Thread
DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Jamie - 17-07-2021, 11:40 AM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Jamie - 17-07-2021, 07:31 PM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Jamie - 18-07-2021, 09:51 AM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by JonE - 18-07-2021, 11:19 AM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Jamie - 18-07-2021, 11:29 AM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Jamie - 19-07-2021, 10:21 AM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Hedd_Jones - 19-07-2021, 11:15 AM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Hedd_Jones - 19-07-2021, 12:23 PM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Jamie - 19-07-2021, 01:38 PM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Paul N-M - 19-07-2021, 01:48 PM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Hedd_Jones - 19-07-2021, 04:57 PM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by jansens - 24-07-2021, 10:04 PM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Hedd_Jones - 05-08-2021, 02:16 PM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by jansens - 05-08-2021, 08:35 PM
RE: DVLA and Change of Body Style - by Jamie - 05-08-2021, 10:44 PM

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