Looking for opinions...

[Pete]

I'm curious about what you guys would do regarding registration. In the state of Washington the process goes like this:

First you get your car inspected by the state patrol for a VIN and or validate certificate of origin and assign a year. Unless the certificate of origin gives a year of manufacture different than the year you are registering in, the year of the vehical would be the current year.

Now the emission testing would be based on whatever that year has been determined as. If you managed to get a year such as the early 60s then you are exempt. If not then you are exempt for 5 years form the date registered. Then at the 6th year the car would be tested at 1968 standards for emissions only. Then every 2 years there after. Whew... sorry about the long winded explanation.

Now, in Oregon I believe you simply have it inspected for VIN and say what year it replicates and that's the year it gets registered and smog tested for.

How would you handle this?

 

[Lynn Larsen]

Pete,

Welcome to the most horrid, distasteful part of building your own car: getting it registered and dealing with ancillary laws/regulations surrounding the process. All in all, it sounds like you have it better than some and worse than others, but not bad really.

Year model: if WA's requirements for certificate of origin are anything like NC's were, forget it. They are looking for a document that only a federally registered automotive manufacturer is going to have. It may be more complicated than that as well: in NC, since I had a Ford engine, Porsche transaxle and Sabre chassis, they wanted a certificate for each of the components; anything less was unacceptable. They then wanted to see the original VINs assigned to each component; yeah right, like that happened! Bottom line, the state assigned me a VIN number with the current year. Sounds like this is exactly what WA will do. The worst part of all of this was that I had to post a bond for the appraised value (max of 3 licensed autodealer's appraisals) in order to get a title since I didn't have certificates for the components.

Inspection: We in NC are lucky in that, at the moment, home/hobby built cars are exempt from emissions if your county even has emissions testing. If I read your post right, the difference in WA is that you will have to pass '68 emissions standards in the 6th year regardless if the car is registered as a current year model. That is a whole lot better than having to pass 2006 emissions standards (CATs weren't even invented until way later than '68) which is the case in many states and countries. As long as raw fuel isn't dripping out of the exhaust you'd probably pass, LOL. Seriously, this can't be to tough and I would think that a good tune up with carb & points ignition would pass. Anything more modern than this type setup should be cake.

Regards,
Lynn

 

[Paolo-LoveGT40 Modelworks]

and wellcome also from country as mine (Italy) where simply u cant.

...but wherever there is a NO means u can...just u have to come crazy and spend money.

Paolo

 

Paolo, sounds like my state of Massachusetts. We call it Taxachusetts!

 

[Neal]

My experience in the state of Washington has been pretty reasonable. There is provision to referee a vehicle that can not be tied to it's registered year. i.e. Kit Vehicles and hot rods. You sniff, fail, and the agent does an inspection. Assuming you get someone reasonable, they will grant a permanent exemption. I've done this twice without issue. Too bad you can't avoid the hassle though.

 

[Pete]

Does it seem reasonable to explore registering in Oregon then transfer to Washington? Neal, do you need to test every 2 years as well?

 

[Dutton]

Neals experience bears out the conversation I had with a member of the WA State Dept of Ecology - except for a permanent exemption. The regulations may have changed, however, as I was told a few months ago that the exemption would be only for the current emissions test failure, and that the DOE had no provision for issuing a permanent 'get out of jail' card.

On the other hand, it's reassuring to know that their process has worked, Neal. I'd sure be interested in what the inspector was looking for during the visit. Anything you'd be able to share?

Regards,

T.