Hot Rods,Homebuilt cars and Emmision controls

[Bill Hincher]

I dont give legal advice and I dont know how other states handle home built cars but this is from the State of Michigan

there is only one way to build a hot rod, get the title to the car that you have the engine from and the title to the body of the car you will be putting it in, now take the title down to the liscense bureua and declare you are modifying the car by more then 50%, make sure and take most of your reciepts with you, they will take your reciepts and declare that as the value of the car and have you pay sales tax on that value and will re issue you a new title as a homebuilt ' builders' car in that current year , you are allowed to build up to 25 cars per year before you need to comply with emmission control laws
I have built many , many cars like that and recieved a current year title from the stateof Michigan and Ohio

What I am talking about is dune buggies, here in Michigan we have many nice dunes that we are allowed to drive on.

In order to build a dune buggy you need a donor car ( strip out a Bug) and you need a frame, ( I like Berrien buggies) now you have a 50% change, in order to build this car you need to provide the state a copy of all your reciepts and prove nothing is stolen. I build a file and everytime I buy something for the car I save the reciept with the title from the original bug . After the car is completed, I surrender the title from the donor car and present all the reciepts to the state at the title bureau, they take my bug title and reciepts and collect sales tax on the whole amount. Then I have a police officer come to my shop and do a safety inspection, he will check the brakes, a horn, windshield wipers and safety glass for a windshield
After a sucsessful inspection the State of Michigan issues a brand new vin number to the vehicle and physicaly attaches this vin to the car on the frame . Now the state issues me a new title for the current year ( my current 1973 dune buggy is titled as a 2007 roadster), then I am allowed to insure the car and buy plates
At this point I am legally running a 1973 VW engine in a currrent year car
To the best of my knowledge, Federal law which covers all states allows any individual to build up to 25 cars per year before the builder must comply with emmision control laws
IF I do not follow these laws, the state says I can not prove ownership of said car, and the state reserves the right to destroy the car if I dont have proper ownership , in other words, dont try to run plates from the original stripped out Bug on your dune buggy
Whats this got to do with your car? you are changing rear ends ,transmissions and engines in the same car, I would consider that a 50% change, you should be able to qualify for a homebuilt title

Again, I do not profess to know all the laws involved but these are common knowledge rules applied to replica cars, hot rods, homebuilt rock crawlers and dune buggies in my area I have personally done this and its not only legal, its the law

[Robert Venable]

Thanks for the great info Bill.

[jeffball610]

Thanks for posting that Bill. I'm going to go down and find out about my laws here in Colorado. Then I have to find out about the laws in Nevada since I'll be moving to Vegas this summer and my car won't be complete. This is going to be a pain in the ass isn't it?

[Bill Hincher]

Its not really a pain in the ass, its like a Ju-Jitsu move, you are using the wieght of the government against itself
the federal EPA laws are just that, they are fedreal laws, the States are in control of the vehicle title business
This exemption is in place from the federal government to allow state governments the right to issue titles to homebuilders and hot rodders
If the state you live in has imposed 'piggy-back' EPA laws, such as california, then you are screwed, but if the state only has federal EPA guidlines in place, then you can get this exemption
But in truth, in any state , when you change engines in a given car, you have altered the vin description of the car, the engine you have placed in the car is no longer a 'matching number' and if you were to live by the letter of the law, you are required to provide the state with the new numbers of the engine to reset the vin, but that would be such a huge paper trail, nobody complies with that law

[DJpowerHaus]

I imagine many home made cars are built with swap meet parts. How does one prove ownership if a cashless trade was made? What about junkyard blocks? I have yet to meet a junkyard willing to give me a title.

So this law basically lets one do massive engine and drivetrain modifications legally.

Wonder what insurance costs are on a 2008 Starion... I could register it as a 1988 Mitsubishi with Historic tags which would probably be cheaper.

[Bill Hincher]

I imagine many home made cars are built with swap meet parts. How does one prove ownership if a cashless trade was made? What about junkyard blocks? I have yet to meet a junkyard willing to give me a title.

Thats exactly what the law enforcement is looking for, hot parts. If you have receieptsfor used parts, the state of Ohio requires you to have the vin number of the car the used part came from, those vin numbers are all run against stolen car vins to see where you got the parts before you pass inspection

[jeffball610]

They can't really prove the parts are not stolen though. If you bought a said part and had a receipt, you could pass a stolen part off as a paid for part with that receipt. I know some guys that would buy a TV or something, take it back to get their cash, steal a new TV and pawn it. I've seen people walk into a store with grocery bags, fill them up, and then leave. The store only looks at the receipt to see that you purchased an item, not a specific item.

There are tons of holes in the system. I could say my 4G63 motor was stolen from my car, take the cops to DJ and say he stole my motor. And if DJ doesn't have receipts with the VIN# on it I could take his motor and have charges filed. I think I found my new calling. Fraud.

Maybe I need to start etching my name on all my car parts and taking photographic evidence of all my stuff. Or we could just go about are business as we always have.

[Bill Hincher]

GEEEEEEEEEEEEE Jeff, what kinda people you been hangin out with ?

yeah and customers take reciepts outta the trash and present them to the return counter too and ask for a refund