How to register your Specially Constructed Vehicle in California
Version 1.0
© Magnus Feuer, Costa Mesa, CA
Magnusfeuer@hotmail.com
(Yes, you can mail me if you have questions)
2002-10-12[/align]
Feel free to distribute this document to fellow car enthusiasts. You cannot, however, make any money in any way from this document. If you modify this document you must distribute the finished work free of charge as well. Please contact me if you have any questions or comments about this.
Introduction
This document gives a step-by-step description of how to register your specially constructed vehicle (SPCNS) in California. This form of registration allows you to be exempt from smog regulations and other rules applied to ordinary cars. For the year 2002, 500 smog exemption licenses were issued for SPCNS. I registered my car in July and got number 170. There are rumors that this program will be killed during the next couple of years, which means that your car can still be registered as a SPCNS, but it must then fulfill California smog regulations.
Please note that your local DMV office is probably unfamiliar with the procedures, and may flounder around quite a bit. If you think they are doing something wrong, or are missing a step, point it out immediately. If not, you may have to go back to the DMV for additional procedures after you get your license plates. DMV Headquarter in Sacramento will probably catch what the local office misses.
The steps after the registration start can probably be executed in any given order, depending on when you can get your appointments with different agencies.
The process below has been optimized from my experiences. I had to go to the DMV five times before I got all the paperwork right. If you find this document to be in error at some point in your registration process, mail me so that I can correct it!
The procedure usually totals at about 4-8 weeks and includes at least two visits to the DMV. You will get a temporary operating permit, valid for 90 days, when you initiate your registration process. With this permit you can get insurance and use your car while it is being registered.
Since DMV took all my paperwork when the registration process was finished, I cannot itemize the different registration costs. I paid a total of $785 to register the "other track car" 7 I built. I am fairly positive that a $523 sales tax for the engine is included in this sum (see below). But donâ??t take my word for this.
A final word: BE PATIENT. I have found that if you are nice and charming, no matter what they invent for you as the torment-of-the-week, everything proceeds much smoother. Things will go awry. You will have to make some bureaucratic detours to correct your own or somebody elseâ??s mistake. This is a one-time process. Once you are through you will never have to deal with this again. (Unless you build another car.)
What you need
In order to perform this registration, you will need the following:
- 1. A car
The car should be finished and ready for inspection. Although you can initiate the process earlier, there is nothing you will gain on it since you can drive your car while it is being registered. See appendix A for Vehicle Code Section 580 for what a specially constructed vehicle is defined as.
2. An invoice for the kit or parts you built the car from.
This invoice is used by the DMV to determine the sales tax you should pay. If the invoice shows you have already paid your sales taxes, you will not have to pay any additional taxes.
3. An invoice for the engine
This invoice must come from a different company than the kit invoice. Again, the DMV uses the invoice to determine the sales tax you should pay.
4. A statement of origin
This statement certifies that the kit was built and delivered by the manufacturer. Ideally it contains a VIN number stamped to the kit, an invoice number and date, a dealer reference and a reference at the manufacturer.
I donâ??t know if you need some corresponding document if you built your car from scratch. I guess that an invoice for the parts should do fine. Call DMV and ask.
Step 1. Starting the process
You need two forms to start your registration process. Form 343, Application for title or registration, can be downloaded from http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg343.htm as a PDF file. Print it out and fill in the blanks.
You also need form 256, Statements of fact, downloadable from http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg256.htm .You just need to fill in the vehicle construction part and, under section J, the amount of sales tax you have paid for kit and engine.
Go to your local DMV office. Do not drive the car you are registering to the office since it is not yet street legal. The DMV officer may be in a pesky mood and fine you if you do.
You can book an appointment on line, but Iâ??ve found that it is easier to go there about 15 minutes before they open during a weekday. I usually had to wait about 10 minutes in line before I could assault them with my case.
If you feel ready to pay any sales tax you owe them and/or the registration fees, bring a check or cash. You can pay these things at a later point in the registration process if you want.
Give them your filled out form 343 and 256 together with your invoices and statement of origin. Explain that you want to register a specially constructed vehicle.
Be sure that they call Sacramento headquarters to get a smog exempt sequence number, to be mailed to your home address within 7-10 business days. You will need this for step 3.
Ask them to partially complete and give you a form 124, to be finished by a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer when you go to one of their offices to have a VIN check.
If they want to perform a VIN check themselves; ask them if you can first get the CHP to do their check, and then come back to the DMV so that they can do their version of the same thing. It should save you a trip to the DMV.
You should leave this first DMV encounter with some receipts, the partially completed form 124, and a 90-day temporary operating permit. Donâ??t settle for anything less.
One of the receipts will show you the total amount of fees you must pay to get your registration through.
Get your car insured. (AAA does kit car insurances.) Your car is now street legal. Drive careful until you know that that puddle under the car is not brake fluid.
Step 2. California Highway Patrol visit
Find the CHP office closest to you by looking at http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/offices.html
Give your local office a call and say that you need a VIN check. The waiting time can be a few weeks.
While you are waiting, you will probably receive your smog exempt certificate from Sacramento. Call 1-800-622 7733 to setup a smog referee appointment. They will direct you to a smog station near your home or work. If you get a smog appointment before your VIN check date with the CHP, feel free to execute step 3 before step 2.
Find a place on your car that is viewable from the outside, where a small 1x4 inch plaque can be riveted. The law requires the VIN of the vehicle to be viewable from the outside.
Take your car, form 124 from step 1, and the rest of your paperwork to the CHP office and say that have an appointment for a VIN check. This check is free of charge.
.
An officer will take your car and inspect it. The inspection takes about 30 minutes and you are not allowed to watch it. If the officer cannot find a usable VIN on your vehicle, he or she will assign a new VIN to the vehicle. Point out where you want the blue plaque with the VIN number to be attached.
Be nice.
The only thing you should leave with is the completed form 124 signed by the officer.
Step 3. Smog referee appointment
Take all your paperwork and car, including the smog exempt certificate mailed to you from DMV Sacramento, to the smog referee appointment you booked in step 2. The appointment will take about one hour and is free of charge.
Say â??Specially constructed vehicle.â?�
Make sure that they register your car by chassis as a pre-1973 vehicle, so that you do not have to fulfill any smog requirements. (I took 1965 to salute the year my old Porsche 356 was made.) Ask them, to be sure, if your vehicle will then be exempt from smog. If you miss this, you will have to fulfill California smog requirements.
They will then take your car to their shop and measure its exhaust at different RPM. Again, you cannot watch them do their thing.
When you leave the smog station with some signed test results.
Step 4. Brake and light inspection
Surf to http://www.autorepair.ca.gov/StdPage.as ... ocator.htm in order to locate a brake and light licensed shop near you. Call them and say that you need a brake and light inspection for your SPCVN. The appointment will take about one hour and costs anywhere from $60 to $160.
Drive your car to the shop. Watch them do their thing.
If everything is in order, you should leave the shop with two postcard sized certificates showing that you passed the brake and light inspection.
Step 5. Second DMV visit
Take your car, your signed VIN check form, your smog referee result, your brake and light certificates, and the rest of your paperwork to the local DMV office. Also bring some proof of insurance, which the DMV may or may not want to see.
Be prepared to pay the rest of the fees for the registration. Check you DMV receipt for the exact sum.
Dump all your papers on the DMV agent and say, in a nice way, that you think youâ??ve got everything right and would like your license plates.
Pray to the SPCNS god while the agent goes through your case.
The DMV may or may not want to a local VIN check at this point. This can be done while you are waiting and usually take a few minutes.
If you are lucky, you will walk away with a set of license plates and tags. After a few weeks you will get your title in the mail from Sacramento.
Thatâ??s it!
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Appendix A. Vehicle Code Section 580
Taken from the web page http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displ ... le=100-680
580. A "specially constructed vehicle" is a vehicle which is built for private use, not for resale, and is not constructed by a licensed manufacturer or remanufacturer. A specially constructed vehicle may be built from (1) a kit; (2) new or used, or a combination of new and used, parts; or (3) a vehicle reported for dismantling, as required by Section 5500 or 11520, which, when reconstructed, does not resemble the original make of the vehicle dismantled. A specially constructed vehicle is not a vehicle which has been repaired or restored to its original design by replacing parts.
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[align=center]California Bumper and Windshield Laws (and how not to have them):[/align]
From our own DP35:
Research on the California laws and the vehicle code, because law enforcement has demonstrated that they don't know the law, and will harass Atom drivers based on their opinions of the law.
Research:
First, I got CHP publication #'s 885 and 892, and I'll be keeping them in the car at all times, along with a few pages of the vehicle code. The vehicle code is on line (link below), but I had to go to the local CHP office for their publications. I'm glad I did, because there were little wording differences and clues to other areas of the vehicle code that really helped me, and weren't published anywhere else. I recommend doing the same in other states. This stuff will allow me to educate ignorant cops by showing them the official documents that they're supposed to already know about.
Bumpers:Â Vehicle Code (VC) section 28071 says that all "passenger vehicles" must have front and rear bumpers.Â
The term "passenger vehicle", as opposed to "motor vehicle", is critical, because VC 34710 defines "passenger vehicles": ... any motor vehicle ... except any of the following motor vehicles: ...(c) Specially constructed vehicles (SPCN)... The DMV recognizes the Atom as a SPCN, aka "kit car".
The fact that SPCN's aren't considered "passenger vehicles" is the key to a lot of things, and is the key piece of missing information in the brain of many cops. They need to see this in writing, because people like us are all liars, in their opinion.
VC 28071 doesn't specifically state that SPCN's don't have to have bumpers, but in CHP pubications 885 and 892, it does. That's why its critical to have all of this info., and have it with you, because the cops will cite an Atom in violation of VC 28071.
Windshields: VC 26700 says "...a passenger vehicle...shall be equipped with an adequate windshield. The term "passenger vehicle" is critical here also. The vehicle code uses certain words for a reason. Reading it you'll find the terms "passenger vehicle" and "motor vehicle" all over the place. They don't mean the same thing, and they've been used in the vehicle code for a reason. Its obvious to me that the VC is written in such a way that "motor vehicles" that aren't "passenger vehicles" don't have to have windshields.
Windshield Wipers: Other topics regarding windshields in the VC, such as VC 26706, windshield wipers, says this:Â "Every motor vehicle, except motorcycles, equipped with a windshield shall also be equipped with a self-operating windshield wiper."Â This language makes it clear that not all "motor vehicles" have windshields.
California Vehicle Code DMV link.
AtomClub Thread by DP35. original thread on getting pulled over and the research above.
Sema Action Network
from me!
Link to this was pointed out deep in another thread. I just did the reformat to make it available here and used the original title so people could find it EZ.
:D:D