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[w3526602]

Hi,

Please be gentle with me ... question is in the title.

As far as I can make out, if a second hand chassis was fitted in July 1990, then the vehicle would now be MOT exempt.



Hmmm! So my truck fails an MOT, and I shove into barn, and spend the next 30 years fitting an old chassis that I have lying about the yard, then I could claim "exemption" in ... er ... 2050.

Please answer academically. I have no plans to do any such thing. But I bet there are some jalopies lying in sheds that could be "contrived".  Er ... if you find the receipt for the chassis that you bought in 1990 ...... and no longer have the car to go with it ....

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[Scumduggler]

Let's face it. You can buy new rear half, front quarter, all the out riggers and crossmembers as legitimate replacements. The bit in the middle, that's left, never had the number on it, so could have come from anywhere. When does a repaired chassis cease to be the original?

[Wittsend]

It is the identity that concerns officialdom.

You can not have 2 vehicles with the same identity.

If you use a 2nd hand chassis to repair a vehicle then the "vehicle" assumes the identity of the donor chassis.
You should destroy the old chassis.

That it happened 30 years ago just clouds the issue and we'd hope people would follow the rules - but HOPE is the thing.
And here we wonder into the realms of ringing and cheating the system 

One thing you don't do is discuss it on an open public forum - else you might get a knock at the door.

A private communication to our VRO might be the answer



 

[w3526602]

Hi Alan,

I appreciate what your saying ... but how can a pile of assorted metal bits have an "identity" (unless it's name is "Susan" ... am I remembering that correctly?)


Effectively,  Big Brother's policy makes life easy for the crims, and difficult for genuine blokes.

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[Genem]

^^^  Thats a question to ask DVLA, not us. The legal situation is that the chassis is key to the vehicle ID in the UK system. We did not make the rules but we do have to stick to them.

Its that simple.

[stuart]

could he just fit  a nice new shiny ricards one and be all good

[w3526602]

could he just fit  a nice new shiny ricards one and be all good

Hi Stuart,

I've done three "new chassis" rebuilds ... one Marsland 88" and two Richards, 88" and 109" ...

I have no plans to break the law, but that doesn't stop me asking "WHY?"

My mate in South Wales bought a "box of bits" that had once been a 1902 "Gordon Bennet" (sp?) Napier ... the first car to be painted BRG. It came without a chassis ...

... but as the chassis was straight timber, with forged (?) dumb-irons at each end, there wasn't a problem. He also had a letter from the Science Museum, confirming that it was one of the three cars allowed on UK roads without mudguards. He had to rebuild the car from 100 year old photographs, as there were no drawings.
he ground

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PS ... As and when I get my next project off the ground  ... how about I call it "Mav" .. short for Maverick?

[Alan Drover]

Declaring a second hand chassis will usually result in the very undesirable Q plate. The identity of the vehicle that the chassis came from can't be used. Q plates vehicles, as far as I know, can't be MOT exempt.

[w3526602]

Hi,

I agree cannot disagree with what has been said. I try very hard not to break the law, and will not knowingly drive an illegal vehicle. But ....

DVLA ask (I think) if your vehicle has been changed'

IF it has been changed, was it changed withing the last 30 years?

IF it was changed MORE than 30 years ago, they seem to lose interest.

Either DVLA do not care, or they are asking the wrong questions.

When I bought The Aunt, DVLA mentioned, in passing, on the phone, that they were about to delete their dormant files for that era. I do not fully understand the relevance of that statement, but suspect that once deleted, YOU will need to prove it's identity, not rely on DVLA to do it for you from brand new registration plates.  Repeat, I'm only guessing.

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