Australian blue slip on 2 door conversion???

Hey everyone.
I want to ask the people out there in the know now hard it is to get a blue slip for an old 1953 chevy sedan that has been converted from a four door to a two door? The front doors are off an original two door and the pillars have been lengthened to suit, the car has also had a 4 inch roof chop. Does it need to be engineered? What kind of hoops does one have to jump through?
I really look forward to hearing from anyone in the know.

Cheers

Jordan

 

Since you mentioned 'blue slip' I imagine you're from NSW, if so, you will need a RTA certified Engineer to check over car, do a report, resolve and issues he/she may find, and then get the blue slip.

Assuming the car is soundly built, then the hoops aren't crazy, but they are there, especially if the car not built in accordance with either common sense and/or sound engineering practice.

Cheers,

Drewfus

 

The car was a driver for two years, I took it off the road to two door and chop it. As far as the work goes, the car is all more structurally sound than it was before I took her off the road. Yes I am in NSW. Engineering, well, that's expensive, but that's the way it is I suppose. So am I right in thinking what you are saying is 'if the chop/conversion is good and everything else is sound then I shouldn't have any troubles'?

 

yes, and yes, can't fudge around that detail.....

yes....in principal.

In NSW the RTA are tightening up the engineering process, so even if the change is all quality, I wouldn't be suprised if there's a few small details to tweak, but, no point loosing sleep over it, speak with your 'local' engineer, discuss the changes, he will need to view the car and compare details, and if he say's jump, don't bother trying to argue with him, either find another engineer, or do as he says.

Cheers,

Drewfus

 

Thanks Drewfus. Losing sleep is exactly what I've been doing. I'm all for quality work but if he says the roof height for rear passengers is too low or something like that I'd be kinda stuffed. How much does an engineer cost these days roughly. About a grand?

 

Anyone with any more info I'd love to hear from you. I'm running outta sleeping pills!

 

Doesn't matter how many people you ask, Drewfus is right. You need to get yur self an engineer. They're in the game, they know.

 

lets see some pic's of your ride.

 

These pictures are out dated. The car has come quite a way since these were taken, but they are the only ones I have.

 

Since you haven't sorted your interior I think you'll be fine, I've had notably lower with no problem.

As per Jimbob, best way to improve your sleep issues, it to contact an engineer, he will have the answers...end of story, no point talking to people who cant change your issues.

Car looks good, keep at it, great to see more oz built customs.

Cheers,

Drewfus

 

The engineer is most likely going to be more interested in how you reinforced the chop and how you reinforced the structure of the moved door post.

And it is probably better to have the first inspection done when it is in bare metal with the welds showing and where there is access to the back side of the door post.

From here it looks like a well thought out batch of modifications and not something that is just wacked and slapped back together. That should mean quite a bit.

 

Thanks guys. All your comments mean a lot to me. I've spent ages getting all the angles exactly how I wanted them and have really gone to town on making all the welds as strong as I can make em (and have the tan to prove it!). I spoke to an engineer today and he's going to pop around in the week and inspect my work for about 350 bucks. He was a nice and helpful guy on the phone. I feel better about all this now. Thanks a bunch.

 

Your car looks awesome mate good luck with it.

 

That price is pretty good too. I've been quoted more than 10 times that for similar work...

 

Nice work!
Hope the States never go the engineer route. What a pain in the ass and an additional cost. I'd guess somewhere there'd eventually be an enterprising individual (even a Rodder) that would offer an "engineering service" along the lines of our current "title service" folks. A $ hungry engineer could hypothetically sign one off from 1000 miles away via photos.

 

Looks real cool ,The old rule of thumb was you have to have 7 inches or more of front screen ,and see a point on the road 11 metres in front of you from the seated position.
And headroom was needed but it was measured with a wheel like template that was sat on the seat.
But then some of the things that go through against the rules just outright amazes me.

Where in NSW are you ?



This ones mine in Wollongong

 

Sure hope that isn't your welder sitting on the roof ... I doubt many engineers are going to approve a roof that was soldered back on .



Just kidding, car looks good.

 

Sure it is. I just wont take the car out on a sunny day in case it melts!!

 

I'm jealous of you folks in America; All the good cars, all the big engines and you don't have to get a damn thing engineered! I don't know why Australia is such a nanny town. I tell you, it sure makes things hard!

Hi Mate, I'm in the blue mountains, west of Sydney. Is that chev of yours up and running? Looks mean!

 

No its not , Its part of a workload Ive created for myself thats a mile long .

 

There's guys here in the Philippines building repro '32 roadsters for shipping to Oz. I have no idea which state they are going to, but they don't seem to have any worries about construction rules.

 

The car looks great, hang in there.

 

Thanks a lot! I love the hamb, the advice and info on this sight makes everything possible.

 

I bet you pay another $1000.00 on top of that by the time he passes it.Cost me $1600.00 to engineer my Delivery.
I was like you ,losing sleep over it but it really wasnt that bad. He came out for a first inspection and told me what I had to do, that was $600.00 then he came back and reinspected it and that cost another $1000.00 and then he gave me the engineers report.

 

Look at it this way..... if politicians had their way, modifications to cars would be completely illegal. The engineer system keeps arsewipe politicians at bay, stops them (hopefully) from being able to enact legislation to outlaw modified cars.
Yes it's a nanny state, it's the same here in New Zealand, and I'll bet it wont be too many years before the USA has a similar setup. There's a few states there now that are looking at tightening things up.
In a way it's not a bad thing. It keeps cars off the road that are death-traps. I have no objection to some halfwit candidate for the Darwin Awards killing himself in his suspensionless rice rocket, but I object to him killing or maiming innocent folks in the process. If this system prevents that, then it's inconvenient, but it's necessary.

 

safety against freedom i'd say freedom, but living in a stae where any modification is illegal and theres no way to make it diffrent i know say i'd take your rules instead.
Hard for me to say, but between the 2 i'd choose engineering.
I risk my slips everytime i take the darn car out.
anywaqys, how is itgone?

 

let us know how you go, ive got my chopped 53 2 door conversion on the back burner while i gather parts from the states but when i bought it, it had already been registered as a runner then again as a project in South Australia

 

Hi yes, I assume that mine will cost about the same. That's okay. I mean it's a lot of money sure but it's insurance in the long run. If I can drive around in a car that's legally modified and do my bit to have the government ease off on the tightening of modification restrictions I'm happy.

 

I'll definitely let you hamb people know how things go when I get this thing engineered. I'm sure it'll be helpful to all the others going through the same process. The guy is inspecting it on Saturday.

 

OK, so I met with the engineer on Saturday and he looked over my car. He wasn't too fussed with the body work, that wasn't an issue, everything was fine. From the height of the seat to the roof the height was just high enough to be legal. That's with 4 1/2 inches taken out of the b pillar. The thing that I didn't realize was that although I had the engine (dodgy 253 holden v8 to keep the car running in the meantime before I put in a 327) passed and blue slipped he still wants me to go back and install seat belts (reinforce B pillars to instal the front seat belts), disc brakes, automotive safety glass all round and a demister for the windscreen. Even though the engine is within 15% capacity increase it is over 15% power increase, and the new engine mounts classify it as being modified, thus I gotta do all this stuff. Unless I drop an original 235 Chevrolet engine back in.