I know a lot has changed in the last decade or so concerning what makes or breaks the legality of hot rods in the state of PA. I was wondering in particular, if open wheeled vehicles can p*** the state inspection now a days. I'm planning on building a model A that I don't want to run fenders on, but I have a feeling I'll get h***led by "the man" about it. Also, I'd like to run the same car without a hood to show off the 472 Caddy motor. Is this gonna get me in trouble?
As long as you ***le it as a "Street Rod" (IE: Street Rod license plate) you can run fenderless and hoodless legally. You will still need to p*** a state inspection, but the rules are different if it's ***led and plated as a street rod. Getting a street rod ***le is sort of a PITA, you need to get it "pre-inspected" by an inspection mechanic, have him sign some papers, (forms downloadable from the PennDot website) pay him for an inspection, take pics showing the car has exhaust, windows, wipers, headlights, tail lights, etc. show receipts for parts bought and taxed paid on those parts, send all that and a check to PennDot, wait 6 weeks, get denied, send another check, more forms, get approved, get plate, get it RE-inspected by the same mechanic, get inspection sticker, pay for that, and you're done... easy as that.. I went through it all last year to get an out of state 32 highboy legal in PA... tool about 2 months of screwing around, but I eventually got it. I keep a copy of the amended law stating that hoods and bumpers and fenders are no longer needed in my door pocket, and have already had to show it to a local cop once.... you'll soon find you know the laws concerning this stuff far better than any law enforcement does. Good luck!
There is a half***ed list somewhere on the Penndot site of the enhanced inspection stations that have to inspect your car like Joeybsyc said. Try to find a couple guys in your area that had cars enhanced inspected by a decent inspecter and go ask the guy that inspected them a few questions. The fuel tank in the trunk ( and the tax thing) seams to be the troubled area for some of the inspecters. So far I've heard from a few guys that went through it. Some with not much troubles. Some with troubles. I think that it depends on the guy doin' the inspection and or the person at Pendot that is lookin' at your stuff. Smokey
Talk to the station that is doing the inspection. once you go and have the inspection. Anything that the station fines wrong will have to be fixed. You can not go to another station to get it through with fixing it. As for the tax. All bill are suppose to have the tax on them. If they do not there is a lot of extra paper work that needs to be done. So if you bought something out of state or on line it can become a headache. I know there are some out there that will work with you. but not all of them. And yes you are to have bills for even the bolts, Paint and metal that you did any fab. work with. To answer the first question Yes you can run with out fender, Hoods if the fan is protected. 9 inch or larger windshield. But it must have a street rod tag on it. I know a lot of guys that are running with out the tag and they have not been pulled over yet. But it not to say it will not happen. One last thing. If you buy a car out of state that is already a street rod. You will have to go through the inspection. Just do not need all of the bills. I do a lot of bikes and they have to go through the same thing. In my area there is only one station doing bikes. If you call Penn dot they will show you how to get the list of inspection station from there site.
What everybody said, EXCEPT do not use AAA or a local tag service,etc to send your paper work to Harrisburg. Take your receipts (and make copies of everything!!!) forms, photos,check etc. to your local state representative and have them personally give them to the DMV. They will do this, it's their job and you will not have anywhere near the h***les, returns,etc. that you will get if anyone else sends it in. Cuts like 80% off the time and h***les.
I don't know if PA has them but Texas had/has regional Dmv offices that you can walk the paperwork though. I agree with keeping a copy of the appropriate rcw's in the car. A printout of the "streetrod" license regs might be a good thing to have to. Beats the hell of trying to explain that the car is legal because------- Most every state now has it's motor vehicle rcw's online but some take some serious searching to find what you are looking for. Here is the link to the PA inspection criteria. I think I would print it out and have it in the shop when I was building the car to refer to. http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/067/chapter175/s175.220.html It's easier to check and see if that mod will p*** inspection from the getgo than have to go back and change it. I found that here http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/inspections/recon.shtml
Cool, thanks for all the info. I have a feeling this is gonna be really hard for me, since I plan on building the car from swap meet parts and a body/frame from a junkyard I know of that keeps pre-war cars. Keeping bills for all that stuff is gonna be next to impossible.
Just ask the seller(s) of the major parts (body, frame, engine...) to write you a little bill of sale stating the item and what you paid for it. You'll just have to pay tax on it when you send in your package. Every time you go to the hardware store/welding supply/auto parts store/etc... just save your reciept and throw it in the pile. The state just wants to see that you're paying tax on the project, they're not going to reference every item on the slips so the more reciepts you have with tax paid on them, the better it looks for you. You need to find a "PA Enhanced Inspection Station" in your area to do the initial inspection. The only major differences are they check your windshield height, window tint, headlight candlepower, and scrubline. (nothing other than sheetmetal and exhaust can be below it.) And if you're running hoodless, you need a fan shroud. Then, they charge you $150. Also it's a 7" minimum windshield height, not 9" as stated above. Don't ask me how I know that...grrr... The process is a major pain, but you only have to do it once and then you're golden for the life of the car. Several old timers up this way told me not to worry about it, just run regular plates and don't do anything stupid, but I'm glad I went throught with it. Peace of mind if nothing else.
Junk yards etc are required to give you bill of sale with any/all info available, i.e. serial numbers, make/model. The old ladies car got torched, ins co s****ped it. We bought it back and redid it. Same process as described above. We used our State Reps Office, no problems.
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