Reshelling Article

[JPB]

They're an absolute joy to drive! I'm far too scared of their reputation for rusting to consider one as a daily driver (says the bloke who's now covered 42,000 miles in the last two and a half years in a '72 Dolomite, winter weather included) but have driven many examples and they are simply fantastic little cars. I think that, unfortunately, the one at Gaydon is the only GRP-bodied one made but what a lost opportunity that must have been.

i heard that BOND 875 could do wheelie in the prototype so they had to use the gearbox off a van prefer wheelie myself

Given the way in which the Imp's final drive ratio is achieved, that would have made it quicker off the mark, so even more likely to wheelie!
They had a low compression version of the Cob's engine, that kept the top speed down to around 90ish but most surviving cars now have much more highly tuned Imp motors in the back.
The GRP monocoque was immensely strong, I recall seeing a guy driving one, being beaten by me on a round of the old Scottish Autotrader autotest series which was run on a mirror-image course with one driver doing each side once. He rolled it on the turn at the top of the hill section and the (Plexiglass) back window popped out but this didn't seem to worry him as he simply clambered out of the upturned car, picked it up, put it back on its wheels, chucked the window into the back seat and continued driving to the finish.
He still owns and drives that car now, and he doesn't slow down much as he gets older.

[hillmanimpman]

i am half tempted to do a half glassfibre/half steel Imp now it would scary me to death tho. but not as much as a whole fibreglass one would do

[SirTainleyBarking]

Read the article, (Only bought the mag yesterday) and yeah it is a bit odd to me unless things have changed recently.
The bit about (For instance) the Chassis being the key to the ID doesn't appear to make sense consistantly. I understood that if you replaced say a Landrover Chassis with a Brand new one (Preferably galvanised) to the same specification as the one fitted previously this wasn't an issue.The new chassis doesn't come with ID, and its up to you to stamp on the number if required. I will also point out that yes the chassis does have a number stamped on it in the factory, though most Series vehicles don't have it on there any more as its on the front nearside spring hanger, and yes they rot and get patched. The other chassis plate is in the cab.

As for reshelling an MGB for instance, where is the motivation to inform the DVLA if they can, at a whim it seems, if the article is correct, slap a Q plate on it.

I understand the need for flexibility in regulations, but this doesn't encourage people to be honest, and frankly doesn't stop car cloning of modern vehicles.

The regs are a mess!

[mr rusty]

The regs are obviously aimed at modern cars which have a VIN stamped into the shell -the chassis can't sensibly be the key to identity. As far as the Vitesse goes, the only body identifying markings are on the bulkhead- which is just one removeable section of the whole car. There's no chassis number and no identification relating to the bodytub either, and this goes for all small chassis Triumphs.

The bulkhead carries the commision plate and the body number plate, both of which are just riveted on, and DVLA only keep a record of the commision number and the engine number that go with the reg plate number. They don't record the body number which related to the whole body as far as the factory were concerned.

The only other number you'll find on a Vitesse is on the diff housing- but that was never recorded against whatever car the diff was attached to and most will have been replaced at some point anyway. There's nothing to stop somelone taking the reg number and a bulkhead, or even just the i.d. plates and creating a whole new car from bits- and Swansea would never know or indeed have any way of knowing. This is why people sell V5's from unrecorded scrappers from years ago- so someone can build a new car from bits. You can even buy a replica commision plate to go with your pile of bits!

[Willy Eckerslyke]

The only other number you'll find on a Vitesse is on the diff housing- but that was never recorded against whatever car the diff was attached to and most will have been replaced at some point anyway. There's nothing to stop somelone taking the reg number and a bulkhead, or even just the i.d. plates and creating a whole new car from bits- and Swansea would never know or indeed have any way of knowing. This is why people sell V5's from unrecorded scrappers from years ago- so someone can build a new car from bits. You can even buy a replica commision plate to go with your pile of bits!

Or you can leave the i.d. plates off completely as they're not required before a certain date (1980?). My Vitesse has none as I never got around to refitting them after painting the bulkhead. An MOT tester did once grumble about it, but couldn't fail the car and just used the numbers off the V5c.

[EricTheRed]

As for reshelling an MGB for instance, where is the motivation to inform the DVLA if they can, at a whim it seems, if the article is correct, slap a Q plate on it.

I repeat my original question.................why would this be a bad thing?

[TerryG]

I would imagine most people see Q translating to "kit car" or "indeterminate year of manufacture" so the vehicle is less desirable than an original one. As a result the prices on Q plated cars are lower. In some cases you could argue that a new shell would make it worth more which might bring the price up again but personally i would never buy a Q.

[mr rusty]

I agree, it's the old kit-car indeterminate manufacture stigma, from the pre SVA days when you'd see terribly put together and really ugly fibreglass sheds on a Q. Plus the original reg is part of the car's dna- you can learn a lot just from the reg letters which you can't get from a Q plate. There's also the old NI plate thing, where non age related Northern irish plates were put on coaches so as not to scare the passangers with the age of the coach....and I always see personalised plates as a little bit pikey, especially when the digits are messed about with to look like a (generally pretty poor) approximation of a name. If you can't get your actual initials or name, don't do it!!!

I think it's just that there's a general perception that there's something slightly shifty about a changed registration. There may well be a perfectly good explanation, but it's still seen as somewhat dodgy by buyers.

[Morrisand944S2man]

I would imagine most people see Q translating to "kit car" or "indeterminate year of manufacture" so the vehicle is less desirable than an original one. As a result the prices on Q plated cars are lower. In some cases you could argue that a new shell would make it worth more which might bring the price up again but personally i would never buy a Q.

Exactly! Q plate says "Kit car" loud and clear.

As for the Austin/morris 1100- nice car, designed by a genius (Alec Issigonis) and far better that the junk that replaced it ( before anyone shouts "elite" I know what the successor car was like because I owned an R reg example of the successor. OK, the A series engine, SU carb and simple ignition were a joy to maintain, but the rest was junk).

As for the rust on the ADO car, I think this is somewhat a myth as I know of a few local owners. All cars from the 1960's 70's (and 50's) rusted a lot. That is what restoration is about to cut out the rust and weld in replacement steel where needed. I can't see that they were really any rustier than any other classic??

Oh and the other Q plate problem is you loose historic status and have to pay road tax forever more. I pay road tax on my everyday car. I don't see the need to pay it twice as I can only drive one car at a time!

[hillmanimpman]

the SVA rules on what isn't and is aload are so grey that no one knows properly if you can or can't do something when you ask for advices so i can see alot more kit cars/conversions builds where no ones bothers to tell the DVLA/Vosa because they are being very unhappy to people who may wish to do this as a hobby but don't no the rules or have to jump throw many different hoops to get where you want.