Practically Classics Forum

Do you qualify for the disabled taxation class? One of my Acclaims was on disabled taxation class when I bought it so I had to change it to PLG when I was able to tax it.

The pip approval of the benefit now dictates wither or not you get free road tax, and now if you
don't,t have pip you can,t renew your disability blue badge with the council as they will not
accept anything else!

While living at my parent's I can get away with living on the little I do get on income support.
Because of the way someone screwed up the paperwork years ago they couldn't put me on the
Correctly named benefits and I have problem s ever since!

Mitsuru wrote:The pip approval of the benefit now dictates wither or not you get free road tax, and now if you
don't,t have pip you can,t renew your disability blue badge with the council as they will not
accept anything else..

Aron, that's not quite the way it works. Someone in receipt of any of these: DLA (Higher Mobility Component), PIP (Higher Mobility Component) or Pension credits, qualifies for a DLA404 which records entitlement to free VED on up to four cars, heavy quads or motorcycles per form with no time limit per vehicle. A blue badge may also be applied for backed by medical evidence from a GP or consultant and is available to people meeting the qualifying conditions whether they're in receipt of benefit or not.
Neither DLA (PIP as it will become between now for fresh claimants and 2017 for the transfer of existing DLA recipients) nor the pension credits are income-related and are available regardless of how much money the recipient has in terms of earnings and investments. I would recommend that you visit your local DAWN (formerly known as Citizens Advice) office and seek advice from their specialist since there appears to be some misinformation out, hardly surprising given the way that legislation surrounding this changes on a regular basis.

My mum has pension credits and has a blue badge, does that mean she quilifies for the disability road tax? My understanding is there are grades of disability and only the highest get the DRT?

Yes, but depending upon when her service ended, she may be better off claiming through the DLA/PIP route. That said; claimants who go through the service route generally aren't required to pay more than their monthly allowance, which can increase for DLA claimants to that capped amount, though any additional difference is taken when the car is ordered in the form of a deposit.
Also, be aware that doing it that way only allows a maximum of 20,000 miles p/a where financing or buying outright can work out cheaper above that. I have had the low care and the high mobility through out the last couple of decades and at no time - because this was awarded so that I could continue to work - would it have been cheaper for me to use the mobility component than to buy outright as I'm typically needing 32-40k p/a and any dealer worth their salt will gladly chuck in the servicing throughout a vehicle's warranty period if there's a chance that the customer would have gone elsewhere.

My own mother, approaching her 83rd birthday, has just renewed her blue badge and she has her pension credits but doesn't take her state pension because a lifetime working as a chartered accountant enabled her to invest her way through her retirement, which she assures us will happen some time soon but just now, she still goes to her office to make sure the young 'uns don't mess it up.
All that was required in her case was a letter from her GP, details backed up by her consultant (she had and recovered from cancer in the late 1990s and still maintains contact with oncology). She took the medical evidence to the County Council, they issued the badge and although she gave up driving in about 2006, it can be used in Dad's car as long as she's there or he's driving on her behalf. Because of her qualifying for a DLA404, the old fella gets the "Disabled" VED class for his car because of Mam's status.
In all three cases, we've worked throughout our lives, the DLA/PIP/DLA404 entitlement is about making that possible.

Remember when I was thinking of using old smiths gauges as a back up plan for the instrument
cluster on the neon?

I was thinking that the 4 gauge smiths unit would be the same size as the 3 gauge unit in the
below picture with the speedo both the 3 gauge unit and speedo are 10cm diameter but the rev
counter is 8cm so too small for the retro style idea. And if I got a 4 gauge unit in the cluster space
then space of lpg gauges and autobox gauge needs.



Well I finally found one on ebay

The 4 gauge smiths unit arrived today, and was bloody hard to get one in good condition. And it looks
like I made a boob! The 4 gauge unit is 5.25"(133mm) to the 3 gauge units 4"(100mm)





The 4 gauge unit I think is a bit too big to be used in a custom made pod/hole either in the dash or lower
centre console. I hate the things they sell as gauge pods/mounts, and I wouldn't want to be using the 10"
android tablet all the time as it is a little intrusive and would attract the wrong kind of attention. And I do
like to know what the car is doing before the ecu tells a warning lamp on the dash to light up!

So on top of the stadard
Speedo,
Tacho,
Fuel Level,
Water Coolant Temp

I would Have liked some of the following
LPG fuel level (Currently in a converted air vent)
Engine Oil Pressure
Gearbox Oil temperature
Gearbox Oil Pressure?
Manifold Vacuum pressure
Air/fuel Ratio
Battery Condition

Suggestion/ideas on the 4 gauge smiths unit, and what you would do for the extra gauges?
The modern car instrument cluster tells you very little until things go wrong

Most people use a grouping of the smaller (50mm?) gauges you can get them for all the things you list.

I have 2" gauges of different types but was hoping to try and not clutter up the dash and make lo5s of holes!

mattmoxon on Yorks Yanks wrote:Imho there is only one way to go for extra gauges and that's Autometer,
either the regular mechanically driven sort (i.e. an oil line direct to the oil pressure gauge)
or the electrical transducer type, with a stepper motor driven needle. How you will mount
them in your car I have no idea.

Matt has commented on my statement about possible gauges So his comments are in italics

Air Fuel Ratio:wouldn't bother unless you have a way of data logging (analogue input on an
SCT tuner for example) the output and plan on having a company remote tune the car for
you. If you do fit one you want one of the proper full on wide band AFR gauge kits. The
narrow band ones that plug into the stock oxygen sensors are a waste of money because
when you are driving around the ECU will manage the air fuel ratio so that it remains at or
around stoic and that is what you will see on the gauge. When the car goes WOT the ECU
reverts to the base tables and ignores its own narrow band oxygen sensors and the reading
on a non wideband gauge will simply peg out and tell you nothing.

Okay scratch that one

Oil Temperature and pressure: certainly, I can't understand why these are not at least
accessible through the infotainment displays on modern cars as they are important imho
(that being said the ECU on my mustang doesn't monitor the oil pressure, it simply has a
switch that grounds a connection above 6psi. It doesn't monitor oil temp either.

That is the first 2 gauges

Trans temp: can be useful to tell you if you have problems.

That makes number 3

Trans Pressure: wouldn't bother, you can tell if that's good or not just by the way its shifting.

But what if it has pressure but not shifting? (android tablet and obd fault finding)

Manifold Vaccum: wouldn't waste your money.

okay scratch that idea but I think I have one in the shed!

The other gauges you mentioned would be useful additions.

Lpg fuel level, battery condition so that takes it to 5 not including a transmission oil pressure

Any suggestions on something I might need that I haven't thought of above and matt hasn't
yet mentioned?

While I was putting parts of the dash back together a fwe photos using the 3 and 4 gauge units.

As it is



3 gauge unit, with the front further away from the dash because of the depth of the unit it makes
it look like it is bigger than it actually is






With bezzle off so I can show a better mock up! And a possible dual triple gauge idea in there too.






Slight problem with the dual triple gauge unit idea, the foglight and rear demist buttons would be in
the way unless the headlight leveling swith was moved to a different part of the dash and the fog
light and demist buttons could be moved over




4 gauge unit




For a better idea, the front of the unit had to be taken off anyway to clean it out so this ment a
better idea with not having to deal with the wieght!








Oh and a bit of time stuck under the bonnet tracing wires and fault finding again.

If you consider that even if I had gone with the modified instrument cluster using old gauges it
would have been speedo, tacho water coolant temp fuel level plus one other gauge!

As it is late saturday night, I'm bored, and in pain. So a quick exercise of the mouse in ms paint
using the triple gauge unit, doubled up so it would give 6 gauges in total.(sorry for the crudeness)
I do have a spare foglight and rear demist switch unit which I could make thinner, which would
mean not needing to reroute wiring and move the headlight leveling switch.



I would need to get another one of that particular dash panel rather than mess with this one if
I did decide to go down this route!